Student Perceptions of Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Shaped by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Laboratory activities are essential and important components of learning chemistry at the undergraduate level. The COVID-19 pandemic led to disruption of traditional modes of teaching and learning over the whole education spectrum including laboratory courses in chemistry. Although unfortunate, the COVID-19 lockdown period and following years challenged well accepted norms leading to new opportunities for higher education. The purpose of this work is to synthesize useful lessons from student experiences during COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic era aiming for improved future chemistry laboratories at the college and university level. Previously published studies addressed advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face vs. remote and online teaching of chemistry laboratory courses. However, there are only a few student-centered studies which analyze students’ perceptions of undergraduate chemistry laboratories in the post-pandemic era. Although the study was conducted at the university in the United States, we believe the lessons learned could be used globally. The present study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in this field of research. It is unique because surveyed students experienced different modalities of the laboratory and were given an opportunity to compare both modalities side by side. Therefore, student experiences provide stronger foundations of their preferences and perceptions described in this work. Based on our findings, it appears that post-pandemic undergraduate students taking a non-major course prefer hands-on experiments and a hybrid modality of chemistry laboratory.