Gin Logan E, Pais Danielle C, Parrish Kristen D, Brownell Sara E, Cooper Katelyn M
Research for Inclusive STEM Education Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2022 Apr 11;23(1). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00280-21. eCollection 2022 Apr.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in nearly all universities transitioning their in-person courses to online instruction. Recent work from our research team conducted in Spring 2020 established that the immediate transition to online learning presented novel challenges for students with disabilities: students were unable to access previously established accommodations and there was a lack of information from Disability Resource Centers (DRCs) about adapting accommodations to online environments. In this study, we aimed to determine the extent to which these issues still were present 1 year later. In Spring 2021, we conducted a survey of 114 students with disabilities who were registered with the DRC and taking online science courses at a public research-intensive institution. We used our previous interviews with students to develop closed- and open-ended questions to assess the extent to which students with disabilities were being properly accommodated in their courses, document any new accommodations they were using, and elicit any recommendations they had for improving their experiences in online science courses. We used logistic regression to analyze the closed-ended data and inductive coding to analyze the open-ended data. We found that more than half of students with disabilities reported not being properly accommodated, and this was more likely to be reported by students who experienced new challenges related to online learning. When students were asked what accommodations they would have wanted, students often described accommodations that were being offered to some students but were not universally implemented. This study summarizes recommendations for making online science learning environments more inclusive for students with disabilities.
新冠疫情导致几乎所有大学都将面授课程转换为在线教学。我们研究团队在2020年春季开展的近期工作表明，向在线学习的即时转变给残疾学生带来了新的挑战：学生无法获得先前确定的便利措施，而且残疾资源中心（DRC）缺乏关于如何将便利措施调整到在线环境的信息。在本研究中，我们旨在确定这些问题在一年后仍然存在的程度。2021年春季，我们对114名在DRC注册并在一所公立研究型机构修读在线科学课程的残疾学生进行了调查。我们利用之前对学生的访谈来设计封闭式和开放式问题，以评估残疾学生在课程中得到适当便利措施的程度，记录他们正在使用的任何新的便利措施，并征求他们对改善在线科学课程体验的任何建议。我们使用逻辑回归分析封闭式数据，使用归纳编码分析开放式数据。我们发现，超过一半的残疾学生报告称未得到适当的便利措施，而经历了与在线学习相关新挑战的学生更有可能报告这一情况。当被问及他们希望得到哪些便利措施时，学生们通常描述的是一些学生正在获得但未普遍实施的便利措施。本研究总结了使在线科学学习环境对残疾学生更具包容性的建议。
