Learn!Bio Study: Surveys S1-S4 - questionnaires (2020-2023) by Andrews, Stoneley, and Eckl.

Higher education in biosciences is significantly informed by hands-on field trips and practical laboratory skills-training. With the first Covid-19 national lock-down in England in March 2020, on-campus education at higher education institutions was swiftly moved to alternative provisions, including online only options, a mix of synchronous or asynchronous blended, or hybrid adaptions. Students enrolled on an undergraduate bioscience programme have been faced with unprecedented changes and interruptions to their education.

Bioscience undergraduate students in years 1-3 at the biology department at a Northwest English university participated in an anonymous, cross-sectional, mixed-method study with open and closed questions evaluating their perception and feedback to remote and blended learning provisions during the Covid-19 pandemic and post pandemic learning capturing academic years 2019/20 to 2022/23. The results will be published shortly and a link will be provided here. 

Our results show that bioscience students can experience poor mental health while developing resilience, indicating tailored support can aid students’ resilience performance. Students have adjusted with ease to digital teaching provisions and expect higher education institutions continue to offer both, face-to-face, and blended teaching, reducing the burden on students’ significantly risen living costs.

The four documents enclosed detail all open and closed questions and the respective order of appearance of each question in in each anonymous JISC online surveys S1-S4 during the Learn!Bio study from 2020-2023.