An official website of the United States government
The crisis-induced changes in instruction during the pandemic presented a unique opportunity to study instructor adaptability, a possible contributor to future adoption of teaching-related best-practices. The purpose of this research is to identify the self-reported activities of engineering instructors and how this changed over the course of three semesters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 40 engineering instructors from a large Midwestern R1 University voluntarily completed online surveys in during Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 semesters about their engagement in teaching-related activities and the perceived normality of that engagement. Descriptive statistics were used to examine general trends in activity engagement for each semester and to compare activity engagement across all three semesters. Across all three semesters, instructors most often reported engaging in self-teaching and casual conversations with their colleagues. Instructors cited getting help from staff and attending workshops less frequently. By the end of the third semester (Spring 2021), 85% of participants indicated normality of their teaching methods, compared with 25% at the beginning of the study (Spring 2020). The results of this study suggest that to encourage instructor adaptability in the future, a focus should be placed on developing a supportive instructor community as well as providing necessary space, time, and resources for instructor self-teaching. This research is part of a larger study, whose scope includes instructor interviews, an investigation of cognitive and emotional adaptability, and analysis of additional semesters as instructors continue to adapt.
more »
« less
Profiles of Instructor Responses to Emergency Distance Learning
To understand instruction during the spring 2020 transition to emergency distance learning (EDL), we surveyed a sample of instructors teaching undergraduate EDL courses at a large university in the southwest. We asked them how frequently they used and how confident they were in their ability to implement each of nine promising practices, both for their spring 2020 EDL course and a time when they previously taught the same course face-to-face (F2F). Using latent class analysis, we examined how behavioral frequencies and confidence clustered to form meaningful groups of instructors, how these groups differed across F2F and EDL contexts, and what predicted membership in EDL groupings. Results suggest that in the EDL context, instructors fell into one of three profiles in terms of how often they used promising practices: Highly Supportive, Instructor Centered, and More Detached. When moving from the F2F to EDL context, instructors tended to shift “down” in terms of their profile—for example, among F2F Highly Supportive instructors, 34% shifted to the EDL Instructor Centered profile and 30% shifted to the EDL More Detached Profile. Instructors who reported lower self-efficacy for EDL practices were also more likely to end up in the EDL More Detached profile. These results can assist universities in understanding instructors' needs in EDL, and what resources, professional development, and institutional practices may best support instructor and student experiences.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1750386
- PAR ID:
- 10232250
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Online Learning
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2472-5749
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
College instructors faced a rapid transition to remote instruction in spring 2020, and with it a host of new teaching challenges. This qualitative study investigates what 26 college biology instructors learned about students and teaching during this time. We used semi-structured interviews and content analysis to identify instructor learning that is relevant beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants described two related insights about students: They became more aware that students' lives outside the classroom are complex, and they realized that their campus can act as a neutralizing space for students. Participants also reconsidered how they assess student learning. New realizations about students and teaching have the potential to impact teaching practices when in-person instruction resumes. Especially promising is an increased focus on students as individuals and the recognition that not all students experience life and courses in the same way. We relate findings to existing research and propose self-reflection questions that these findings raised for usmore » « less
-
Abstract BackgroundThe first day of class helps students learn about what to expect from their instructors and courses. Messaging used by instructors, which varies in content and approach on the first day, shapes classroom social dynamics and can affect subsequent learning in a course. Prior work established the non-content Instructor Talk Framework to describe the language that instructors use to create learning environments, but little is known about the extent to which students detect those messages. In this study, we paired first day classroom observation data with results from student surveys to measure how readily students in introductory STEM courses detect non-content Instructor Talk. ResultsTo learn more about the instructor and student first day experiences, we studied 11 introductory STEM courses at two different institutions. The classroom observation data were used to characterize course structure and use of non-content Instructor Talk. The data revealed that all instructors spent time discussing their instructional practices, building instructor/student relationships, and sharing strategies for success with their students. After class, we surveyed students about the messages their instructors shared during the first day of class and determined that the majority of students from within each course detected messaging that occurred at a higher frequency. For lower frequency messaging, we identified nuances in what students detected that may help instructors as they plan their first day of class. ConclusionsFor instructors who dedicate the first day of class to establishing positive learning environments, these findings provide support that students are detecting the messages. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of instructors prioritizing the messages they deem most important and giving them adequate attention to more effectively reach students. Setting a positive classroom environment on the first day may lead to long-term impacts on student motivation and course retention. These outcomes are relevant for all students, but in particular for students in introductory STEM courses which are often critical prerequisites for being in a major.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)This research paper examines the influence of interpersonal interactions on the course-level persistence intentions of online undergraduate engineering students. Online learning is increasing in enrollment and importance in engineering education. Online courses also continue to confront issues with comparatively higher course dropout levels than face-to-face courses. This study correspondingly explores relevant student perceptions of their online course experiences to better understand the factors that contribute to students’ choices to remain in or drop out of their online undergraduate engineering courses. Data presented in this study were collected during fall 2019 and spring 2020 from three ABET-accredited online undergraduate engineering courses at a large southwestern public university: electrical engineering, engineering management, and software engineering. Participants were asked to respond to surveys at 12-time points during their 7.5-week online course. Each survey measured students’ perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support for completing the course. Participants also reported their intentions to persist in the course during each survey administration. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support are related to course persistence intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. Additionally, interactions between demographic variables and other predictors (perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and perceptions of peer support) were significant. With the increase in perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and perceptions of peer support, there was a relatively smaller increase in the persistence intentions of veterans than non-veterans. There is relatively more increase in the persistence intentions of females than males as their perceptions of instructor practices increase. Finally, increasing perceptions of peer support led to a relatively larger increase in the persistence intentions of non-transfer students than transfer students and a relatively smaller increase in persistence intentions of students working full-time than other students.more » « less
-
Symmetry is a foundational concept in inorganic chemistry, essential for understanding molecular properties and interactions. Yet, little is known about how instructors teach symmetry or what shapes their instructional and curricular choices. To investigate this, we analyzed classroom observations from fourteen inorganic chemistry instructors from various institutions, focusing on their use of student-centered practices and emphasis on symmetry content. We then conducted semi-structured interviews to explore the reasoning behind their decisions, using the Teacher-Centered Systemic Reform (TCSR) model to interpret influences from personal factors (e.g., teaching experience), teacher thinking (e.g., beliefs about teaching and learning), and contextual factors (e.g., classroom layout). Minute-by-minute analyses of teaching revealed four instructional profiles (student-centered, high-interactive, low-interactive, and instructor-centered) and four content profiles, ranging from an emphasis on symmetry fundamentals (e.g., symmetry elements and operations, point group assignment) to symmetry applications (e.g., spectroscopy, molecular orbitals, character tables). Three themes emerged: (1) instructional approaches and content emphasis vary substantially across instructors; (2) more student-centered instructors tend to focus on foundational symmetry concepts and skills, whereas more instructor-centered instructors tend to prioritize advanced applications; and (3) instructors’ beliefs and prior experiences, more than personal and contextual factors, drive instructional decisions for teaching symmetry.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v25i1.2472
