Return to In-person Learning and Undergraduate Student Sense of Belonging during the Fall 2021 Semester

Laura Ann Gelles; Amy Walker

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Gulf Southwest Annual Conference
Location: Prairie View, Texas
Publication Date: March 16, 2022
Start Date: March 16, 2022
End Date: March 18, 2022
Page Count: 12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--39204
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/39204
Download Count: 412

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Paper Authors

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Laura Ann Gelles University of Texas at Dallas orcid.org/0000-0001-5591-9629

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Laura Gelles is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Texas at Dallas within the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science where she is studying retention of undergraduate engineering students. She has extensive experience using qualitative and mixed-methods research in Engineering Education. Before joining UTD in September 2020, Laura worked at the University of San Diego on their RED grant to study institutional change efforts and redefine the engineering canon as sociotechnical. She has a background in environmental engineering and received her Ph.D. in Engineering Education at Utah State University with a research focus on the ethical and career aspects of mentoring of science and engineering graduate students and hidden curriculum in engineering.

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Amy Walker University of Texas at Dallas orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-3644

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Amy V. Walker is the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in the Erik Jonsson School of Computer Science and Engineering, and a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. Amy received her BA(Hons) in Natural Sciences (Experimental and Theoretical Physics) in 1995 and her PhD in Chemistry in 1998 from the University of Cambridge. She then moved to the USA to become a postdoctoral scholar in the Chemistry department of the University of Pittsburgh. In 2000 she moved as a postdoctoral scholar to Pennsylvania State University. Subsequently in 2002 she joined the Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis as an assistant professor and inaugural member of the Center for Materials Innovation. In 2009 she joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2015.

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Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that began in Spring 2020 has continued to vex the return to ‘normal’ in-person instruction as highly contagious variants proliferate. Prior to the start of the Fall 2021 semester, Texas experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that prompted colleges and universities to consider policies and instruction modalities to ensure the safety and health of the university and surrounding community. As a result of this ongoing disruption, there are multiple cohorts of students who have experienced only online or hybrid teaching modalities (e.g., first and second year students) and later cohorts who had an initial in-person experience, pivoted to online/hybrid, and then returned to in-person (e.g., third year and beyond students). This type of disruption has made it more difficult for students to create and maintain crucial relationships with peers.

Students require a level of social connection with peers, faculty, and staff within a university setting to persist and complete their education. This sense of belonging (i.e., the perceived sense of support on college campuses and how connected students feel to each other) results in higher levels of motivation, engagement, and academic performance. As part of an ongoing retention study using available institutional data and senior exit surveys, our analysis revealed that, prior to the pandemic, students reported feeling a lack of community and social experiences at their university and within their engineering and computer science majors. The pandemic, characterized by isolation and remote learning, has likely exacerbated these perceptions and had a negative influence students’ sense of belonging.

In order to explore this further, we designed a sequential exploratory mixed-methods study which utilizes a survey collecting qualitative and quantitative responses which informs the second stage of the research (i.e., in-person interviews). This work-in-progress paper will explore preliminary survey results of a quantitative Sense of Belonging scale and qualitative student responses specific to how their experience as an engineering or computer science student has changed or stayed the same as a result of the pandemic. Initial results indicate that sophomores (i.e., completed 30-53 credits) report the lowest sense of belonging. In particular, sophomores reported they were not comfortable reaching out to professors within and outside of their majors. Qualitative responses indicate that students struggled with both the transition to and from remote learning. While students report various levels of adaptation to online/hybrid/in-person pedagogies, the majority of students report struggling to build relationships with their professors and peers. As students affected by the pandemic continue throughout their programs, we need to be cognizant of what social supports they may or may not have and intentionally create opportunities in and outside of classrooms for upper-level students to build and maintain their sense of community withing engineering.

Citation
Format

Gelles, L. A., & Walker, A. (2022, March), Return to In-person Learning and Undergraduate Student Sense of Belonging during the Fall 2021 Semester Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Gulf Southwest Annual Conference, Prairie View, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--39204

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that began in Spring 2020 has continued to vex the return to ‘normal’ in-person instruction as highly contagious variants proliferate. Prior to the start of the Fall 2021 semester, Texas experienced a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that prompted colleges and universities to consider policies and instruction modalities to ensure the safety and health of the university and surrounding community. As a result of this ongoing disruption, there are multiple cohorts of students who have experienced only online or hybrid teaching modalities (e.g., first and second year students) and later cohorts who had an initial in-person experience, pivoted to online/hybrid, and then returned to in-person (e.g., third year and beyond students). This type of disruption has made it more difficult for students to create and maintain crucial relationships with peers. 

Students require a level of social connection with peers, faculty, and staff within a university setting to persist and complete their education. This sense of belonging (i.e., the perceived sense of support on college campuses and how connected students feel to each other) results in higher levels of motivation, engagement, and academic performance. As part of an ongoing retention study using available institutional data and senior exit surveys, our analysis revealed that, prior to the pandemic, students reported feeling a lack of community and social experiences at their university and within their engineering and computer science majors. The pandemic, characterized by isolation and remote learning, has likely exacerbated these perceptions and had a negative influence students’ sense of belonging.

In order to explore this further, we designed a sequential exploratory mixed-methods study which utilizes a survey collecting qualitative and quantitative responses which informs the second stage of the research (i.e., in-person interviews). This work-in-progress paper will explore preliminary survey results of a quantitative Sense of Belonging scale and qualitative student responses specific to how their experience as an engineering or computer science student has changed or stayed the same as a result of the pandemic. Initial results indicate that sophomores (i.e., completed 30-53 credits) report the lowest sense of belonging. In particular, sophomores reported they were not comfortable reaching out to professors within and outside of their majors. Qualitative responses indicate that students struggled with both the transition to and from remote learning. While students report various levels of adaptation to online/hybrid/in-person pedagogies, the majority of students report struggling to build relationships with their professors and peers. As students affected by the pandemic continue throughout their programs, we need to be cognizant of what social supports they may or may not have and intentionally create opportunities in and outside of classrooms for upper-level students to build and maintain their sense of community withing engineering.
AU  - Laura Ann Gelles
AU  - Amy Walker
CY  - Prairie View, Texas
DA  - 2022/03/16
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Return to In-person Learning and Undergraduate Student Sense of Belonging during the Fall 2021 Semester
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/39204
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--39204
ER  -