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Evaluation of the COVID-19 Shock on STEM Laboratory Courses

Universities across the U.S. have moved to various virtual teaching models in response to the health threats caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. When converting to an online-only mode, STEM and related fields face additional challenges over the lab portion of courses because laboratory courses and active-learning projects frequently require specialized equipment and manual dexterity interactions. In this paper, we report the results of a study on students’ perceptions about online learning during the initial phase of the pandemic at a public university in California, U.S. We focus on the overall reaction to the rapid conversion to online, the negative impressions created, “structural” concerns that would be difficult to mitigate, concerns readily amenable to mitigation, and side effects such as impact on equity. Twenty-five recommendations for those factors deemed improvable are provided.