Conference Session

Labs and Experiential Learning

Collection

2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference

Authors

Gurcan Comert; Zulfikar Berk, University of South Carolina; Robert Petrulis; Balaji Iyangar; Esmail M Abuhdima, Benedict college; Negash Begashaw, Benedict College

Tagged Topics

Diversity, Labs and experiential learning

designed problems and activities. However, in the summer of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program had to be transitioned into a virtual research experience. In this study, we reflecton our experiences as supervising faculty, and the results of pre- and post-experience surveys completedby four groups of undergraduate researchers. In contrast to previous years’ REUs, team interactions werenot possible in the virtual environment, and activities were mainly training programs. Students were ableto work with previously collected real data and write code. The participants’ final presentations weretechnically better than those in the previous two years. Regarding the development of so-called soft skills,student engagement, team working skills