Looking at the Laboratory Discussion: Course Modality Choice and Student Performance in Organic Chemistry

In the sciences, the laboratory is one of the most impactful
spaces
for student learning, engagement, and experience. Prior knowledge
gleaned during lecture and laboratory discussion (i.e., a course section
designed to further emphasize conceptual content underlying experiments
and inform students about laboratory procedures or safety precautions)
acts to supplement laboratory performance. With the recent increase
in offering traditionally face-to-face courses in remote formats,
many educators in the field of organic chemistry have opted to offer
online laboratory discussion (LD) sections alongside more traditional
face-to-face laboratory discussions. However, research on enrollment
in laboratory discussions by modality, as well as their impact on
subsequent course performance, is lacking. Conducting a logistic regression
analysis, we found that females, students who identified as Black
or African American, those with greater average ACT-SAT equivalency
scores, and those students who completed organic chemistry LD online
in the prior term all had greater odds of enrolling in an online organic
chemistry LD course in subsequent academic terms. Additional hierarchical
regression analyses indicated that many student- and academic-level
factors were predictive of laboratory performance. Notably, when controlling
student-level and academic-level characteristics, laboratory performance
was higher for students who completed LD online compared to students
who enrolled in face-to-face LDs. This study has important implications
for students as they uptake courses in online settings and faculty
as they decide what portions of their courses to offer remotely.