Abstract:

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are a key component of many students’ collegiate journey, especially those students who attend traditional, in-person programs. However, online students often lack access to UREs as universities and colleges struggle to integrate these experiences into a digital space. Further, many researchers and administrators perceive online education to have intrinsic barriers for students to engage in hands-on research opportunities.

An academic institution in the U.S. presented in this study made grant money available to faculty to launch dedicated online research experiences for students in a variety of subfields across the Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities. Students were recruited by faculty, and those students took an online survey both before and after the research experience. Students were asked a series of validated survey questions measuring their perceived scientific self-efficacy, scientific identity, and feelings of belongingness in a scientific community. A total of 365 unique students took part in UREs that took place almost entirely online through this program across three semesters. We performed a series of linear regression models in this empirical study to determine whether online UREs provide improved feelings of scientific self-efficacy, a sense of scientific identity, and membership in a scientific community.

Our main findings suggest that participants in online UREs showed improved feelings of scientific self-efficacy, identity, and community. However, these improvements were mitigated by a variety of factors. While students experience a strong improvement in scientific self-efficacy and scientific identity regardless of other factors, students in course based UREs do not see any improved feelings of belongingness in a scientific community. In addition, only students in the natural sciences felt higher levels of belonging in a scientific community. All results were further tested to show their impact across various demographic groups, including race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and first-generation status. We further explore limitations of this study and the potential for future research avenues to expand this study, such as the role of online UREs on educational outcomes and retention in STEM fields.

Keywords:

Undergraduate students, research experiences, online learning, self-efficacy, belonging.