RAPID: Instructional Shifts in Response to the COVID-19 and Their Impacts on Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences

RAPID：应对 COVID-19 的教学转变及其对课堂本科生研究经验的影响

• 批准号: 2027665
• 负责人: David Hanauer
• 金额: $ 2.1万
• 依托单位: Indiana University of Pennsylvania Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-01 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2027665&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Instructional; Shifts; Response; COVID; RAPID; Instructional; Shifts; Response; COVID

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) greatly expand opportunities for students to participate in authentic research early in their academic career. Research participation is linked to increased student persistence in STEM, especially for students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. Thus, by increasing the number and diversity of students who have a research experience, CURES also broaden participation in STEM careers. CURES typically engage student teams in hands-on work in laboratories or field sites. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the national CURE education landscape quickly and dramatically changed to a fully “online” mode, with limited opportunity for advance planning. Thus, this situation presents a unique and urgent opportunity to explore how CUREs evolve in a new online environment, as well as whether they continue to achieve core CURE educational goals. It also allows for assessment of whether these rapid course changes have equitable outcomes for all students, including first-generation students, students on financial aid, and from different socioeconomic backgrounds. If CUREs are a solution for engaging large numbers of early-stage undergraduates in authentic STEM research, then the feasibility to translate CUREs online must be known. It is important to understand the structure of these newly online CUREs, in what situation they are effective, and who they benefit. The results of this project have the potential to expand understanding of CURE instructional approaches and outcomes, for both practitioners and researchers. Additionally, this unexpected shift to online coursework is an opportunity to engage broader higher education audiences in new thinking about course configuration, online effectiveness, and supports and barriers for online teaching.The purpose of this project is twofold: 1) capture and analyze how CURE course activities are rapidly translated into online formats; and 2) assess effects of course changes on students with different demographic profiles. It will provide early evidence to answer if, how, and why CURE benefits are realized through the different modality of online teaching. Importantly, this project will not make conclusions about the quality of online CUREs or online teaching overall; instead, it will explore which CURE activities can be readily delivered online, how they get delivered, how students respond, and how this new way of teaching changes/expands how instructors think about CUREs. The present project will use a mixed-methods design to track online implementation of CURE courses in two samples. The first sample will include a diverse set of local CUREs that span multiple STEM departments and have an array of course objectives/structures. This collection of CUREs will afford an in-depth, qualitative case study investigation that will capture and analyze instructors’ thinking, plans, and products, before, during, and after the shift from hands-on, laboratory-based CUREs to ones that are now abruptly online. The second sample will include CURE courses from a national network, which will allow us to explore more broadly and in a more quantitative way, how a large number of instructors transitioned to online. The project will also examine the resulting emotions, motivations, and experiences of students during this transition and how this semester’s student outcomes compare to those from prior years, through analysis of a historical student outcomes database. This approach will provide broad reach and comparison among a relatively homogenous set of CUREs, since all CURE instructors in this network are trained in the same research approach, have similar course objectives, and use similar materials. This RAPID award is made by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program in the Division of Undergraduate Education (Education and Human Resources Directorate), using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.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.

基于课程的本科研究经验（治疗）很大程度上扩大了学生在学术生涯初期参加真实研究的机会。研究参与与STEM的学生持久性有关，特别是对于STEM中代表性不足的学生的学生。通过增加具有研究经验的学生的数量和多样性，可以拓宽参与STEM职业。治疗通常会使学生团队从事实验室或现场站点的动手工作。随着COVID-19病毒的爆发，国家治疗教育格局迅速而急剧变化为完全的“在线”模式，预先计划的机会有限。这就是这种情况为探索在新的在线环境中如何纠正如何发展的独特而紧迫的机会，以及他们是否继续实现核心治疗教育目标。它还允许评估这些快速的课程变化是否为包括第一代学生，经济援助的学生以及不同社会经济背景的所有学生都能取得公平的成果。如果治疗方法是使大量早期本科生参与真实STEM研究的解决方案，则必须知道在线翻译治疗方法的可行性。重要的是要了解这些新的在线治疗方法的结构，在什么情况下有效以及受益于谁。该项目的结果有可能扩大对从业者和研究人员的治疗教学方法和结果的了解。此外，这种意外转向在线课程是一个机会，可以让更广泛的高等教育受众参与有关课程配置，在线有效性以及在线教学的支持和障碍的新思维。该项目的目的是双重的：1）捕获和分析如何快速将治疗课程活动迅速转化为在线格式； 2）评估当然对具有不同人口统计学概况的学生的影响。它将提供早期证据，以回答是否，如何以及为什么通过在线教学的不同方式实现治疗益处。重要的是，该项目将无法就整体上的在线治疗质量或在线教学的结论得出结论；取而代之的是，它将探索可以轻松地在线交付哪些治疗活动，如何交付，学生的反应方式以及这种新的教学方式如何改变/扩展教师对治疗方法的看法。本项目将使用混合方法设计来跟踪两个样本中的治疗课程的在线实施。第一个样本将包括一组跨越多个STEM部门的局部疗法，并具有当然的对象/结构。该疗法的集合将提供深入的定性案例研究调查，该调查将在从动手实验室的基于实验室的治疗中转变为现在在线突然在线的疗法之前，之中和之后，捕获和分析讲师的思维，计划和产品。第二个样本将包括来自国家网络的治疗课程，这将使我们能够以更广泛的方式进行更广泛的探索方式，以及大量讲师如何过渡到在线。该项目还将通过分析历史学生成果数据库来研究学生在此过渡期间的产生情绪，动机和经历，以及本学期的学生成果与前几年的成果相比。这种方法将在一组相对同质的治疗方法之间提供广泛的影响力和比较，因为该网络中的所有治疗指导员均采用相同的研究方法训练，具有相似的课程对象并使用相似的材料。快速奖是由改进的本科教育学系（教育和人力资源局）改善的本科STEM教育计划，使用冠状病毒援助，救济和经济安全法（CARES）ACT的资金。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是宝贵的支持。