Perspectives on How 1.5 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic Have Impacted Biophysicists at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the biophysics community at all levels, including effects on every aspect of teaching and research at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). The US National Science Foundation defines PUIs as accredited colleges and universities that award fewer than a particular threshold number of PhD degrees per year (1); a more global definition might include institutions that have little to no doctoral student presence and a central mission of teaching and training undergraduates. Biophysics faculty at PUIs are often hosted in biology, chemistry, or physics departments and teach introductory and upper-level courses, often without graduate teaching assistants. We lead research labs with varying levels of funding and access to instrumentation, focused on training undergraduates through their own directly mentored scientific projects. Because faculty at PUIs have different needs than at research-intensive institutions, the Biophysical Society has recently launched a PUI Network for current and aspiring PUI faculty to share their experiences (2). Much of the PUI Network's initial work has been COVID-19 related, as the transition to pandemic life and work during this time of restrictions and uncertainties required extensive faculty engagement and self-initiative in the classroom and our research labs. Here, we share highlights from narratives of our individual experiences and summarize lessons learned that may be helpful for other PUI faculty and the broader biophysics community.There is a growing body of literature and resources on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and what approaches to teaching might be useful in the current and future crises (3–7). While the effect of the pandemic in higher education has been described at the level of research-intensive institutions and single departments (8, 9), its impact on the biophysics educator community at PUIs was thus far only scarcely covered. Therefore, to add value to the current body of literature, we have collected personal narratives from biophysicists across a range of PUIs with different institutional characteristics and learner populations. The reflections presented here enrich and complement the more general biophysics education literature by providing individual observations about our personal experiences performing undergraduate-level teaching and research during the pandemic. Each of us has creatively adapted our practices in the (virtual) classroom and lab to continue providing undergraduate teaching and research mentorship both during the transition to pandemic life and throughout the period of COVID-19 restrictions. Our narratives consider the impact of childcare responsibilities, the various demands of teaching introductory and upper-division courses (lecture-based vs. lab-based courses vs. seminar courses), teaching support (limited or no teaching assistants), consistency with pre-pandemic pedagogical approaches, and faculty and student access to digital technology resources.We realize that what might work for one instructor is not always obviously applicable to another due to the unique nature of each institution, its student population, and the differing expectations for undergraduate teaching, research, and mentoring that exists even among PUIs. For this reason, we summarize narratives from faculty across a diverse array of undergraduate-serving institutions and departments. In addition, we have established a repository of personal narratives of biophysics educators at PUIs (including the full narratives summarized here) on the PUI Forum website hosted through the Biophysical Society (10); additional contributions are welcome. The goals of the repository and this report are (a) to share the cross-disciplinary and manifold nature of how the pandemic impacted teaching and research activities of educators in the cross-disciplinary educational landscape at PUIs and (b) to disseminate lessons learned prompted by the pandemic to enhance the educational experience of undergraduates.Faculty teaching load at a PUI is typically 2 to 4 courses per academic term with class sizes of 10 to 200. During the sudden switch to emergency remote learning by the beginning of the pandemic-related lockdown in spring 2020, institutions adopted online synchronous and asynchronous classroom and lab teaching modalities. The key concerns that guided the choice of educational strategies and supporting technologies during this transition phase aimed at helping students achieve the core learning goals. Some personal examples are illustrated below.A common strategy for adaptation in this rapid transition phase was to increase the use of technologies that were already in place to facilitate online work:The pandemic situation also required extra adjustments from faculty who were experienced in online course content delivery:Overall, teaching and learning experiences during the following pandemic semesters (fall term 2020 and following) were more positive than during the early lockdown phase, as students and instructors had adapted to the logistics and mechanisms of previously unfamiliar teaching modalities. Those included online-only, hybrid (simultaneous instruction for online and in-person students), and fully in-person approaches. Which delivery modes were chosen frequently depended on the local government, institutional policies, and instructor circumstances (such as health conditions). Two authors commented on their hybrid and in-person classes:Some institutions were not able to offer laboratory classes or other practical learning