Exploring the critical points of teaching STEM subjects in the time of COVID 19: the experience of the course "Microscopy Techniques for Forensic Biology"

Introduction

The traditional academic and research community asked learners to handle paper-based documents, taking the form of exercise books, notebooks, lecture notes, etc., and a way of transmitting knowledge mainly based on the frontal lessons. The use of modern technologies and e-learning-based culture partially modified the formulas of education (Singh & Thurman, 2019); the use of digital resources is now very diffuse, also representing a useful communication system for the needs of science. According to the European Commission’s directives, relating to the Lifelong Learning Program, which promotes the transformation of education through technology, (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52004PC0474), an e-learning service to support didactics (https://24cfu.unical.it/elearning/) has been created at the University of Calabria, Italy. The overall objective envisaged was the enrichment of traditional lessons through the use of network technologies and related paradigms. This e-learning service relies on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that support distance education, acknowledging the existence of a plurality of academic training offers (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2016). Despite these growing innovations, until now, the most common teaching method in university education remains the face-to-face lessons that immediately enable the teacher and the students to communicate easily and confidently.

For preventing the expansion of COVID-19, in Italy, restrictive measures were adopted almost immediately, leading to the closure of higher education institutions and the suspension of face-to-face activities on March 5, 2020. Given the medium to the long-term perspective of suspension, teachers were all asked to deliver their lectures via the Internet to ensure education and give students the continuation of their intellectual experience. To guarantee a standard implementation of courses and facilitate both teachers and students, the University of Calabria found an adequate settlement through the choice of the Microsoft Teams platform (©Microsoft Teams Version 1.3.00.3564 for Windows and 2.0.15 for iOS, Microsoft Corporation). In this scenario, the students experienced a sudden and unwanted time and spatial separation, and the lesson delivery shift was not readily accepted. While the focus is mainly placed on the impacts on students, teachers also faced some challenges, including the choice of instructional strategies, learning resources, and assessment methods. Besides, since from a constructivist perspective enhancing interaction with peers is an issue that should be addressed, it is crucial to pay adequate attention to the interactivity during online learning (Huang et al., 2019).

Furthermore, the conversion from an offline to online instruction when courses include the development of specific competencies through practice, as is the case in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses, required special attention. Although STEM education has drawn increased consideration in the last few years, little attention has been paid on how it should be realized in practice during online learning. Here, we report the online teaching experience for a course in the STEM area, offered as a part of the Master's degree program in biology. The course includes both lessons and practical laboratory sessions delivered for 21 students with a high level of confidence in using digital tools and web-based applications. This paper aims to participate in the dialogue about online education during the pandemic contributing to the definition of the future strategy aimed to overcome the limits of non-traditional learning.

Methods

Results

Learning material and duration of the lessons - The learning material (i.e., slides) used previously during the frontal lessons required a significant rearrangement for online delivery. Although the program of the course has remained unchanged compared to previous academic years, online learning has needed the introduction of additional slides. It was necessary to include new slides for 11 of the 13 topics as provided for by the program, and the number of slides as a whole increased by 17.62% (Table 1). Regarding the laboratory activity, online teaching indeed represented a challenge that has been, in part, overcome through two types of approaches. Whenever possible, tutorials were proposed for supporting the realization of experiences at home by using materials readily available. When laboratory experience required the use of specific instrumentation and supplies, videos of the experience/instrumentation have been prepared in the laboratory and then edited by inserting comments and explanations. A total of 12 videos were made and shared on the platform (Table 1).

Although no exact quantification was made, the online lessons' duration was always higher than scheduled before. For each lesson, which was meant to last for two hours in the timetable, at least half an hour more was provided; considering that there were no breaks during the online lesson, the increase could be regarded as rather ample.

The survey - 18 students responded to the survey, and 17 of them were included. 88.2% (15/17) of students were female, and 11.8% (2/17) were male. All students attended online lessons during the COVID-19 lockdown. During online lessons, 76.5% (13/17) of students used PC/Tablet for exclusive use, while 23.5% (4/17) of students were using devices shared with other people. The primary type of Internet access was through a flat-rate fixed network or mobile network with unlimited gigabytes (70.6%, 12/17). Streaming lessons were perceived as the most effective kind of remote lessons (88.2%, 15/17). Overall, distance learning has been good for 29.41% (5/17) of students; many students (58.8%, 10/17) found the online lessons useful even if more tiring. 58.8% (10/17) thought that online learning could be an excellent method to be used during regular activity, but only for particular situations; 17.7% (3/17) believed that online learning should be used during the conventional activity as an alternative learning method. 23.5% (4/17) thought that distance learning could be used only in case of emergencies. All results were reported in Table 2.

