Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Student Engagement in a General Chemistry Course

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges and universities transitioned their face-to-face courses to emergency remote online courses during the spring of 2020. This study, conducted at a large, urban, diverse public university in the United States, answers the questions of how the sudden switch to emergency remote online instruction and the encompassing events of the pandemic changed student learning and engagement in a college-level introductory chemistry course. The research addresses the demographic and lifestyle factors that determine the magnitude of these changes. The mixed-methods approach uses a 19-item Pandemic Online Student Engagement (POSE) scale to quantitatively evaluate changes in student engagement and combines it with a qualitative analysis of student essay responses. The results reveal a decrease in student engagement, with underrepresented people of color (URPOC) students particularly affected and reporting significantly greater decreases in three of the four engagement components: skills engagement, participation engagement, and performance engagement. The decreases in motivation and self-regulation occurred in part because the historic pandemic event made it more difficult to focus on studies, and because students’ home environments were not conducive to self-regulated learning. This study provides unique insights for chemistry instructors and college administrators into how the sudden changes in instructional dynamics affected students while the pandemic unfolded. Studies like this are necessary to prevent widening achievement gaps if the current pandemic lingers or if future threats dictate another widespread adoption of emergency remote online learning in general chemistry.