Resumen de Student Views of the Online Learning Process during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison of Upper-Level and Entry-Level Undergraduate Perspectives
Rebecca Kalman, Monica Macias Esparza, Christina Weston
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, chemistry faculty across the globe quickly converted courses to an online format. Resources rapidly became available that reflected the views of faculty and administration concerning online learning, but it is only after having been through the experience that student perspectives can now be analyzed. Student perspectives are discussed here in terms of benefits and drawbacks of online learning in navigating time and distractions, student motivation for self-regulated learning, and resource availability. Adaptability, organizational skills, and self-awareness are some of the personal characteristics that make a student a successful online learner. Many students in upper-level chemistry courses have been able to more fully cultivate these skills and also have a more fully developed passion for the subjects they are learning, and therefore, they may be more successful with taking classes online, even with increasing difficulty of the subject matter. With a lack of face-to-face meetings, faculty in both upper- and lower-level courses should strive to become more aware of their students’ needs and passions and determine ways to help their students become motivated to succeed.
