RAPID: Instructional Shifts in Response to the COVID-19 and Their Impacts on Classroom-based Undergraduate Research Experiences

以课程为基础的本科生研究体验(CURE)极大地增加了学生在学术生涯早期参与真实研究的机会。参与研究与提高学生在STEM中的毅力有关，特别是对于STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生。因此，通过增加有研究经验的学生的数量和多样性，CURE还扩大了对STEM职业的参与。Caures通常会让学生团队在实验室或现场进行实践工作。随着新冠肺炎病毒的爆发，全国治愈教育的格局迅速而戏剧性地转变为完全“线上”的模式，提前规划的机会有限。因此，这种情况提供了一个独特而紧迫的机会，以探索治疗如何在新的在线环境中发展，以及它们是否继续实现核心治疗教育目标。它还允许评估这些快速的课程变化是否对所有学生产生了公平的结果，包括第一代学生、接受经济援助的学生以及来自不同社会经济背景的学生。如果CURES是吸引大量早期本科生参与真实STEM研究的解决方案，那么在线翻译CURES的可行性必须是已知的。重要的是要了解这些新的在线治疗的结构，它们在什么情况下有效，以及它们的受益者。这个项目的结果有可能扩大对治疗教学方法和结果的理解，无论是从业者还是研究人员。此外，这种意想不到的向在线课程的转变是一个机会，可以让更广泛的高等教育受众对课程配置、在线有效性以及在线教学的支持和障碍进行新的思考。该项目的目的有两个：1)捕获和分析如何将治愈课程活动快速转换为在线格式；2)评估课程变化对不同人口统计特征的学生的影响。它将提供早期证据来回答是否、如何以及为什么通过不同形式的在线教学实现治愈益处。重要的是，这个项目不会对在线治疗或在线教学的整体质量做出结论；相反，它将探索哪些在线治疗活动可以很容易地提供，它们是如何提供的，学生如何反应，以及这种新的教学方式如何改变/扩展教师对治疗的看法。本项目将使用混合方法设计，在两个样本中跟踪在线治疗课程的实施情况。第一个样本将包括跨越多个STEM部门并具有一系列课程目标/结构的一组不同的本地课程。这些治疗方法的集合将提供深入、定性的案例研究调查，以捕获和分析讲师在从基于实验室的动手治疗方法转变为现在突然在线的治疗方法之前、期间和之后的想法、计划和产品。第二个样本将包括来自全国网络的治愈课程，这将使我们能够更广泛、更定量地探索大量教师是如何过渡到在线的。该项目还将通过对历史学生成绩数据库的分析，考察学生在这一过渡期间的情绪、动机和经历，以及本学期的学生成绩与前几年的相比如何。这种方法将在相对同质的一组治疗方法之间提供广泛的覆盖范围和比较，因为这个网络中的所有治疗指导者都接受过相同的研究方法培训，具有相似的课程目标，并使用类似的材料。这一快速奖项是由本科教育部门(教育和人力资源局)的改善本科STEM教育项目，使用冠状病毒援助、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优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) greatly expand opportunities for students to participate in authentic research early in their academic career. Research participation is linked to increased student persistence in STEM, especially for students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. Thus, by increasing the number and diversity of students who have a research experience, CURES also broaden participation in STEM careers. CURES typically engage student teams in hands-on work in laboratories or field sites. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the national CURE education landscape quickly and dramatically changed to a fully “online” mode, with limited opportunity for advance planning. Thus, this situation presents a unique and urgent opportunity to explore how CUREs evolve in a new online environment, as well as whether they continue to achieve core CURE educational goals. It also allows for assessment of whether these rapid course changes have equitable outcomes for all students, including first-generation students, students on financial aid, and from different socioeconomic backgrounds. If CUREs are a solution for engaging large numbers of early-stage undergraduates in authentic STEM research, then the feasibility to translate CUREs online must be known. It is important to understand the structure of these newly online CUREs, in what situation they are effective, and who they benefit. The results of this project have the potential to expand understanding of CURE instructional approaches and outcomes, for both practitioners and researchers. Additionally, this unexpected shift to online coursework is an opportunity to engage broader higher education audiences in new thinking about course configuration, online effectiveness, and supports and barriers for online teaching.The purpose of this project is twofold: 1) capture and analyze how CURE course activities are rapidly translated into online formats; and 2) assess effects of course changes on students with different demographic profiles. It will provide early evidence to answer if, how, and why CURE benefits are realized through the different modality of online teaching. Importantly, this project will not make conclusions about the quality of online CUREs or online teaching overall; instead, it will explore which CURE activities can be readily delivered online, how they get delivered, how students respond, and how this new way of teaching changes/expands how instructors think about CUREs. The present project will use a mixed-methods design to track online implementation of CURE courses in two samples. The first sample will include a diverse set of local CUREs that span multiple STEM departments and have an array of course objectives/structures. This collection of CUREs will afford an in-depth, qualitative case study investigation that will capture and analyze instructors’ thinking, plans, and products, before, during, and after the shift from hands-on, laboratory-based CUREs to ones that are now abruptly online. The second sample will include CURE courses from a national network, which will allow us to explore more broadly and in a more quantitative way, how a large number of instructors transitioned to online. The project will also examine the resulting emotions, motivations, and experiences of students during this transition and how this semester’s student outcomes compare to those from prior years, through analysis of a historical student outcomes database. This approach will provide broad reach and comparison among a relatively homogenous set of CUREs, since all CURE instructors in this network are trained in the same research approach, have similar course objectives, and use similar materials. 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.