It's Not Fair: Remote Students Report Feeling Disadvantaged in a Hybrid Clinical Physiology Course
Authors: Anderson Lisa C. 
Published: May 2022

Just as there was a transition to remote teaching because of the COVID pandemic, many universities are in the process of transitioning back to in person classrooms. Case in point, Clinical Physiology I is the first semester of a 5000 level two‐semester course that is offered as a flipped class. Even with the transition to fully online teaching in the Spring of 2020, the robust breakout room feature of the video teleconferencing software, Zoom, permitted small group work that occurs with the flipped to continue.

As the fall 2021 semester approached, the University approved a return to in person classes, however several students emailed the course instructor (L.C. Anderson) expressing concern and asking if an online option would be available. Students completed a pre‐class survey in which they committed to attend class in person or remotely via zoom. The instructor continued the flipped classroom with some students in small groups in person and some students in zoom breakout rooms. The students scored lower than expected on the first exam. Traditionally, the average of the first exam is approximately 80%, however the Fall 2021 Exam 1 average was 70%. Of 40 students, 13 scored less than 70%; this statistic was concerning given that students must earn a 70% to pass the course. To address the difficulty of the exam and to make sure students had learned the material, the course instructor flagged 13 questions (of 40 test questions total) with questionable testing statistics. Student submitted reflective essays on three of the exam questions but could write about all 13 questions for extra credit. From the student writings, the instructor ascertained that 3 of the test questions were flawed and all students were given credit for those 3 questions. Post exam reflections and adjustments raised the course average to 85%.

Sensing continued anxiety within class, the instructor surveyed the students. The survey results suggested that remote students were less satisfied with class and perceived that they, as a group, had done poorly on the exam. Remote students reported feeling unfairly disadvantaged by the flipped classroom model online and reported a lack of trust in their online group members. This led the instructor to ask the questions: 1) Did the remote students score worse than the in‐person students? 2) If there is a performance difference, are there other factors that could explain the difference? In‐person students answered an average of 29.9 + 4.8 questions (about 75%) correctly whereas remote students answered an average of 25.7 + 5.8 (about 64%) correctly which was significantly different (Student’s T test, p=0.015). There was no significant difference between the performance of males and females, however BIPOC students averaged 23.6 + 6.0 with white students averaging 29.7 + 4.5 (Student's T Test, p= 0.001). This difference was lessened but persisted after the exam correction. This was an alarming observation; furthermore, more BIPOC students were participating remotely. The instructor invited students to meet one on one to review exam 1, added office hours and used student feedback to adjust class activities. The class performance improved on exam 2; furthermore, there were no significant differences between 1) in person versus remote students, 2) male versus female students and 3) BIPOC versus white students.