Hybrid engineering education research : the challenges & benefits of an emergent methodology

Engaging students of any discipline in meaningful and constructive research about their university experience can be challenging[1]. During the Pandemic maintaining a balanced approach to sampling and data collection when conducting pedagogical research proved to be more than a little problematic, with many students seemingly experiencing ‘online fatigue’. Moving slowly out of the Pandemic, the issues have changed, with students now hesitant to participate in face-to-face research. This short concept paper discusses the practical and theoretical challenges encountered in undertaking Engineering Education Research (EER) at a time of unprecedented social and educational change. In focusing very much on methodology this paper does not report on the emergent findings of the study discussed but instead focuses on the methodology itself