Of students, 58.8% (15/17) thought that the platform used for distance teaching (Teams) had been usable enough, followed by 35.3% (6/17), who believed that the platform had been entirely usable. 52.9% (9/17) of students held distance learning adequate for self-study. The level of interaction with teachers and other students was thoroughly satisfying for 94.1% (16/17) and 64.7% (11/17), respectively. During the COVID-19 lockdown, communication with teachers was indicated as good enough by 94.1% of students (16/17). For what concern the level of friendliness perceived during online lessons: 29.4% (5/17) and 41.2% of the interviewees thought there was an adequate level of friendliness, similar to that achieved during face-to-face lessons, while 17.7% (3/17) and 11.8% (2/17) had not perceived a high level of friendliness during online lessons. For 58.8% (10/17) of students, the pandemic situation affected learning negatively; 29.4% (5/17) and 11.8% (2/17) did not perceive any correlation between the general sense of anxiety and his/her learning approach. The results were reported in Table 3. Nine students highlighted some problematic aspects of distance learning: the lack of good Internet access and human interactions with teachers and colleagues, and the difficulties in case of technical applications (as microscope use) were the most common issues about distance learning. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was equal to 0.68. The value alpha was good, given the aim and field of the study.

Discussion

To allow the teaching activities to be conducted at an appropriate level, the first hurdle to overcome is the availability of technological supplies and minimal skills to both students and teachers that lack their own resources. Therefore, when evaluating the online teaching experience, it is essential to exclude that technological limits (related to the use of the web or digital tools) or other external issues would affect the results. In the case presented here, no relevant problems have been raised regarding the use of online tools during the whole course since, as expected, students demonstrated to be familiar with digital resources. At all events, the use of a digital environment requiring little or no specific equipment is preferable in order to cater to everyone.

Overall, our results revealed that online learning is considered an excellent method to use only for particular situations or in emergencies. It should be noted that virtual teaching was not foreseen as part of the education course they had chosen, while the students' expectations are different if they decided to enrol in a distance education course from the beginning. Online synchronous lectures have the characteristics of immediacy, low difficulty, and low cost for both teachers and students (Xie & Zhang, 2020). Accordingly, from our survey, it emerged that they are considered to be the most useful type of online lessons.

Although the platform used for virtual classes (Teams) was evaluated from enough to entirely usable by most of the students, it is important to highlight some aspects that may be relevant. This platform allows us to see simultaneously up to nine participants on the screen during a video call, so even in a class with a low number of students, like that described here, it is impossible to have an overview of all the students. This restriction forces the teacher to switch through the users' screen during the lesson since the goal is to include, not exclude, any students. In an attempt to get a picture of the whole class, managing the slides/teaching materials may become difficult. Moreover, the interaction is particularly important in the STEM context (Huang et al., 2020; McDavid et al., 2020) as teachers can target the learning skills and allow students to feel connected to each other, thus building a trustful learning environment. Therefore, online teaching management needs to consider the number of students to avoid such limitations compared to face-to-face lessons that allow us to have a direct, at least visual, contact with all the learners.

Interestingly, the students' attempts to interact with the teacher posing questions, were positively affected by the online delivery of the lessons. On average, at the end of a lesson, the number of questions asked was 2-3, while during online teaching, the number per lesson was never less than 5-6. One may suppose that this is related to less successful communication due to distance learning. However, the complexity level of the questions raised during this course suggested that students needed feedback from the teacher more than a clarification of scientific contents. Sometimes, the mainstream environment does not provide an appropriate level of confidence to the more reserved students, and their participation in the academic discussion remains limited; these students would benefit from a different level of communication access. They overcome their restraint during online experience thanks to the ability to manage their image in the video call (i.e., shutting down the video when speaking or using a low-resolution video) or use chat for conversations. On the other hand, the most confident students have not lost their relationship skills.

The higher duration of the online lessons observed here may be partly due to the increased number of questions posed by students that took some time to answer exhaustively. On the other hand, the students had more free time in the absence of extra-university activities and the lack of limits deriving from logistics (i.e., dependence on fixed hours for public transport, travel times, etc.). The absence of these limits allowed us to dwell on the most relevant aspects by dedicating attention not conditioned by compliance with the timetable (Deci & Ryan, 2000).

