2024 ASM Conference for Undergraduate Educators

It is generally accepted that the COVID-19 pandemic affected curriculum and delivery of biology education in high school. How does this translate to college biology success? In this study, post-pandemic student success in an introductory biology course (BIO 121: Foundations in cell and molecular biology) that was taught in person at a small liberal arts college was examined. Students enrolled in the course from 2020-2023 were considered to be pandemic-affected as they faced disruptions and/or changes in their high school biology education. In the pandemic-affected group, we observed that preparedness of incoming students (introductory cell and molecular biology concept inventory pre-course score, Shi et al., 2009) declined by 3.3% (Mann-Whitney test, p=0.003) while the course withdrawal rate increased by 8%. To improve persistence and support less-prepared students, we implemented an intervention: online, low-stakes practice exams. The practice exams were developed in-house to make it affordable to students, were aligned with the student learning outcomes for the course, were accessible through the learning management system, were graded, and allowed for two untimed attempts. We hypothesized that the practice exams would improve course performance and persistence. We assessed the effectiveness of practice exams by comparing students enrolled in BIO 121 during years 2021 and 2022 as the pre-intervention cohort and students enrolled in BIO 121 during 2023 as the post-intervention cohort. The course performance and exam averages of the pre-intervention and post-intervention groups were compared and did not significantly differ (Mann-Whitney test, p>0.05). However, the course withdrawal rate declined dramatically in the post-intervention cohort by 13.5% and were comparable to pre-pandemic course withdrawal rates. We concluded that the interventions did not improve course performance, but improved course persistence and are therefore valuable to retain in the course in the future.