ASSESSING STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND PARTICIPATION POST-COVID: HOW IS ONLINE CONTENT AFFECTING THE RETURN TO “NORMAL”?

From Spring of 2020 to 2022, most undergraduate students’ college experiences proceeded under the restrictions imposed due to COVID-19, with an eventual expectation for in-depth online learning, and a minimal need for in-person participation or hands-on activities. Coming into the Fall 2023 semester, however, with nearly all COVID-based restrictions having been lifted nationwide, many new and returning students struggled with the return to the physical classroom, with colleges and universities giving sometimes-unclear guidance on whether remote learning was to be promoted or discouraged – a particularly severe problem in physical sciences courses often serving as general education electives for students pursuing majors outside of the sciences, or serving multiple Disciplines as accepted mid-level electives.

At the University of Minnesota, Morris, a small, public, liberal arts campus, the author developed in-depth, user-friendly, web-based frameworks for course instruction and student access to course materials during the COVID years in numerous introductory, non-major accessible courses (Physical Geology, Geology of the National Parks, Earth & the Silver Screen), and multiple mid-level courses primarily enrolled by Geology, Environmental Science, and Environmental Studies majors (Mineralogy, Petrology, GIS, and Earth Resources). With the initial institution of fully online or hybrid courses, later followed by the return to regular classroom lecturing and lab instruction, many students found these websites, and the relatively-consistent framework and link navigation presented within them, to be highly useful. However, actual engagement and in-person attendance has remained depressed, with numerous students still favoring silent online attendance, or even asynchronous viewing of content, and the relatively-minimal expectations for participation inherent to that format. This presentation seeks to address the question of whether websites such as these are truly a strength or a hindrance towards redefining “normal instruction,” and how Geology and other science disciplines may best-serve the next cohort of students and their expectations.