Research Articles
Personas of stem students completing online instructions during the covid-19 pandemic
Authors:
Cora Romick,
The University of Georgia Athens, GA, US
About Cora
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Nandana Weliweriya ,
The University of Georgia Athens, GA, US
About Nandana
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Tara Cotten
The University of Georgia Athens, GA, US
About Tara
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors quickly transitioned to online teaching to protect themselves and their students. Due to this abrupt transition and lack of communication between instructor and student, instructors had little time to create online teaching methods that successfully adapt and teach the material to best meet the student's needs. Some students did well with online teaching methods, while others seemed to struggle to engage with the material in classes. Without immediate face-to-face feedback from students, we believe that background information such as learning styles, goals, motivations, and expectations of the potential students- will help teachers improve and increase classroom engagement and comprehension. We surveyed and interviewed STEM introductory-level courses online to collect data to create personas in STEM students. Personas are "life-like models whose characteristics are driven by the various goals and motivations of real or potential users." We used persona methodology to survey the diverse learning group in a STEM classroom to create four personas found in STEM classrooms. These personas represent real-life students enrolling in introductory STEM classrooms, allowing instructors to use these personas as a novel tool to design online courses that better engage undergraduate students across STEM disciplines.
How to Cite:
Romick, C., Weliweriya, N. and Cotten, T., 2022. Personas of stem students completing online instructions during the covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Science of the University of Kelaniya, 15(2), pp.132–146. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/josuk.v15i2.8066
Published on
09 Nov 2022.
Peer Reviewed
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