RAPID: Exploring Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Undergraduate STEM Education by Student Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status

RAPID：按学生性别、种族/民族和社会经济地位探讨 COVID-19 大流行对本科 STEM 教育的影响

• 批准号: 2028344
• 负责人: Nathanial Brown
• 金额: $ 12.77万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 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=2028344&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Exploring; Impacts; COVID; 19

The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to undergraduate education. Although the disruption affects the entire academic community, the impacts are not equal. For example, students with low socioeconomic status, first generation students, and women may be affected more strongly by the disruptions than other students. Thus, based on students’ demographics, the pandemic may be more likely or less likely to exacerbate existing or create new differential impacts on students. This study seeks to investigate this likely unequal impact among a large sample of students enrolled in calculus courses in spring 2020. A survey will gather student voices by probing how this disaster has affected students in STEM career pathways. The survey needs to be conducted immediately to gather the information from the students as they experience the disruption in their collegiate education. The goal of this study is to conduct a timely mixed-methods study to collect data from a representative sample of undergraduate STEM students from varied backgrounds. The data will include the student voice about their experiences including: 1) the transition away from campus; 2) the challenges experienced; 3) the degree to which challenges affected attendance, academic performance, withdrawal rates, and college dropout rates; and 4) factors that facilitated success or failure among among all students, including underresourced and underrepresented students. After gathering data via the survey, the project team will facilitate 15 focus groups of about six students, balanced by socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity, and gender. Using a socioecological framework, the project team will analyze factors across multiple levels, ranging from the individual to public policy, and use the survey and focus group data to develop a quantitative survey. This work represents novel STEM-education research in an urgent and unique context. The findings may immediately inform interventions to address the needs of current undergraduate STEM students in the US. Formal reports and recommendations that arise will be published and disseminated in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. In the longer term, results may inform evidence-based recommendations regarding distance versus on-campus learning for students, including students from underresourced and underrepresented backgrounds. 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.

COVID-19 大流行给本科教育带来了前所未有的挑战，尽管这种破坏影响到整个学术界，但影响并不相同，例如，社会经济地位较低的学生、第一代学生和女性受到的影响可能更大。因此，根据学生的人口统计数据，这种流行病可能更有可能或不太可能加剧对学生的现有影响或产生新的差异性影响。本研究旨在调查在参加微积分课程的大量学生中可能存在的不平等影响。 2020 年春季。一项调查该调查需要立即进行，以收集学生在大学教育受到干扰时的信息。及时的混合方法研究，从不同背景的本科 STEM 学生中收集数据，这些数据将包括学生关于他们经历的声音，包括：1）离开校园的过渡；3）所经历的挑战；哪些挑战影响了出席率，学业成绩、退学率和大学辍学率；以及 4) 影响所有学生（包括资源不足和代表性不足的学生）成功或失败的因素 通过调查收集数据后，项目团队将组织 15 个由约 6 名学生组成的焦点小组。项目团队将根据社会经济地位、种族或族裔以及性别进行平衡，分析从个人到公共政策等多个层面的因素，并利用调查和焦点小组数据开展定量调查。这部作品代表新颖在紧急和独特的背景下进行 STEM 教育研究，研究结果可能会立即为解决美国当前 STEM 本科生的需求提供信息。正式报告和建议将于 2020 年秋季和 2021 年春季发布和传播。从长远来看，结果可能会为学生（包括来自资源不足和代表性不足背景的学生）提供有关远程学习与校园​​学习的基于证据的建议。该 RAPID 奖项由改善本科生 STEM 教育颁发。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的评估进行评估，认为值得支持。智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。