Student Grade Evaluation, Survey Feedback, and Lessons Learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study of Virtual vs. In-Person Offering of a Freshman-Level General Chemistry II Course in Summer at Xavier University of Louisiana (original) (raw)

Online course delivery, assessment, and student satisfaction: The case of Quantitative Chemical Analysis course in the time of COVID-19 pandemic

Pharmacy Education, 2022

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the concept and perception of normalcy, compelling instructors to switch from face-to-face to online instruction overnight. Meanwhile, the satisfaction of course learning outcomes remains a critical element of modern educational systems and should be monitored during online education. Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe the online delivery and assessment tools of a Quantitative Chemical Analysis course and evaluate student satisfaction. Methods: Formative and summative assessments were used to test students' learning and the application of Quantitative Chemical Analysis concepts using online teaching models. At the end of the semester, a Likert scale survey was sent to all students to get their feedback. Results: Students were extremely satisfied with online learning, believing that the course's intended learning outcomes were met, with student ability to perform calculations and evaluate errors, precision, a...

Adapting to the COVID-19 Online Transition: Reflections in a General Chemistry Sequence Taught by Multiple Instructors with Diverse Pedagogies

Journal of Chemical Education, 2020

Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) is an open-access, four-year, public liberal arts college that emphasizes excellent instruction through active learning and small class sizes. The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges to GGC general chemistry instructors as they sought to actively engage students in a new online setting. We reflect on the challenges faced by our college during this pandemic by analyzing student surveys, instructor reflections, and grade distributions across 20 sections of general chemistry 1 and 2 taught by 15 different instructors. We consider the most important challenges faced by students and the technology rapidly adopted by instructors. We then present three main themes found in the instructor reflections and consider the implications for going forward.

High School Students’ Performance Indicators in Distance Learning in Chemistry during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Education Sciences

All private and public schools in the UAE had to run online classes as they closed their face-to-face classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2021. In this context, the purpose of this study was to investigate the indicators of high school students’ performance in online chemistry classes in a private school in Al Ain, UAE. A quantitative study with an online survey questionnaire was carried out with 101 participants. The data were analyzed using One-Sample Wilcoxon Signed Ranked Test, Independent Sample Mann Whitney U, Independent Sample Kruskal Wallis H, and Spearman’s Rank Correlation in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS 26). The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive impact on critical thinking, collaborative skills, creativity and innovation, technology application, class participation, and overall achievement during online and distance learning of chemistry. There was a statistically significant difference in stu...

Examining Pre-Service Teachers’ Views About Online Chemistry Laboratory Learning Experiences Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic

