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

新冠肺炎疫情给本科教育带来了前所未有的挑战。尽管这种中断影响了整个学术界，但影响并不平等。例如，社会经济地位较低的学生、第一代学生和女性受干扰的影响可能比其他学生更大。因此，根据学生的人口统计数据，大流行可能会或更不可能加剧现有的或对学生产生新的不同影响。本研究旨在调查2020年春季参加微积分课程的大量学生样本中可能存在的不平等影响。一项调查将通过探讨这场灾难如何影响STEM职业道路的学生来收集学生的声音。这项调查需要立即进行，从学生那里收集信息，因为他们经历了大学教育的中断。本研究的目的是进行一项及时的混合方法研究，以收集来自不同背景的本科STEM学生的代表性样本的数据。这些数据将包括学生关于他们经历的声音，包括：1)离开校园的过渡；2)经历的挑战；3)挑战对出勤率、学习成绩、退学率和大学辍学率的影响程度；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。在通过调查收集数据后，项目团队将促进15个焦点小组，每个小组约6名学生，根据社会经济地位、种族或民族和性别进行平衡。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进行定量调查。这项工作在一个紧迫和独特的背景下代表了新的stem教育研究。研究结果可能会立即为干预措施提供信息，以解决美国当前本科STEM学生的需求。产生的正式报告和建议将于2020年秋季和2021年春季出版和传播。从长远来看，结果可能会为学生提供基于证据的远程学习与校园学习的建议，包括来自资源不足和代表性不足背景的学生。该RAPID奖由本科教育司（教育和人力资源理事会）改进本科STEM教育项目颁发，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。

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.