NSF Award
2314930
This project aims to serve the national interest by establishing best practices for blended online and face-to-face learning in undergraduate STEM courses. Blended course instruction refers to the mix of online and face-to-face instructional modalities and is a broad term that encapsulates multiple course designs. With the recent proliferation of this type of instructional approach, it is imperative that the STEM education community seek a deeper understanding of practices that improve student learning gains in these environments. This project aims to isolate the design features of blended courses that affect learning outcomes and determine how those relationships impact students from four historically marginalized groups. The course design variables of interest are geographical flexibility, amount of instructor versus technology-mediated instruction, and temporal flexibility. Additionally, instructors will participate in professional development to facilitate their technological competence in blended online courses. Outcomes of this project have the potential to create actionable recommendations for improving blended STEM education, which ultimately could play a significant role in increasing participation across STEM disciplines. <br/><br/>This project has two primary goals. First, to determine the relationships between blended course design components and student learning outcomes. Second, to explore the extent to which these practices contribute to equity through an analysis of how impacts differ across student demographics. A quasi-experimental research design will be utilized with data from students and instructors based on the Community of Inquiry framework and a modified Mixed Instructional Experience taxonomy. The project’s novel approach to isolating blended course design features will improve understanding of which components of blended courses have the largest impact on student learning outcomes. Student survey responses will be analyzed by regression and multilevel models, and student and instructor interviews will be analyzed via thematic content analysis. Project results will be disseminated through academic conferences, such as the American Education Research Association annual meeting, academic journals, and through the Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative’s website. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
