The global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our lives in many ways.
Lake Region State College Chemistry Professor, Dr. Betsy Bannier, addressed the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement in online, undergraduate chemistry courses in the United States. She discussed these impacts on a virtual meeting at the ICETC & ICDLE 2020 Conference earlier this fall.
“Lake Region State College was among the few pioneer institutions to offer these science courses, and as educators in a very new environment we learned a great deal about what works-and what doesn’t-along the way. Two decades later, the same commitment to offering these courses with best practices is stronger than ever. My findings were encouraging, revealing almost no statistically significant impact.”
The global COVID-19 pandemic brought turmoil in many institutions of higher learning. Dr. Betsy Bannier, in her presentation, discussed the survey taken to examine the impact of COVID-19 pandemic to students’ decisions to enroll in a fully online chemistry course. In the study, unpaired t-tests were used to compare Spring 2019 (n=101) to Summer 2020 (n=69) and Summer 2020 (n=52) to Summer 2019 (n=62) in four different chemistry courses. The exam scores for those in a nursing degree program were observed in chemistry courses to have significant differences.
Professor Dr. Betsy Bannier has over twenty years of experience teaching in higher education, primarily in online laboratory chemistry. She earned her B.A. in mathematics and chemistry at Alverno College in 1997, earned her M.S. in analytical chemistry with a cognate in chemical education at University of North Dakota in 2000, and her Ph.D in adult & continuing education with an emphasis in online chemistry education at the University of Wisconsin in 2009. Dr. Bennier is a tenured Professor of Chemistry at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake, North Dakota.