RAPID: Examining the Impacts of Transitioning to Remote Teaching of Undergraduate Physics Labs Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

STEM学科的本科实验教学通常涉及特殊设备、材料和动手互动。因此，它们是最难将面对面学习环境转化为在线学习环境的课程。已经取得一些成功的方法包括基于网络的传统实验室练习模拟和远程访问实验室设备。然而，对于教师来说，设计在线替代实验室课程是一项挑战，大多数人从未尝试过，直到COVID-19大流行迫使他们这样做。2020年春季，为了最大限度地提高学生的安全并提供持续的指导，学院和大学将所有课程，包括实验课程，转移到在线格式。这一次，完全的在线教学和学习将延续到春季学期，并且有可能需要更长时间。这种情况提供了一个独特的、时间敏感的机会来衡量突然的、被迫的转变对本科物理实验课程的教与学的影响。本项目将运用定性和定量方法来研究这种转变对学生的影响，并确定用于开发现场物理实验室活动在线版本的策略。研究者将使用定量和定性方法来探索在线实验室如何影响学生对物理的理解，并确定物理实验室教师转向在线学习环境所使用的方法。该项目有两个具体目标：(1)衡量这种转变对学生物理学习和知识的影响，以及他们对实验物理如何工作的期望；(2)识别和分类物理教师为使学生远程体验实验室式学习所采取的策略。对于研究的定量部分，研究者将使用科罗拉多实验物理科学学习态度调查（E-CLASS），这是她的研究小组先前开发和测试的一项既定调查。E-CLASS的30个问题评估学生在物理实验课上做实验时的策略、思维习惯和态度。E-CLASS根据学生的个人观点与专家观点的一致程度以及实验物理学家的反应来给学生打分。今年，我们在51门课程中开设了E-CLASS预教学课程，涉及6,000多名学生。因此，这个项目将允许分析中期过渡到大规模的远程教学。研究者将在教学后的E-CLASS中添加补充问题，并管理一项教师调查，以专门探讨向远程实验室的过渡。额外的问题和教师调查将允许研究者：(a)分析远程教学中哪些变量对E-CLASS分数影响最大；(b)将使用远程教学的实验教学与前几个学期的实验教学进行比较；(c)对教师在向远程实验室过渡期间使用的工具进行分类；(d)找到共同的主题、挑战和成功，这将为研究的定性组成部分提供信息。定性部分将包括与教师和学生的访谈，以开发一个案例研究，捕捉到向远程实验室过渡的细节。本项目旨在帮助学生更好地理解物理实验室环境（包括社会互动）如何影响学生对实验本质和实验意义的看法。这些结果将有助于希望研究不同实验室环境和远程策略的优势和局限性的教育研究者。此外，对将实验课程过渡到远程学习的不同方法进行编目，将有助于增加教师对创造性实践的了解，这些实践可以在紧急情况下和紧急情况之外用于实验课程。例如，有了这些知识，他们可能能够为那些无法获得面对面实验室指导的学生（如农村地区的学生）增加机会。该RAPID奖由本科教育司（教育和人力资源理事会）的改善本科STEM教育（IUSE: EHR）计划提供，资金来自《冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全（关怀）法案》。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Undergraduate laboratory instruction in STEM disciplines usually involves special equipment, materials, and hands-on interactions. As a result, they are the most difficult courses to translate from an in-person learning environment to an online learning environment. Approaches that have achieved some success include web-based simulations of traditional lab exercises and remote access to laboratory equipment. Nevertheless, it is challenging for faculty to design online replacements to their laboratory courses and most never attempted it until forced to do so by the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2020, to maximize student safety and provide continued instruction, colleges and universities shifted all courses, including lab courses, to an online format. At this time, fully online teaching and learning will extend through spring semester, and it is possible that it will be necessary for even longer. This circumstance presents a unique, time-sensitive opportunity to measure the impact of the sudden, forced transition on teaching and learning in undergraduate physics lab courses. This project will apply qualitative and quantitative approaches to study impacts of the shift on students and identify strategies used to develop online versions of in-person physics lab activities. The investigator will use both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how online labs affect students’ understanding of physics and identify the approaches used by physics laboratory instructors to shift to an online learning environment. The project has two specific aims: (1) to measure the effects of the transition on students' learning and knowledge in physics and their expectations about how experimental physics works; and (2) to identify and categorize the strategies taken by physics instructors to enable students to remotely experience laboratory-like learning. For the quantitative component of the study, the Investigator will use the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS), an established survey that her research group has previously developed and tested. The 30 questions in E-CLASS assess students' views about their strategies, habits of mind, and attitudes when doing experiments in physics lab classes. E-CLASS assigns scores to students based on their ratings of how closely their personal views align with those of experts, as well as how an experimental physicist would respond. The pre-instruction E-CLASS was administered in 51 courses involving over 6,000 students this year. Thus, this project will allow analysis of the midterm transition to remote instruction on a large scale. The investigator will add supplemental questions to the post-instruction E-CLASS, as well as administer an instructor survey, to specifically probe the transition to remote labs. The additional questions and the instructor survey will allow the investigator to: (a) analyze which variables in remote teaching most impact E-CLASS scores; (b) compare lab teaching using remote instruction to lab teaching during previous semesters; (c) categorize tools used by instructors during the transition to remote labs; and (d) find common themes, challenges, and successes that will inform the qualitative component of the study. The qualitative component will involve interviews with both faculty and students to develop a case study that captures the details of the transition to remote labs. This project aims to build a better understanding of how the physics lab environment (including social interactions) contributes to students' views about the nature of experimentation and what it means to do experiments. These results will help education researchers who wish to study the advantages and limitations of different lab environments and remote strategies. In addition, the cataloging of different approaches to transitioning lab courses to remote learning will help increase instructors' knowledge of creative practices that they could use for lab courses both during an emergency and outside of one. With this knowledge, they might, for example, be able to increase opportunities for students who have limited access to in-person lab instruction such as students in rural areas. This RAPID award is made by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE: EHR) program in the Division of Undergraduate Education (Directorate for Education and Human Resources), 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.