Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Undergraduate Performance in an Introductory Biology Course

The transition to online learning during the coronavirus pandemic resulted in several challenges for instructors and their students. Both struggled to adapt to this new learning environment in the midst of navigating a global pandemic that touched on almost all aspects of people’s lives. In the article, we examine the first semester of introductory biology at the University of South Carolina (UofSC) (named BIOL 101). We examined grade distributions in two categories: Pre-Pandemic (Fall 2017, 2018, and 2019) and Pandemic (Fall 2020) to better understand the effects COVID-19 had on students and instructors. Results from our study showed the percentage of students earning an A increased significantly (+16%) while simultaneously the percentage of students earning C+, C, D+, D, and F decreased significantly. The percentage of students earning a Withdraw (W) nearly doubles. These results highlight that the transition to online learning causes a decrease in academic rigor and an increase in instructor leniency. In addition, these results show that the hardships that accompany COVID-19 make it difficult to prioritize their education. We argue that the lack of readiness among students and faculty is a key cause and that faculty would benefit from training to avoid repeating this phenomena.