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As the COVID-19 Pandemic ravages the world, it is essential to examine the effectiveness of instructional and technological tools for distance education that were developed during the pandemic crisis. This paper provides techniques for effective remote instruction and examples of educational tools used during the pandemic at the United States Coast Guard Academy. The authors posit that distance education should be designed to promote study and investigation within authentic, realistic, relevant, and information-rich contexts; with a focus on instruments that consider students' individual needs and learning styles. Remote learning should encourage student responsibility, initiative, decision making, and intentional learning and cultivate an atmosphere of cooperative learning among students and teachers. This is best accomplished by utilizing dynamic, generative learning activities that promote analysis, experimentation, synthesis, problem solving, and assesses student progress in learning through realistic tasks and performances. The paper presents how effective distance education can be delivered by focusing on learning resources, pedagogy, learner support and management.

The declining interest in engineering on the part of high school students and entering first-year students continues to be a major concern for college engineering departments nationwide. The authors proposed, in an earlier paper, the use of career imprinting as a strategy for not only encouraging students to develop an interest in engineering but also to help them acquire the cognitive and teamwork skills, as well as selfconfidence, today's engineering careers so frequently require. Through a series of shared classroom experiences, students in grades PK-12 can be systematically introduced to engineering via the subject matter to which they are already being exposed, thus creating linkages/connections for students among their course content, learning environments, and personal daily lives that will "imprint" them to develop a strong career interest in a variety of engineering disciplines. This may then motivate students to select engineering majors in college. The authors present details and several models on how engineering can be creatively infused into schools' current PK-12 curriculum, with minimal effort. Specific strategies for resolving some of the potential challenges that may be faced by teachers and administrators--when career imprinting for engineering is introduced into daily instruction--are also presented.

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Engineering educators, professional organizations and practitioner have long recognized the benefits of integrating engineering case studies, especially failures into the civil engineering curriculum. One key benefit is that it provides a pedagogical tool that encourages students to address the complex challenges faced by engineers in the real world. The Civil Engineering Faculty at the United States Coast Guard Academy has successfully integrated case studies in several undergraduate courses to reinforce technical concepts. Case studies provided opportunities for discussion of engineering principles and concepts as well as fostering professional development in ethics and life-long learning. This paper discusses the implementation of case studies and the benefits to student learning especially in identifying problems and developing alternative solutions. Assessment data indicate that the use of case studies enhanced students' learning of engineering principles and improved their understanding of the problem-solving process.