Teaching and Learning in Online Laboratories in Physics

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving teaching and learning in online laboratory environments in college physics courses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities were forced to move traditionally face-to-face classes and labs to online formats. Because many typical lab experiences involve hands-on interaction with equipment, as well as demonstrations and close supervision by instructors, it is challenging to create online variations that teach the same concepts and skills and that meet individual students' needs. It is important for educators to understand whether remote lab experiences, which proliferated during the pandemic, are equitable, rigorous, comprehensive, and responsive to students' individual learning and social needs. This research will study those issues. This project will investigate how undergraduate physics instructors and students engage and perform in online laboratories. It will focus on the decision-making processes and implementation of teaching in an online learning environment from the perspective of instructors (faculty and graduate students), with a particular emphasis on laboratory instruction. The research will also explore the attitudes and academic performance of undergraduate physics students with regard to their lab experiences, including whether the students have differentiated experiences with respect to gender, ethnicity, or social class. The research will identify ways in which pedagogy in undergraduate science, students' performance in physics, and students' attitudes toward physics and online learning may be improved, particularly for students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. Research questions will include the following: (1) How have physics faculty and graduate teaching assistants adapted laboratory course materials to transition to remote learning, and how are their pedagogical practices characterized in the online medium? (2) What factors influence their online teaching in terms of prior knowledge and training, peer collaboration, and external directives? (3) To what extent is online lab instruction characterized by technical, logistical, and pedagogical tensions, and how are these challenges formatively mitigated throughout the semester? (4) How are students' sociocognitive views of physics self-efficacy, self-concept, identity, epistemology, motivation, and career intentions influenced by participation in online physics instruction? (5) How is students' acquisition of physics knowledge and skills influenced by participation in online labs? The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.