Qualitative responses from students during spring 2019

During the Spring Semester of 2020, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus
(SARS-CoV-2) and the illnesses it caused (COVID-19) led to widespread
cancelling of on-campus instruction at colleges and universities in the
United States and other countries around the world. Response to the
pandemic in university settings included a rapid and unexpected shift to
online learning for faculty and students. The transition to teaching and
learning online posed many challenges, and the experiences of students
during this crisis may inform future planning for distance learning
experiences during the ongoing pandemic and beyond. Herein, we discuss the
experiences of first- and second- year university students enrolled in a
biology seminar course as their classes migrated to online environments.
Drawing on reported student experiences and prior research and resources,
we discuss the ways we will adjust our own teaching for future iterations
of the course while offering recommendations for instructors tasked with
teaching in online environments.