RAPID: Exploring Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Undergraduate STEM Education by Student Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status

RAPID：按学生性别、种族/民族和社会经济地位探讨 COVID-19 大流行对本科 STEM 教育的影响

• 批准号: 2028341
• 负责人: Sherry Pagoto
• 金额: $ 7.14万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-01 至 2021-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2028341&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Exploring; Impacts; COVID; 19

The COVID-19 pandemic presents unprecedented challenges to undergraduate education. Although the disruption affects the entire academic community, the impacts are not equal. For example, students with low socioeconomic status, first generation students, and women may be affected more strongly by the disruptions than other students. Thus, based on students’ demographics, the pandemic may be more likely or less likely to exacerbate existing or create new differential impacts on students. This study seeks to investigate this likely unequal impact among a large sample of students enrolled in calculus courses in spring 2020. A survey will gather student voices by probing how this disaster has affected students in STEM career pathways. The survey needs to be conducted immediately to gather the information from the students as they experience the disruption in their collegiate education. The goal of this study is to conduct a timely mixed-methods study to collect data from a representative sample of undergraduate STEM students from varied backgrounds. The data will include the student voice about their experiences including: 1) the transition away from campus; 2) the challenges experienced; 3) the degree to which challenges affected attendance, academic performance, withdrawal rates, and college dropout rates; and 4) factors that facilitated success or failure among among all students, including underresourced and underrepresented students. After gathering data via the survey, the project team will facilitate 15 focus groups of about six students, balanced by socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity, and gender. Using a socioecological framework, the project team will analyze factors across multiple levels, ranging from the individual to public policy, and use the survey and focus group data to develop a quantitative survey. This work represents novel STEM-education research in an urgent and unique context. The findings may immediately inform interventions to address the needs of current undergraduate STEM students in the US. Formal reports and recommendations that arise will be published and disseminated in Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. In the longer term, results may inform evidence-based recommendations regarding distance versus on-campus learning for students, including students from underresourced and underrepresented backgrounds. 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.

COVID-19疫情对本科教育提出了前所未有的挑战。 虽然这种干扰影响到整个学术界，但影响是不平等的。 例如，社会经济地位低的学生、第一代学生和妇女可能比其他学生受到更大的影响。 因此，根据学生的人口统计数据，疫情可能会或不太可能加剧现有的学生差异或对学生造成新的差异影响。 这项研究旨在调查2020年春季参加微积分课程的大样本学生中可能存在的不平等影响。 一项调查将收集学生的声音，探讨这场灾难如何影响学生在STEM职业道路。 调查需要立即进行，以收集学生的信息，因为他们经历了他们的大学教育中断。 本研究的目标是进行一项及时的混合方法研究，从来自不同背景的本科STEM学生的代表性样本中收集数据。 这些数据将包括学生对他们经历的声音，包括：1）离开校园的过渡; 2）经历的挑战; 3）挑战影响出勤率，学习成绩，退学率和大学辍学率的程度;以及4）促进所有学生成功或失败的因素，包括资源不足和代表性不足的学生。 通过调查收集数据后，项目团队将促进15个焦点小组，约6名学生，由社会经济地位，种族或民族和性别平衡。 利用社会生态学框架，项目团队将分析从个人到公共政策等多个层面的因素，并利用调查和焦点小组数据开展定量调查。 这项工作代表了在紧急和独特的背景下进行的新颖的STEM教育研究。 这些发现可能会立即为干预措施提供信息，以满足美国目前本科STEM学生的需求。 正式报告和建议将于2020年秋季和2021年春季发布和传播。 从长远来看，研究结果可能会为学生提供关于远程与校内学习的循证建议，包括来自资源不足和代表性不足背景的学生。 该奖项由本科教育部（教育和人力资源局）的改进本科STEM教育计划颁发，使用冠状病毒援助，救济和经济安全（CARES）法案的资金。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。