Presenting Author Rutgers University- New Brunswick Piscataway, New Jersey
In the fall 2021 semester, my university offered students the option of taking our 3-credit Systems Physiology course, designed for juniors and seniors, remotely or in person. In charge of both versions of the course, I taught 330 remote and 63 in-person students. Retention of students was 94% in the in-person class (4/67 students withdrew during the semester) and 97% in the remote class (9/339 withdrew). My goal was for the students to learn the same content at the same time, so I could invite all students to office hour sessions and have exams on the same day. Online students listened to asynchronous lectures and met with me twice a week for 1 hour to go over those lectures. In person students did not have any required online listening but instead received course content via synchronous lectures. Three, 40-question exams made up 45% of the grade. For all exams, I gave the in-person students 70 minutes and the remote students 60 minutes, but remote students were allowed to use their book and notes, while in-person students were not. The approach of how to assess the remote versus the in-person students for each of the 3 exams was tricky, and I tried different strategies for each exam. For example, without telling the students, I gave all students the same exam for exam 2 (Cardiovascular amp; Respiratory Systems), and the in-person group averaged 68.2% and the remote group averaged 66.3%. With all assignments factored in, the overall class average for the in-person students was 80.1% and for the remote students, 78.1%. There was a much larger range of grades in the remote course (17.8-96.8%) compared to the in-person course (52.0-92.8%). 16 students (5%) failed the remote course compared to 1 student (1.5%) in the in-person course. Ultimately, there are ways to teach Systems Physiology effectively and successfully both remotely and in-person. However, in my fall 2021 case study, I witnessed slightly better outcomes for the students who took the course in person.
