Lessons learned through listening to biology students during a transition to online learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

A comparison of attitudes toward remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic between students attending a Chinese and an Australian campus

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong driver for moving more teaching and learning activities online. Border restrictions have had a severe impact on international students either hoping to enroll in courses offered in Australia or continue with such courses if they are already enrolled. The online learning experience is likely different between students onshore and offshore. This study took a unique opportunity to investigate any such differences in students' attitudes toward remote learning, necessitated by the pandemic, by comparing two cohorts of students, Australia versus China based. An anonymous survey using the Likert Scale and open-ended questions was available for student feedback on subject delivery. The students based in Australia expressed a preference for remote learning due to the convenience of attendance and availability of the video recordings. However, students in China had a strong preference for face-to-face sessions, with the lack of prior experience in an English-speaking learning environment and hesitance to speak with the lecturers and engage in the learning activities possible reasons for this. In quizzes, students in Australia performed better than those in China regardless of local or international student status. This difference may be due to the Australian-based students' prior experience of English-speaking environments and open-book quizzes. In conclusion, remote learning in a familiar language and learning environment is accepted by students, whereas if the teaching is delivered in a second language using unfamiliar teaching methods, remote learning will require additional scaffolding to enhance their learning experience.

Aspects of online college science courses that alleviate and exacerbate undergraduate depression

Depression is a top mental health concern among college students, yet there is a lack of research exploring how online college science courses can exacerbate or alleviate their depression. We surveyed 2,175 undergraduates at a large research-intensive institution about the severity of their depression in large-enrollment online science courses. The survey also explored aspects of online science courses that exacerbate or alleviate depression and we used regression analyses to assess whether demographics predicted responses. Over 50% of undergraduates reported experiencing depression and LGBTQ+ students, financially unstable students, and lower division students were more likely to experience severe rather than mild depression compared to their counterparts. Students reported difficulty building relationships and struggling to perform well online as aspects of online science courses that exacerbated their depression and the flexible nature of online courses and caring instructors as aspects of online courses that alleviated their depression. This study provides insight into how instructors can create more inclusive online learning environments for students with depression.

Evaluation of a Reinforcement Contingency to Increase University Students' Webcam Usage During Online Classroom Instructions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person classroom instruction was placed on hold and university courses transitioned to online instruction. This transition resulted in novel challenges for instructors, including reduced professor-student interactions due to limited student webcam usage. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a reinforcement contingency on students' use of webcams during synchronous online instruction. An alternating treatments design was used to assess the impact of a reinforcement contingency consisting of 0.5 points contingent on daily webcam usage. We also assessed the results based on how the contingency was communicated to the students (a verbal statement on the daily quiz plus a reminder on lecture slides versus a statement on the lecture slide only). The reinforcement contingency reliably increased webcam usage, but there was not a significant difference in results as a function of how the presence of the reinforcement contingency was communicated. These findings suggest that the behavior of using webcams can change with a simple reinforcement contingency.

Why Did Students Report Lower Test Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

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.

Undergraduates' Experiences with Online and in-Person Courses Provide Opportunities for Improving Student-Centered Biology Laboratory Instruction

Biology laboratory courses with hands-on activities faced many challenges when switched to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The transition back to in-person instruction presents an opportunity to redesign courses with greater student input. Undergraduates in an ∼350-student laboratory course were surveyed about their preferences for online or in-person instruction of specific laboratory course components. We predicted that students who have taken a virtual laboratory course prefer keeping some of the components online. We also hypothesized that their preferences are affected by their experience with online-only or with both online and in-person instruction. The results showed that students would like to move the laboratory component and group meetings back to in-person instruction, even if they never experienced college-level in-person courses. Also, many components, including the lectures, exams, assignment submission, and office hours are preferred to be held online. Surprisingly, students who have only taken online courses would rather give group presentations in person, while those who experienced both online and in-person instruction were undecided. Group presentations were the only component where the preference of the two groups significantly differed. Self-assessed learning gains showed that students performed very well in both the online semesters and the in-person semesters. Therefore, the preferences measured in this study were likely developed based on students' future expectations and personal gains, and not only on their metacognitive decisions and academic performances. This study provides considerations for redesigning components of laboratory courses to be more student-centered after the pandemic.

Google Colab and Virtual Simulations: Practical e-Learning Tools to Support the Teaching of Thermodynamics and to Introduce Coding to Students

Various studies have reported the versatility and great scope of programming tools in all areas of knowledge. Coding is generally of paramount importance to chemistry students regardless of whether they intend to work with theoretical chemistry. Google Colab notebooks can introduce students to programming concepts and could be a convenient tool to assist in the chemistry teaching process. In this article, we implemented Google Colab notebooks to aid in the teaching of thermodynamics in a physical chemistry class. We presented six notebooks, covering introductory concepts of both coding and thermodynamics as a set of learning objects that can be useful in a virtual learning environment. In addition, in some of the notebooks, we included a step-by-step guide on how to run virtual lab simulations. The Colab notebooks were created for students without previous experience in programming. All of the Colab notebooks contain exercises of the activities and the solutions of the proposed exercises. Furthermore, all of the Colab notebooks can be modified and downloaded from the Github repository. Finally, we used the Python programming language and Colab because they are free and widely used by the academic community.