For what concerns the learning material, from our results emerge an increase in the number of the slides needed for online compared to face-to-face lessons. It seems that classroom interaction plays a fundamental role by allowing the teacher to identify any perplexities or the decline in student attention quickly. It was, therefore, necessary to introduce some slides with the dual objective of bringing students' attention back to the right level and reinforcing information during online lessons.

From the perspective of the instructional design, managing the instructional process efficiently will ensure effective and retentive learning. The success of the teaching activity in such contexts relies on the teacher's ability to use multiple technologies and tools to reorganize the teaching and learning process (Merrill et al., 1996).

However, for all the possibilities that technology brings to education, one major problem remains when facing practical skills learning; to develop a virtual laboratory class for a master's degree course requires specific skills, both scientific and technological. The role of virtual simulations has been explored first in science and engineering education. More recently, the usefulness of the virtual laboratory in comparison with other instructional methods has been investigated in the life sciences undergraduate courses, however leading to conflicting results (Bonde et al., 2014; Dyrberg et al., 2017; Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004). The suitability of tools depends on the educational purpose, and a different approach is required for practical activities.

Maybe the academic community will need to become more involved by providing resources, expertise, and guidance aimed at the development of specific software/tools for laboratory teaching. At the moment, online education has revealed all its limits regarding students' achievement of adequate familiarity with scientific instrumentation, and the research in this area requires further investigations.

An education program that includes face-to-face and online lectures might represent a possible learning scenario in all situations requiring restrictive measures but also as an independent, alternative learning method. This blended way of learning (Staker & Horn, 2012) may also take advantage of MOOCs (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2016; Moreno-Marcos et al., 2019) as additional resources based on the learner characteristics, contents, and resources required.

Surprisingly, online lessons have somewhat promoted communication between users of the platform. The virtual room allows students to identify themselves as members of a cultural and micro-culture group, and not to endorse the classical model, which classifies teachers and students as separate categories. In the same way, this offered the teacher the opportunity to become a part of the students' group. The unavoidable intrusion into each other's daily realities helped in developing a relaxed atmosphere in discussions. The natural trust that has been generated has favored the development of a highly empathic class atmosphere by also facilitating the discussion of scientific contents.

These empirical results are in agreement with the research literature on the role of an informal learning environment as a promoter of motivation and contributing factor to the academic success of students in the area of STEM (McDavid et al., 2020; Salmi & Thuneberg, 2019).

Conclusion

Our study's results highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of online teaching in the STEM area that emerged during the closure of higher education institutions and the suspension of face-to-face lessons due to the pandemic. The main challenges that emerged from our study concern the practical activities that emphasize that online teaching cannot merely be a transposition of face-to-face lessons in a virtual context. To elaborate specific online teaching for practical courses choosing the more suitable tools and enhancing mutual interaction requires special attention. Accurate planning and organization are needed when implementing STEM education, and a major role of the academic community is envisaged as the promoter of advanced, effective tools development for laboratory teaching. More investigation on this topic is necessary to address limits about the student's scientific achievements during virtual instruction. Furthermore, promising outcomes arose from this study. They were evident in the learners' motivations and enhanced communication skills leading to reconsider by the way the educational relationship between teacher and student. In our opinion, when applicable, the blended learning would be the more suitable education program for STEM courses.

Data availability

Consent

Before starting the survey all student have been informed of methods and goals of this work. In the email along with the link to accede the survey students have been provided with following information:

“Participation in the online questionnaire”

This questionnaire is aimed exclusively at the collection of data and information for the evaluation of online teaching. It does not in any way replace the questionnaire that the University submits to students of the final assessment of the course. The data collected will be used exclusively for the preparation of scientific work.

Taking part in the survey implies the declaration of consent. Before completing the questionnaire, please carefully read the information below:

1. the online questionnaire's completion is on a voluntary basis and anonymous; the questionnaire has been created using the online tool Google Forms. More information on how Google treats data can be found at this link: https://policies.google.com/privacy/update. These data will not be recorded on other media or devices, nor will any other data deriving from its navigation on the site be recorded.

2. answers are saved by clicking on the button “submit” and you could suspend the questionnaire at any time;

3. the sensitive personal data of all participants (including the IP address) are not tracked. The protocols on which information passes over the network and data is stored is the HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol over SSL) protocol, a variant of the HTTP protocol that uses, in addition to TCP / IP, the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) layer that encrypts incoming and outgoing data through a mathematical algorithm."