Effects of remote teaching in a crisis on equity gaps and the constructivist learning environment in introductory biology

Abstract

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, higher education institutions had to pivot rapidly to online remote learning. Many educators were concerned that the disparate impact of this crisis would exacerbate inequities in learning outcomes and student learning experiences, especially for students from minoritized backgrounds. We examined course grades and student perceptions of their learning experiences in Fall (face-to-face) and Spring (fully remote) quarters in an introductory biology course series at a public research university. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that student course grades increased overall during remote learning, and equity gaps in course grades were mitigated for minoritized students. Grade distributions were also significantly different between pre-crisis quarters and the crisis quarter, with higher course grade averages in Spring 2020 for nearly all instructors that taught the same course over multiple Spring quarters. We hypothesize that instructors may have changed their grading practices to compensate for challenges in remote learning in crisis. However, Spring students reported significant decreases in the amount of peer negotiation and social support, critical components of active learning. These findings suggest that remote teaching in crisis may have negatively affected student learning environments in ways that may not have been captured by grading practices.