Search for: All records

The COVID-19 pandemic was highly disruptive and Institutions of Higher Education struggled to effectively educate undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students, who were facing unique challenges in their modified learning environments. While some research has focused on educational challenges encountered in high-risk pandemic environments, limited empirical evidence exists to provide insights into the positive experiences of STEM students during the pandemic. Considering that motivation and positive psychology theorists emphasize that positive processes strengthen the optimal functioning of people and institutions, the purpose of this present research was to explore positive experiences that strengthened undergraduate STEM students’ motivation to complete their STEM course requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Data was obtained from an open-ended Qualtrics-based survey question requiring research participants to explain why salient positive experiences influenced motivation. An inductive thematic analysis method was adopted to analyze statements from 131 STEM students enrolled in six U.S. institutions.  Utilizing the NVivo-12 qualitative analysis software, data analysis involved coding and theme development. Grounded in the data, the emergent theme, Perceiving Advancements, explained specific experiences that were described as positive and motivated the completion of STEM educational requirements. Drawing from previous lived experiences and expectations, STEM student motivation was attributed to the perceived capacity or potential of positive experiences to advance to academic, career, and personal goals. Theoretical insights contribute to understanding motivation in STEM students during high-risk contexts, while practical implications inform interventions for resource optimization and improved STEM student and institution resiliency in high-risk contexts such as pandemics. With caution, findings may be extended to inform positive psychology and motivation research, policies, and practices of non-STEM, non-undergraduate, and non-U.S. populations. 

COVID-19 is a continuing global pandemic causing significant changes and modifications in the ways we teach and learn here in the U.S as well as around the world. Most universities, faculty members, and students modified their learning system by incorporating significant online or mixed learning methods/modes to reduce in person contact time and to reduce the spread of the virus. Universities, faculty and students were challenged as they adapted to new learning modules, strategies and approaches. This adaption started in the Spring of 2020 and has continued to date through the Spring of 2022. The main objective of this project was to investigate faculty perception of STEM student experiences and behavior during the Fall 2020 semester as compared to the Spring 2020 semester as COVID-19 impacts were prolonged. Through a qualitative methodology of zoom interviews administered to 32 STEM faculty members across six U.S. Universities nationwide and a theming scheme, the opinion and narratives of these faculty members were garnered in a round one and round two sets of interviews, in Summer 2020 and then in Spring 2021 (following the semesters of interest). Some of the main new themes that were detected in faculty interviews during the Fall 2020 semester and which reflect faculty perceptions are represented as follow: COVID-19 impact on student and faculty motivation, COVID-19 impacts on labs and experiential learning, COVID-19 impact on mental health, COVID-19 impact on STEM students' involvement in STEM experiential learning opportunities and research. Other previous themes detected and which are revisited to analyze major differences with those themes obtained during the Spring 2020 are presented and not limited to: extra efforts from professors, student cheating behavior, cheating factors and prevention, student behavioral and performance changes, student struggles and challenges, University response and efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic. We explored the differences in these themes between the semesters to look at noticed adaptations and modifications. Presented will also be recommendations to improve student and faculty motivation along with strategies to enhance the student learning experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report on common findings and suggest future strategies. 

The recent outbreak of COVID-19, considered as being a lethal pandemic by the World Health Organization, has caused profound changes in the educational system within the U.S and across the world. Overnight, universities and their educators had to switch to a largely online teaching format, which challenged their capacity to deliver learning content effectively to STEM students. Students were forced to adapt to a new learning environment in the midst of challenges in their own lives due to the COVID-19 effects on society and professional expectations. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate faculty perceptions of STEM student experiences during COVID-19. Through a qualitative methodology consisting of one-hour zoom interviews administered to 32 STEM faculty members from six U.S. Universities nationwide, faculty narratives regarding student and faculty experiences during COVID-19 were obtained. The qualitative research approach involved identifying common themes across faculty experiences and views in these narratives. Some of the categories of emerging themes associated with faculty perceptions on student and faculty experiences included: student struggles and challenges, student cheating and the online environment, faculty and student adaptability, faculty and student needs and support, and university resources and support. Best practices to facilitate online teaching and learning employed by STEM faculty were also discussed. Key findings revealed that students and faculty had both positive and negative experiences during COVID-19. Additionally, there was a greater need for consistent policies to improve the online student learning experiences. Recommendations to improve STEM student experiences include increased institutional resources and collaboration between faculty and the university administrators to provide a coherent online learning environment. Preliminary findings also provide insights to enhance institutional adaptability and resilience for improving STEM student experiences during future pandemics. Future research should continue to explore institutional adaptation strategies that enhance STEM student learning during pandemics.