Journal of Turkish Science Education, 2021

Introduction COVID-19 has emerged as a global threat; it has had sudden and unexpected effects on our individual and social lives. With the COVID-19 pandemic, social relations began to be conducted remotely and many social lives had to be suspended. Some significant measures have been taken by countries such as restrictions on travel, reducing mass mobility, remote working, and distance education. There has been a rapid transition to distance education after the closure of schools, colleges, and universities. Schools, universities, teachers/instructors, and students have taken responsibility for remote learning. Efforts in many countries included the use of various digital platforms with ABSTRACT With the continued spread of the COVID-19 crisis, the universities were closed temporarily in Turkey just as in the rest of the world. As a result of this, many educators and students tried to adapt online education quickly. This research study examined 67 pre-service teachers' views on online chemistry laboratory learning experiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A data collection tool consisting of seven open-ended questions was used. Data sources included responses given to open-ended questions about the online chemistry laboratory learning experiences, the applications used for the chemistry experiments (e.g., simulations, images, and videos), the methods used for assessing online learning, and the system used for the virtual classroom platform. Content analysis was applied to participants' responses. Participants' views about online chemistry laboratories amid the COVID-19 pandemic were gathered in five themes: (i) advantages and disadvantages of online chemistry laboratories, (ii) effects of online chemistry laboratories on learning outcomes, (iii) views on technological applications used in online chemistry laboratories, (iv) views on measurement and assessment methods used in online chemistry laboratories, and (v) views of pre-service teachers on the virtual classroom platform used in online chemistry laboratories. The findings of the study highlighted that online laboratory learning has both advantages and disadvantages. The findings also included the strengths and weaknesses of the system used for the virtual classroom platform. The findings may provide useful information on how to design a positive online laboratory experience such as integrating hands-on activities as a part of the online laboratories to overcome the lack of "learning by doing" and using videos containing more detailed explanations about the experimental setup. Yeşiloğlu, Gençer, Ekici & Işık, 2021 109 educational content and educational technology solutions (Moreno & Gortazar, 2020), including Turkey. Although distance education and online learning are concepts that have become very much a part of our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been studied for decades. When the literature is examined, efforts have been made to clear up the confusion surrounding these concepts (Bates & Bates, 2005; Hodges et al., 2020; Moore et al., 2011). Distance education describes learning activities that take place when there is a physical separation between the instructor and the learners (Moore et al., 2011). Communication between the instructor and the learners can be through audio and video teleconferences, audio and video recordings, written correspondence, or multimedia systems. At present, the main communication technology is the World Wide Web. Online learning is a form of distance learning and refers to learning that takes place via computers and the Internet (Carliner, 2004). There is an assumption that universities can easily adapt to online learning during a pandemic (Bassett & Arnhold, 2020) since they are no strangers to online education. However, this may not be the case because there are several particular class types at the tertiary level, including lectures, tutorials, laboratories, practical workshops, and fieldwork. Online learning during the pandemic may be particularly challenging for students and educators in practical applications and laboratory-dominated departments. One of those departments is science education. The laboratory has always had a central and distinctive place in science education (Clough, 2002; Hofstein & Lunetta, 1982; Nersessian, 1991). Ausubel (1968) stated the importance of the laboratory with the following words: "The laboratory gives the students appreciation of the spirit and method of science... promotes problem-solving, analytic and generalization ability... provides students with some understanding of the nature of science" (p. 345). With the rapid advancements in information and communication technology, laboratory education environments have changed significantly (Scanlon et al., 2002). Traditional face-to-face laboratories have moved in to online. There are two common types of the online laboratory: remote and virtual laboratories (Budai & Kuczmann, 2018). While in a virtual laboratory, experiments are simulated by using software, the remote laboratory allows the students to work on real-time experiments via the Internet from a remote location (Balamuralıthara & Woods, 2007). Remote and virtual labs can be integrated into the learning management system (LMS) in universities. Since the LMS controls the access of users to a website and ensures that all teaching resources are offered in the same environment, integration of online labs and the LMS is advantageous (Ruano et al., 2013). The type of online laboratory examined in the present study is not a remote lab. However, it is not a virtual lab either because the experiments were not based entirely on simulations. The online chemistry laboratories subjected in this study were designed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the laboratory courses, pre-service teachers were provided with data previously obtained from face-to-face laboratories or simulation programs and videos of experiments in video-sharing platforms. In science education literature, many studies are investigating the effectiveness of online laboratories or comparing traditional face-to-face laboratories with online laboratories in terms of their advantages and disadvantages (

Compilation of Chemistry Experiments for an Online Laboratory Course: Student’s Perception and Learning Outcomes in the Context of COVID-19

Sustainability, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a quick change of the teaching styles to online lessons; specifically, experimental classes had to be redesigned to achieve the best possible academic performance within the imposed limitations. This work describes three different approaches: adaptation of a laboratory chemistry course to an online mode, learning proficiency, and students’ perception. First, a compilation of experiments that cover topics from general chemistry at an undergraduate level was included, with activities that can be conducted employing daily-use materials and substances. Next, the learning achieved was estimated, and the grades were related to a domain level of competency acquisition. The results indicated that at least 68% accomplished the highest level. Finally, the perception of the participants about the activities was inquired. The statistical analysis showed a generalized positive attitude towards the mode proposed, an appreciation of having earned meaningful knowledge, ...

COVID-19 and the abrupt shift to remote learning: Impact on grades and perceived learning for undergraduate biology students

2021

Institutions across the world transitioned abruptly to remote learning in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid transition to remote learning has generally been predicted to negatively affect students, particularly those marginalized due to their race, socioeconomic class, or gender identity. In this study, we examined the impact of this transition in the Spring 2020 semester on the grades of students enrolled in the in-person biology program at a large university in Southwestern United States as compared to the grades earned by students in the fully online biology program at the same institution. We also surveyed in-person instructors to understand changes in assessment practices as a result of the transition to remote learning during the pandemic. Finally, we surveyed students in the in-person program to learn about their perceptions of the impacts of this transition. We found that both online and in-person students received a similar small increase in grades in Spring 202...

