How Instructional Modalities Shape Learning: A Longitudinal Study of Student Perceptions, Engagement, and Outcomes in General Chemistry II during COVID-19 and Post-Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States ignited a national conversation about the efficacy of remote and online teaching, particularly in STEM education. While previous studies have mainly concentrated on short-term data regarding online General Chemistry courses, this study offers the first long-term analysis of student experiences and performance across three instructional modalities from 2020 to 2023. These modalities include in-person, online synchronous, and hybrid, where learners have the option to choose between in-person and online synchronous attendance within the same semester. By utilizing the same instructor and course materials across all online and in-person modalities, this study controlled for the variability typically introduced by different instructors and assessments. The findings reveal that, although learners initially perceived online coursework as more challenging, their views of online and in-person courses aligned more closely over time. Additionally, student performance─measured by quizzes and exams─revealed no noteworthy differences across the various instructional modalities. Interestingly, the anticipated improvement in student performance upon returning to in-person learning did not materialize. In addition, results of a chi-squared independence test demonstrate that D’s, F’s, and withdrawals (DFWs) were not statistically different, showing that DFW scores were independent of course mode over this time-period. These results suggest that, while engagement levels may vary based on course format, the data indicate that General Chemistry II students can achieve similar academic performance regardless of the mode in which they take the course.