The DOI matches its Crossref record; 57 of the 57 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Student engagement declines in stem undergraduates during COVID-19-driven remote learning
Open accessAbstract
We examined how the shift in learning environment from in-person to online classes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impacted three constructs of student engagement: behavioral engagement, including students' frequency of participating in class discussions, meeting with instructors, and studying with peers outside of class; cognitive engagement, including students' sense of belonging and self-efficacy; and emotional engagement, including students' attitudes toward science, their perceived value of the course, and their stress. Seventy-three undergraduate STEM students from across the country completed five-point Likert-style surveys in these areas of student engagement, both prior to their science course transitioning online and at the end of the spring 2020 semester. We found that while overall behavioral engagement did not change, students participated less frequently in class discussions but met with professors more often outside of class. We saw no significant change in cognitive engagement, indicating that while students' sense of belonging and self-efficacy ideally increases over the course of the semester, in this case, it did not. Most alarmingly, we found a significant decrease in emotional engagement, with students reporting a drastic decline in positive attitudes toward science. Students' reported stress levels remained unchanged, and students reported a slight increase in their perceived value of the science course they were taking. These data shed light on how the transition to online learning had an overall negative impact on undergraduate student engagement in science courses.
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“These alternative media of communication were often accompanied by decreasing levels of engagement and satisfaction of learners (Wester et al., 2021; Hollister et al., 2022).”
From Proactive and reactive engagement of artificial intelligence methods for education: a review (2023) · cites this paper as Wester et al., 2021
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Metadata
- Authors
- Wester, E. R., Walsh, L. L., Arango-Caro, S., & Callis-Duehl, K. L.
- Affiliations
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (US)
- Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri, USA 63132
- Corresponding author
- Callis-Duehl, Kristine L.
- Venue
- Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Published
- 2021-04-30
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 1
- ISSN
- 1935-7877 (ISSN-L)
- 1935-7885
- PMC
- PMC8046661
- OpenAlex
- W3154814883
- Cited by
- 182
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 44 · 2021: 12
- FWCI
- 60.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education during COVID-19 pandemic
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
- Keywords
- student engagement, STEM undergraduates, COVID-19 pandemic, distance education, online learning, behavioral engagement, cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, sense of belonging, self-efficacy, attitudes toward science, student stress, instructor-student interaction
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