ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many challenges undergraduate students face including their ability to manage stress. Poor stress management can contribute to poor academic performance and health outcomes;better wellness habits and stress reduction go hand-in-hand, as improved wellness habits reduce overall stress and expand positive stress management strategies. This article describes the design of a short wellness intervention for STEM classes and its evaluation after implementation in five chemistry and biology courses that span the four years of a biochemistry degree. This intervention, composed of a short, in-class presentation and an associated supplemental resource handout, presents students with information on five wellness areas: sleep, nutrition, water intake, exercise, and meditation and mindfulness. Students were surveyed at three points (once preintervention and twice postintervention) in one semester and asked to report their perceived stress, current wellness habits, and overall perception of the intervention. Notably, the majority of students (89%) thought the intervention should be included in other courses. The importance of completing the intervention in class was underscored by the small number of students (19%) who reported accessing the additional resources provided outside of class. Student wellness habits did not dramatically shift postintervention, but this study garnered insights into the barriers students face when attempting to change their wellness behavior. Overwhelmingly students reported that academic workload was the dominant factor hindering positive wellness change. The intervention materials, including a suggested script, are shared, and data-supported recommendations for implementation in other courses and institutions are provided.
ABSTRACT
Students and instructors bring varying levels of experience and expectations to online learning. This became even more apparent in March 2020 when the pandemic disrupted face-to-face instruction and required rapid conversion to remote teaching. In this study, mixed methods were used to understand how students perceived these instructional changes and to examine the effects of remote learning on their approach to subsequent coursework and faculty interactions. First, open-ended survey data collected from students enrolled in a summer 2020 nonmajors asynchronous laboratory course were analyzed to learn more about students' spring 2020 remote learning experiences. The questions directly addressed remote learning experiences and emphasized study strategies learned, faculty communication modes, and students' perceived ability at taking online courses. Second, four consecutive years of survey data-including both Likert-type scale surveys and open-ended questions-were analyzed to identify core themes and to measure variations between cohorts. These data present a unique opportunity in that they allow for critical analyses and document differences in online learning experiences for student cohorts pre- (2017-2019) and post- (2020) the COVID-19 disruption. The findings from the survey data can be used to inform how faculty may better focus their teaching efforts while promoting student learning and engagement during a time of continued teaching disruption and uncertainty. The overall results of this study are applicable to all levels of chemistry courses. In addition, the established nonmajors online laboratory course model presented in this study provides a strong example for others who are developing new online or hybrid chemistry courses.