Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Online Teamwork Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was suddenly necessary to shift college courses online. Many instructors without experience teaching online were faced with decisions about how to structure their courses and support students during the pandemic. In the three introductory STEM courses described in this article, instructors chose to include online teamwork activities. In this study, we have surveyed the students about their experiences participating in active learning teamwork activities in online computer science or human anatomy and physiology courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overwhelming majority of students rated the experience of their team as positive. Most students cited interpersonal interactions, productivity, or team members’ equal contributions as reasons for their positive rating of the team. In all of these courses, students reported benefits of the experience to include teamwork, connections, and communication. Overall, instructors in these three introductory STEM courses felt positively about structuring their online courses to include teamwork learning activities and appreciated the community and connection benefits for students.

Keywords:

• Online learning
• Pedagogy
• Teamwork
• Community
• College
• Guided inquiry