Abstract:

Improving online education in STEM disciplines has been a long-time challenge because of weak understanding of the special needs of STEM curricula and mismatched training strategies often used by centralized training staff unaware of discipline differences. The problem only swelled during the COVID-19 pandemic in which student and faculty concerns continue unabated during a rapid and frequently disjointed transition. While much is known about online education in general and ad hoc online successes in STEM, knowledge gap exists in understanding the underlying challenges of increasing student learning achievement, engagement and retention in STEM settings. This research investigates and compares best practices in four STEM disciplines, namely, biology, computer science and engineering, psychology, and information decision sciences, in particularly. Using a survey of students in a U.S. university, the research focuses on problematic online teaching areas, such as lecture attributes, student rehearsal strategies, lab issues and testing practices, which have been particularly problematic in the STEM context, to provide advice on overcoming challenges and effectively leverage online education strengths.

Keywords:

Online learning, STEM education, discipline differences, online education, higher education.