- Award ID(s):
- 1742627
- PAR ID:
- 10550550
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in Education
- Volume:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 2504-284X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
Momsen, Jennifer (Ed.)The COVID-19 pandemic caused nearly all colleges and universities to transition in-person courses to an online format. In this study, we explored how the rapid transition to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic affected students with disabilities. We interviewed 66 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduates with disabilities at seven large-enrollment institutions during Spring 2020. We probed to what extent students were able to access their existing accommodations, to what extent the online environment required novel accommodations, and what factors prevented students from being properly accommodated in STEM courses. Using inductive coding, we identified that students were unable to access previously established accommodations, such as reduced-distraction testing and note-takers. We also found that the online learning environment presented novel challenges for students with disabilities that may have been lessened with the implementation of accommodations. Finally, we found that instructors making decisions about what accommodations were appropriate for students and disability resource centers neglecting to contact students after the transition to online instruction prevented students from receiving the accommodations that they required in STEM courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study illuminates current gaps in the support of students with disabilities and pinpoints ways to make online STEM learning environments more inclusive for students with disabilities.more » « less
-
When schools and universities across the world transitioned online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed+gineering, a National Science Foundation (NSF) project that partners engineering and education undergraduates to design and deliver engineering lessons to elementary students, also had to shift its hands-on lessons to a virtual format. Through the lens of social cognitive theory (SCT), this study investigates engineering and education students’ experiences during the shift to online instruction to understand how they perceived its influence on their learning. As a result of modifying their lessons for online delivery, students reported learning professional skills, including skills for teaching online and educational technology skills, as well as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) content. Some also lamented missed learning opportunities, like practice presenting face-to-face. Students’ affective responses were often associated with preparing and delivering their lessons. SCT sheds light on how the mid-semester change in their environment, caused by the shift in designing and teaching from face-to-face to online, affected the undergraduate engineering and education students’ personal experiences and affect. Overall, the transition to fully online was effective for students’ perceived learning and teaching of engineering. Though students experienced many challenges developing multimedia content for delivering hands-on lessons online, they reported learning new skills and knowledge and expressed positive affective responses. From the gains reported by undergraduates, we believe that this cross-disciplinary virtual team assignment was a successful strategy for helping undergraduates build competencies in virtual skills. We posit that similar assignment structures and opportunities post-pandemic will also continue to prepare future students for the post-pandemic workplace.more » « less
-
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.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT Test anxiety is a common experience shared by college students and is typically investigated in the context of traditional, face-to-face courses. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of universities, and many students had to rapidly shift to and balance the challenges of online learning. We investigated how the shift to online learning during the pandemic impacted trait (habitual) and state (momentary) test anxiety and whether there was variation across different demographic groups already vulnerable to performance gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Quantitative analyses revealed that trait and state test anxiety were lower in Spring 2020 (COVID semester) than in Spring 2019 and were higher overall in women than men. We did not find a difference in either trait or state anxiety in first-generation students or among persons excluded because of ethnicity or race. Qualitative analyses revealed that student priorities shifted away from coursework during Spring 2020. While students initially perceived the shift to online learning as beneficial, 1 month after the shift, students reported more difficulties studying and completing their coursework. Taken together, these results are the first to compare reports of test anxiety during a traditional, undisrupted semester to the semester where COVID-19 forced a sudden transition online.more » « less
-
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.