ABSTRACT

Undergraduate students often have a choice about the modality in which they complete a particular course (in-person or online), and their decisions can be more complex than scholarship suggests. Most studies of modality choice have relied exclusively on closed-form, quantitative surveys; and this approach has denied students the opportunity to correct or complicate researchers’ assumptions about their decision-making. We present findings from one of the largest and most comprehensive studies yet conducted on undergraduates’ choice of course modality, which provided students with the opportunity to explain their choices in their own words. Our data reveal complexities of undergraduates’ modality choice not mentioned previously in the literature, and open new avenues for research. They also have implications for course design during the period of COVID-19, by identifying features of in-person courses that instructors may wish to replicate in their emergency remote teaching for in-person students suddenly forced online.

摘要

本科生通常可以选择他们完成特定课程的方式（面对面或在线），他们的决定可能比奖学金建议的更复杂。大多数关于方式选择的研究完全依赖于封闭式的定量调查。这种方法剥夺了学生纠正或复杂化研究人员对其决策的假设的机会。我们展示了迄今为止对本科生选择课程模式进行的最大和最全面的研究之一的结果，该研究为学生提供了用自己的话解释他们的选择的机会。我们的数据揭示了文献中未提及的本科生模式选择的复杂性，并为研究开辟了新途径。