Back to the New Normal in Engineering Education towards Student-Centered Learning: Remote? In Person? Hybrid?

Academic institutions are back to normal, but what about students? What were the cultural and lifestyle changes and impacts due to the remote mode of learning? Classes in Saudi universities in the pre-pandemic time were predominantly 100% face to face. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector moved to 100% online and then went through hybrid mode (a mixture of face to face and remote) until the return to the old normal, i.e., 100% in person. Students in the post-pandemic period are wondering "Why are we coming to campus? What is the value in this teaching and learning experience where we have to commute daily?" This research addresses students' concerns and questions, and it addresses the following questions: to what extent do they prefer learning remotely? In person? Hybrid? Observations and discussions preceded the design of the research instruments. A questionnaire survey that consists of closed-ended and open-ended questions was distributed and received responses from 74 engineering students, at the Qassim University, who were in the last three semesters of their studies and who went through the three modes of learning. To complement the quantitative research and to achieve a better understanding of matters that were revealed through the survey, the results of the analysis were shared through three focus group sessions with students and faculty members. The findings from this mixed methods approach revealed that the hybrid mode of learning is gaining significant preference among students and partial support from the teaching staff. On the other hand, unfavorable perceptions were expressed towards both going back to the old normal or the transition to a completely remote mode of learning.