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

STEM专业的本科生实验室教学通常涉及特殊设备、材料和动手互动。因此，它们是最难从面对面学习环境转换到在线学习环境的课程。已经取得一些成功的方法包括对传统实验室练习进行基于网络的模拟和远程访问实验室设备。然而，对教职员工来说，设计实验课程的在线替代课程是一件具有挑战性的事情，在新冠肺炎疫情迫使他们这么做之前，大多数教师从未尝试过这样做。2020年春，为了最大限度地保障学生安全，并提供持续教学，各大高校将包括实验室课程在内的所有课程都转为在线形式。此时，全网上教学将延伸到春季学期，有可能需要更长的时间。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、强制的过渡对本科物理实验室课程的教和学的影响。这个项目将应用定性和定量的方法来研究这种转变对学生的影响，并确定用于开发面对面物理实验活动的在线版本的策略。调查人员将使用定量和定性的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的方法。该项目有两个具体目标：(1)衡量过渡对学生物理学习和知识的影响，以及他们对实验物理工作方式的期望；(2)确定并归类物理教师为使学生能够远程体验类似实验室的学习而采取的策略。对于研究的定量部分，研究人员将使用科罗拉多州学习态度关于实验物理科学调查(E-CLASS)，这是一个既定的调查，她的研究小组之前开发和测试。E班的30个问题评估了学生在物理实验室课堂上做实验时对他们的策略、思维习惯和态度的看法。E-CLASS根据学生对个人观点与专家观点的一致性程度以及实验物理学家的反应程度的评分为学生分配分数。今年的预习E班开设了51个课程，涉及超过6,000名学生。因此，该项目将能够对向远程教学的中期过渡进行大规模分析。调查人员将在授课后的E级课程中添加补充问题，并管理讲师调查，以具体探索向远程实验室的过渡。附加的问题和教师调查将使调查人员能够：(A)分析远程教学中哪些变量对E-Class分数影响最大；(B)比较使用远程教学的实验室教学和前几个学期的实验教学；(C)对教师在过渡到远程实验室期间使用的工具进行分类；以及(D)找出共同的主题、挑战和成功，为研究的质量部分提供信息。定性部分将包括对教师和学生的采访，以制定一个案例研究，捕捉到向远程实验室过渡的细节。这个项目旨在更好地理解物理实验室环境(包括社会互动)如何有助于学生对实验的性质和做实验的意义的看法。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人员。此外，将实验室课程转变为远程学习的不同方法进行分类，将有助于增加教师对创造性实践的了解，他们可以在紧急情况下和非紧急情况下使用这些做法来进行实验室课程。有了这些知识，例如，他们可能能够增加那些获得面对面实验室指导的学生的机会，比如农村地区的学生。这一快速奖项是由本科教育部(教育和人力资源局)的改善本科生STEM教育(IUSE：EHR)计划利用冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全(CARE)法案的资金颁发的。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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.