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The COVID-19 pandemic generated worldwide negative effects on college students’ stress levels and motivation to learn. This research focuses on the lack of development of a sense of belonging in engineering students due to online classes during the pandemic and possible differences experiencing online classes between students from different contexts and cultures. Data were collected from 88 Mexican and 139 U.S. engineering students during the Spring 2021 semester using ten survey items asking students’ perceptions of the effects of taking online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic on their sense of belonging in their major. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted, aiming to determine the effects of taking online classes on students’ sense of belonging in engineering. Findings stressed the poor sense of belonging that engineering students may have after taking online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic when they missed opportunities to develop meaningful relationships with their peers and professors due to the lack of good communication. Consequently, students had uncertainties about successful learning during the pandemic in both Mexico and the U.S. Thus, activities such as accessible office hours, study groups, and meetings with mentors and tutors should be promoted to help students recover from the lack of a sense of belonging in the engineering major generated during online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Evaluation of the COVID-19 Shock on STEM Laboratory Courses
Universities across the U.S. have moved to various virtual teaching models in response to the health threats caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. When converting to an online-only mode, STEM and related fields face additional challenges over the lab portion of courses because laboratory courses and activelearning projects frequently require specialized equipment and manual dexterity interactions. In this paper, we report the results of a study on students’ perceptions about online learning during the initial phase of the pandemic at a public university in California, U.S. We focus on the overall reaction to the rapid conversion to online, the negative impressions created, “structural” concerns that would be difficult to mitigate, concerns readily amenable to mitigation, and side effects such as impact on equity. Twenty-five recommendations for those factors deemed improvable are provided.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1914777
- PAR ID:
- 10314276
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2021 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON46332.2021.9453900
