Online biology degree program broadens access for women, first-generation to college, and low-income students, but grade disparities remain

Abstract

Online education has grown rapidly in recent years with many universities now offering fully online degree programs even in STEM disciplines. These programs have the potential to broaden access to STEM degrees for people with social identities currently underrepresented in STEM. Here, we ask to what extent is that potential realized in terms of student enrollment and grades for a fully online degree program. Our analysis of data from more than 10,000 course-enrollments compares student demographics and course grades in a fully online biology degree program to demographics and grades in an equivalent in-person biology degree program at the same university. We find that women, first-generation to college students and students eligible for federal Pell grants constitute a larger proportion of students in the online program compared to the in-person mode. However, the online mode of instruction is associated with lower course grades relative to the in-person mode. Moreover, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, and Pacific Islander students as well as federal Pell grant eligible students earned lower grades than white students and non-Pell grant eligible students, respectively, but the grade disparities were similar among both in-person and online student groups. Finally, we find that grade disparities between men and women are larger online compared to in-person, but that for first-generation to college women, the online mode of instruction is associated with little to no grade gap compared to continuing generation women. Our findings indicate that although this online degree program broadens access for some student populations, inequities in the experience remain and need to be addressed in order for online education to achieve its inclusive mission.

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

“…Results also show that this Spring 2020 grade effect was not significantly different between the online and in-person programs (Table 2). The online program is also associated with lower course grades overall, which is consistent with our prior work [51].…”

“…We cannot say definitively how many of the students who received a Y grade would have chosen to withdraw if this option had not been available. The decision to remove these grades from analysis is consistent with prior studies [51,56]. To control for prior academic performance, we use “GPAO,” which refers to a student’s grade point average in other courses, including both STEM and non-STEM courses [56,57].…”

“…An alternative prediction is that the differences in the student populations online and in-person, specifically the higher percentage of individuals in the online program who hold one or more marginalized social identities and may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of the pandemic outside the class, would lead to greater negative impacts for online students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we know that the percentage of women, older students, students who are primary caregivers, and students from low-income households are consistently higher in online programs compared to in-person programs [49–51]. These are groups that have been unequally disadvantaged during the pandemic in general.…”

COVID-19 and Undergraduates with Disabilities: Challenges Resulting from the Rapid Transition to Online Course Delivery for Students with Disabilities in Undergraduate STEM at Large-Enrollment Institutions

“…It appears that an analogous problem is arising with regard to online education. The number of courses offered online was notably increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, with some STEM bachelor's degrees being offered completely online (Allen and Seaman, 2013;Varty, 2016;Cooper et al, 2019;Mead et al, 2020). Studies have shown that students with disabilities feel as though they have less overall support and fewer accommodations for their disabilities in online courses compared with their in-person courses (Terras et al, 2015(Terras et al, , 2020.…”

Aspects of Large-Enrollment Online College Science Courses That Exacerbate and Alleviate Student Anxiety

“…While women (Misra and McKean, 2000;Bayram and Bilgel, 2008), individuals who are financially unstable (Eisenberg et al, 2007), and those with depression (Eisenberg et al, 2007;Mah-moud et al, 2012) have been found to have higher generalized anxiety than their counterparts, there is evidence that the online environment may further exacerbate or contribute to these gaps. For example, women generally report feeling more anxious about taking courses online compared with men (Saadé et al, 2017), and grade disparities between men and women are greater in online STEM courses compared with in-person courses (Mead et al, 2020). Additionally, studies show that online science coursework could present challenges for students with depression because of the difficulties students experience developing relationships with students and instructors online, the lack of a need to show up somewhere in person, and the self-paced nature of online courses (Gin et al, 2021a;Mohammed et al, unpublished data).…”