experiences that are usually taught in person, and instructors were thus forced to employ unusual educational strategies. One author writes about the pivot to virtual labs and take-home lab kits as safe alternatives to traditional synchronous face-to-face labs:Another author writes about integrating socially distanced experiments with online pre-lab materials for a laboratory practice course:Thus, we find that instructors were able to use the time between spring 2020 and fall 2020 to effectively adapt their courses to a variety of different circumstances.A recurrent theme that emerged in terms of course design and disaster preparedness was to consult instructional designers where available or connect with peers who have already organized their courses to be better prepared for the next crisis. In retrospect, we identify the following learning messages for future teaching under emergency conditions, which should be broadly applicable at institutions of higher learning:We recognize the extra demands on course design these learning messages require. Yet we foresee gains in terms of developing more flexible courses with a larger toolbox of teaching resources (36), which promises additional benefits in terms of student growth and learning. Moreover, we envision such adaptations rendering our teaching more sustainable and aligned with the principles of inclusive teaching (37) when unexpected disruptions arise (38).Expectations on scholarship for tenure and promotion are different at each PUI. Some PUIs require authorship of peer-reviewed articles, and many require faculty to mentor undergraduate projects. Some institutions expect internal grant applications, while others expect external funding. As a result of the closing of campus in March 2020, the authors acknowledge that productivity in the research lab slowed or stopped in spring 2020. Yet some authors report that they were able to make progress in science writing:Other authors, however, caution that the notion of productivity with respect to remote research and science writing may imply more complex considerations:Although some faculty had the means to engage in scholarship even during a lab closure, others faced challenges derived from their homebound demands and the large investment in the adaptation of all their teaching load to a remote format.By summer 2020, many research institutions were opening their laboratories back up, but the speed of transition back to in-person research labs at PUIs was unique to each institution:Because summer is when the bulk of research activities occur at PUIs, these lab closures required faculty to engage students in research through different modalities:These different modalities depended on the type of research and required individual faculty mentors to adapt using the resources available. Authors also observed that although faculty found ways to engage students in research and social connections, students with prior lab training were able to work in the remote environment much better than new students, especially in the case of benchtop research groups:For some practitioners, online lab work became impossible. One contributor to this manuscript is a master's student whose planned research was severely disrupted by the pandemic:One of the few positive developments during the pandemic was the trend to host online conferences, which were more accessible to people at PUIs who teach or take classes during the academic semester (48). Students and faculty presented their research at virtual events, and undergraduates gained experience in discussing posters and delivering remote oral presentations:One author also stated that multitasking was easier during online meetings:These online events have also been helpful to postdocs who are interested in faculty positions at PUIs:Online events provided undergraduate students with opportunities to develop their communication skills in a digital environment, and the authors of the report benefited from newly formed online communities spurred during the pandemic.On reflection, we find the following learning messages valuable when planning, designing, conducting, and evaluating undergraduate research under pandemic conditions:From the ongoing pandemic, we have learned to celebrate the differences and creativity that each of us have used to respond under these extraordinary circumstances. We recognize that there is no “one size fits all” recipe to tackling the situations that arise. The pandemic prompted innovations that required agility on the part of each practitioner to adapt courses and research programs quickly, consistent with the institutional mission and values at each PUI, as well as homebound responsibilities.Looking ahead, we expect this report to inform our practice as we learn to live with the coronavirus. What is novel for some may be common practice for others. Indeed, several learning and research tools that were sparsely used prior to the pandemic have already become common. In sharing our perspectives, we hope to move the biophysics education community forward in a manner that embraces the differences in educational practices and fosters appreciation for the unique challenges that each educational work environment faces.We are in deep gratitude to Semire Uzun Göçmen for sharing insights with the authors. We are thankful to Elizabeth Vuong for support on logistics. We are grateful to colleagues, students, and administrators for showing their dedication, resilience, patience, understanding, and enthusiasm throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. All authors participated in manuscript preparation. All authors approve the final version of the manuscript. The authors declare no competing financial interests.