COVID Teach From Safe Distance

Is it possible to teach students to weld while keeping six feet of separation?

That was the essential question our instructors had leading up to the reopening of Lincoln Electric’s Welding Technology & Training Center.

Fast forward a few weeks since then and we’ve learned we can do more than teach welding while keeping a safe distance. By incorporating advanced technology, we have found that it is possible to provide the feedback and guidance students need to step up their game even without tried-and-true, hands-on instruction.

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More than a Virtual Teacher’s Aid

Before COVID-19, identifying a skills gap or weakness was pretty straightforward. As an instructor, you could pop into a welding booth at any time and observe the problems students were encountering.

Now, a larger portion of class time is devoted to talking about those issues as a group and putting the VRTEX® virtual reality welding trainer to use. The beauty of the VRTEX is two-fold. While it helps students develop the muscle memory needed to execute a weld properly in the welding booth, it also serves as a valuable tool for demonstrations the whole class can benefit from and safely participate in.

While we still provide live demonstrations, social distancing protocols require only two-students view them at a time. With VRTEX, instructors can display a live video feed as a student is welding virtually. With the ability to playback and pause, the instructor can also focus on a specific area of the weld and provide immediate feedback for improvement.

“One student might have had a real bad day the day before and all it took was getting together and talking about it, then going over it on the VRTEX and really focusing on the issues they were having,” said Christopher Kish, a Lincoln Electric welding instructor, who is currently using the VRTEX to teach fillet welds with 6010 vertical up and 7018 overhead. “They get out into the lab and then they knock it out of the park.”

Virtual Trainers

Another Set of Eyes in the Welding Booth

For the stuff we can’t see firsthand, we started using data collection software to fill in the gaps. In our welding booths, we are finding the Power Wave® power source’s CheckPoint® monitoring system to be another essential tool for gauging student performance.

With the CheckPoint software, instructors can view data points for each student or each welding booth. Some relevant questions this data can answer are:

• How much time does each student spend welding?
• How much weld metal are they depositing?
• Was the student welding within the specified ranges?
• Is the student operating in the correct welding mode?

“I can really go in there and pick apart everything I need to,” said Kish. “It really has changed the way I look at welding operations during this time. I can see exactly what happened today and which student I need to work with tomorrow to come up with a good strategy to help them progress.”

Checkpoint Software

Tips for pulling it all together

• Set aside time to plan and review student data to identify strengths and weaknesses
• Expect to communicate more and give students as many visual references as possible
• Consider the benefits of virtual welding training at least 30 minutes/day to expedite welding training
• Display demonstrations to critique and generate discussion
• Consider taking a picture of each student’s live weld to display on a large screen for review
• Remember to disinfect surfaces (in the welding booth and VRTEX trainer) before and after each use

For more insights on our welding school reopening and instructional strategies, read our white paper or tell us how we can support you.

How Welding Technology is Helping Us Teach While Social Distancing

More than a Virtual Teacher’s Aid

Another Set of Eyes in the Welding Booth

Tips for pulling it all together