Undergraduate Biology Students Received Higher Grades During COVID-19 but Perceived Negative Effects on Learning

Abstract

Institutions across the world transitioned abruptly to remote learning in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid transition to remote learning has generally been predicted to negatively affect students, particularly those marginalized due to their race, socioeconomic class, or gender identity. In this study, we examined the impact of this transition in the Spring 2020 semester on the grades of students enrolled in the in-person biology program at a large university in Southwestern United States as compared to the grades earned by students in the fully online biology program at the same institution. We also surveyed in-person instructors to understand changes in assessment practices as a result of the transition to remote learning during the pandemic. Finally, we surveyed students in the in-person program to learn about their perceptions of the impacts of this transition. We found that both online and in-person students received a similar small increase in grades in Spring 2020 compared to Spring 2018 and 2019. We also found no evidence of disproportionately negative impacts on grades received by students marginalized due to their race, socioeconomic class, or gender in either modality. Focusing on in-person courses, we documented that instructors made changes to their courses when they transitioned to remote learning, which may have offset some of the potential negative impacts on course grades. However, despite receiving higher grades, in-person students reported negative impacts on their learning, interactions with peers and instructors, feeling part of the campus community, and career preparation. Women reported a more negative impact on their learning and career preparation compared to men. This work provides insights into students’ perceptions of how they were disadvantaged as a result of the transition to remote instruction and illuminates potential actions that instructors can take to create more inclusive education moving forward.

An Upper-Division, Remote Microbiology Laboratory That Blends Virtual and Hands-on Components to Promote Student Success during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Using the same formula, the PEER population in our study is 51.5%. On the other hand, the student population studied by Supriya and colleagues was 49% white, 14% Asian, 5% Black, and 25% Hispanic ( 52 ), while our student population was 11% white, 38% Asian, 2% Black, and 43% Hispanic ( Table 2 ). It would be interesting to evaluate performance in STEM courses at those institutions for the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters.…”

“…Two recent publications evaluated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on student performance, finding that it increased in the spring 2020 academic term ( 52 , 53 ). Our spring 2020 data align with these findings, as the overall performance for this semester was not different from that of the IP spring 2019 and IP fall 2019 semesters ( Fig.…”

COVID-19 and the Gender Gap in University Student Performance

“…In this paper, we contribute to this scant literature and investigate how gender differences in university student progression evolved during the first wave of the pandemic. Compared to most extant work, which uses survey data with a relatively low number of respondents or with potential representativeness issues (e.g., Aucejo et al, 2020) or administrative data from single degrees or courses (e.g., Kofoed et al, 2021;Orlov et al, 2021;Supriya et al, 2021), we use administrative data on the whole student population of a large public university in Northern Italy, the University of Milan (UniMI hereafter).…”

College faculty experiences with online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Interestingly, research regarding student grades during the pandemic demonstrated an increase in student grades. Supriya et al (2021) [21] conducted a study in the United States comparing a traditional online biology course to an in-class biology course that transitioned to on-line; grades were slightly higher for both compared to previous semesters. Karadag (2021) [22] noted a small amount of grade inflation during COVID-19 as compared to previous semesters.…”

“…Although students' grades were higher, students reported a negative impact on their learning, interactions with peers and instructors, feeling part of a campus community and career preparation. [21] Over half of faculty surveyed felt grades were not impacted. Further exploration of the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on student mental health and college experiences should be explored.…”