PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Olivia A. Erickson
AU  - Rebecca B. Cole
AU  - Jared M. Isaacs
AU  - Silvia Alvarez-Clare
AU  - Jonathan Arnold
AU  - Allison Augustus-Wallace
AU  - Joseph C. Ayoob
AU  - Alan Berkowitz
AU  - Janet Branchaw
AU  - Kevin R. Burgio
AU  - Charles H. Cannon
AU  - Ruben Michael Ceballos
AU  - C. Sarah Cohen
AU  - Hilary Coller
AU  - Jane Disney
AU  - Van A. Doze
AU  - Margaret J. Eggers
AU  - Stacy Farina
AU  - Edwin L. Ferguson
AU  - Jeffrey J. Gray
AU  - Jean T. Greenberg
AU  - Alexander Hoffman
AU  - Danielle Jensen-Ryan
AU  - Robert M. Kao
AU  - Alex C. Keene
AU  - Johanna E. Kowalko
AU  - Steven A. Lopez
AU  - Camille Mathis
AU  - Mona Minkara
AU  - Courtney J. Murren
AU  - Mary Jo Ondrechen
AU  - Patricia Ordoñez
AU  - Anne Osano
AU  - Elizabeth Padilla-Crespo
AU  - Soubantika Palchoudhury
AU  - Hong Qin
AU  - Juan Ramírez-Lugo
AU  - Jennifer Reithel
AU  - Colin A. Shaw
AU  - Amber Smith
AU  - Rosemary Smith
AU  - Adam P. Summers
AU  - Fern Tsien
AU  - Erin L. Dolan
TI  - “How do we do this at a distance?!” A descriptive study of remote undergraduate research programs during COVID-19
AID  - 10.1101/2021.05.17.443632
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.05.17.443632
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/17/2021.05.17.443632.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/17/2021.05.17.443632.full
AB  - The COVID-19 pandemic shut down undergraduate research programs across the U.S. Twenty-three sites offered remote undergraduate research programs in the life sciences during summer 2020. Given the unprecedented offering of remote research experiences, we carried out a study to describe and evaluate these programs. Using structured templates, we documented how programs were designed and implemented, including who participated. Through focus groups and surveys, we identified programmatic strengths and shortcomings as well as recommendations for improvements from the perspectives of participating students. Strengths included the quality of mentorship, opportunities for learning and professional development, and development of a sense of community. Weaknesses included limited cohort building, challenges with insufficient structure, and issues with technology. Although all programs had one or more activities related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, these topics were largely absent from student reports even though programs coincided with a peak in national consciousness about racial inequities and structural racism. Our results provide evidence for designing remote REUs that are experienced favorably by students. Our results also indicate that remote REUs are sufficiently positive to further investigate their affordances and constraints, including the potential to scale up offerings, with minimal concern about disenfranchising students.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.