RAPID: Understanding the Impact of Abrupt Changes to Instructional Methods on Underrepresented Engineering Students

由新冠肺炎引发的2020年全球大流行迫使美国的高等教育机构立即停止面对面教学，过渡到虚拟教学。虽然这种转变对任何教师来说都不容易，但对STEM课程的学生来说，向在线学习的转变尤其困难，特别是具有很强的实践性/实验室成分的工程学。这个项目调查了大流行是如何影响工程专业历来代表性不足的学生的。在危机期间收集这些数据是当务之急。通过使用在线数据收集平台Sensemaker，将从代表性不足的工科学生中收集短篇小说，描述他们在过渡到在线学习的过程中是如何经历新冠肺炎危机的。这些故事将被用来帮助各机构提供必要的工具，以确保少数族裔学生不会被排除在考虑到多数人的决定之外。这个快速项目将采用Sensemaker方法来调查未被充分代表的大学生在危机时期如何应对。这项研究建立在之前对危机背景下社区经验的调查基础上；即，使用感官方法来调查波多黎各的利益相关者群体在飓风玛丽亚(国家科学基金会#1832678)过后是如何适应的。指导本项目的首要研究问题是：由于新冠肺炎而突然过渡到在线教学，如何影响到历史上在工程学方面代表性不足的学生？更具体地说，研究人员感兴趣的是，基于以下因素，过渡如何影响代表不足的学生：1)上学年限(低年级学生与高年级学生)；2)白人机构出勤率与少数族裔服务机构出勤率；3)社会经济地位；以及4)地理位置。这个快速项目将收集数据，直到2020年12月。方法是不断收集参与者经历的微观叙述(定性数据)和对促使参与者理解其经历的调查问题的答复(定量数据)。这些数据将被分析为模式，以指导采取行动，改善代表不足的工科学生的体验。这些数据将为未来的工作提供信息，这些工作将侧重于制定有经验的政策，以帮助机构，因为我们继续驾驭当前的大流行，并减少未来此类过渡造成的干扰。此外，进行这项研究的一个结果是向机构通报这一特定人群面临的挑战，以强调在虚拟学习环境和活动中必须注意多样性和包容性的努力。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。

The 2020 global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has forced higher education institutions in the United States to immediately stop face-to-face teaching and transition to virtual instruction. While this transition has not been easy for any instructor, the shift to online learning has been especially difficult for students in STEM courses, particularly engineering, which has a strong practical/laboratory component. This project investigates how the pandemic is impacting students historically underrepresented in engineering. There is an urgency to collect this data in the midst of the crisis. Through the use of an online data collection platform, SenseMaker, short stories will be collected from underrepresented engineering students to describe how they are experiencing the COVID-19 crisis during the transition to online learning. These stories will be used to help provide institutions with tools necessary to ensure minority students are not left out of decisions made with the majority in mind. This RAPID project will adopt the SenseMaker approach to investigate how underrepresented college students cope in times of crisis. This study builds on a previous investigation of community experiences in a crisis context; namely the SenseMaker approach was used to investigate how stakeholder groups in Puerto Rico adapted in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria (NSF #1832678).The overarching research question that guides this project is: How has the abrupt transition to online instruction due to COVID-19 affected students historically underrepresented in engineering? More specifically, the investigators are interested in understanding how the transition has impacted underrepresented students based on the following factors: 1) year in school (underclassmen vs. upperclassmen); 2) Predominately White Institution attendance vs Minority Serving Institution attendance; 3) socioeconomic status; and, 4) geographical location. This RAPID project will collect data until December 2020. The approach is to continuously collect micro-narratives of participants’ experiences (qualitative data) and responses to a survey questions that prompt participants to make sense of their experiences (quantitative data). These data will be analyzed for patterns to inform actions to improve the experiences of underrepresented engineering students. These data will inform future work that will focus on the development of empirically informed policies to aid institutions as we continue to navigate this current pandemic and reduce the disruption of such transitions in the future. Additionally, an outcome of conducting this research is to inform institutions of challenges faced by this particular population to highlight that diversity and inclusion efforts must be attended to in virtual learning environments and activities.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.