Impact of the Emergency Transition to Remote Teaching on Student Engagement in a Non-STEM Undergraduate Chemistry Course in the Time of COVID-19

Journal of Chemical Education, 2020

In Spring 2020, we began a study focused on the development of inclusive teaching practices in an undergraduate chemistry lecture course for non-STEM students. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing educational disruptions, we changed the design of our study to focus on the learning and teaching experiences of students and instructors. Here, we conducted student surveys before and after the emergency transition to remote teaching and analyzed data on student participation in the online setting. We observed that student engagement was likely negatively impacted by the emergency transition. We also found that lectures engaged students less after the transition. By contrast, course activities that did not heavily rely on a physical classroom, such as students blogging about their research of chemistry literature and crafting an independent research paper about a chemical question, were more effective in retaining student engagement after the transition. We also analyze student utilization of synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities (for example, recorded lectures). We contextualize student engagement in the course relative to policies adopted by the educational institution, notably a mandatory universal pass/fail grading policy. Finally, we communicate thematic reflections from students, undergraduate peer tutors, graduate student teaching fellows, and the course instructor about learning chemistry and teaching non-STEM undergraduates in the time of COVID-19. On the basis of these studies, we recommend seven instructional strategies for teaching chemistry during sustained educational disruptions.

Teaching General Chemistry (I) Online during COVID-19. Process, Outcomes, and Lessons Learned: A Reflection

Journal of Chemical Education, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted teaching and learning worldwide during the Spring 2020 semester. Students and teachers had to shift to online teaching and learning in short order. With little time to prepare and inadequate training, faculty and students were thrust into a fluid situation, receiving training while teaching and learning. This essay is a reflection on experiences and lessons learned while teaching a trailer General Chemistry (I) course online to 278 undergraduate students. Challenges, successes, positive lessons learned, and plans for the future are discussed.

A New Normal: Assessment Outcomes and Recommendations for Virtual Versus In-Person Curricula in Post-COVID-19 Times

Medical Science Educator, 2022

Introduction COVID-19 response efforts that began in March 2020 prompted an urgent need to transition medical education from an in-person to a virtual format. Our aim is to provide evaluation of a virtual platform for a fully integrated curriculum to provide future guidance in teaching methods. Materials and Methods We used summative assessments and course evaluations from pre-and post-transition from in-person to virtual delivery of educational content to measure the impacts of this transition on student performance and perceptions. Additionally, we surveyed students about their in-person versus online educational preferences. Results There were no statistically significant differences in student knowledge acquisition as assessed by weighted averages of summative assessments when comparing an in-person to a virtual educational platform. While the transition to virtual learning was initially well-received by students, our studied cohorts gave lower scores for the overall learning experience after prolonged virtual learning (p < 0.001). Students had a strong preference that anatomy and other group sessions should be delivered in-person. There was no strong preference whether other learning modalities should be given in-person or virtually. Conclusions Although student knowledge acquisition remained stable on a virtual platform, the student learning experience varied. We recommend that when returning to a new normal after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, sessions that require 3-dimensional or group learning should remain in-person, while other educational activities may be offered on a virtual platform and that, whenever virtual learning is employed, attention be paid to ensuring ongoing social and academic engagement between learners and faculty.

Moving from Conventional to Online Instruction: Students’ Perspectives from the Global COVID-19 Lockdown

European journal of theoretical and applied sciences, 2024

The effects of COVID-19 caused (and is still causing) incomparable disruption to higher education everywhere although it has improved in 2021 to some extent with students now returning (or returned) to campuses. In 2020 somewhere around February, in a matter of days or weeks, campuses around the world went quiet as countries were locked down to contain the spread of the virus. Universities had to develop quick and innovative responses that would enable them to continue to offer teaching and learning when staff and/or students did not have access to a physical campus. An immediate, practical challenge for campus universities was to mobilize and assist teachers in designing and implementing alternative assessment models and scale learning support for specific units that did not rely on face-to-face presentations. This study examined the digital devices students use to access online lectures, the perceived benefits they gained, and the challenges they faced during the lockdown when they had to resort to distance learning during the global lockdown. A non-experimental descriptive design was chosen in which a number of undergraduate and graduate students were randomly selected to participate in the study. A sample size of 260 students was drawn with a simple random sample in which the subjects responded to a carefully designed structured instrument. It was found that there was no correlation between the use of technology for online teaching and the challenges they faced during the period. It was also found that students gained experience attending online lectures during the pandemic. There was an overwhelming response of motivation for students to engage in online lectures. Students were happy with the student-teacher interactions as they affirmed there was enough time given by instructors for them to ask questions or sought clarifications on issues that were not clear to them. In a sharp contrast, it emerged that there were some difficulties going online as compared to face-to-face instruction. They indicated again that there was frustration and lack of interest in learning while being locked down. Conversely, there was lack of direct face-to-face contact with lecturers which respondents deemed was quite frustrating.