Examining conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism in the post-pandemic era

Abstract This paper examines the conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism (EM) for two cohorts of students who enrolled for a physics degree program in 2021 and 2022 respectively at an Indian University. These cohorts had prolonged online teaching in high school due to the pandemic. We introduced Mastering Physics (MP) and Learning Catalytics (LC) to both the groups to increase the interactive engagement with the goal of enhancing the student learning of EM. We administered the concept inventory (CI) Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment to both the groups twice (pre-test and post-test) during the semester. The results show that there is no statistically significant difference in the average pre- and post-scores of the 2021 batch. However, for the 2022 cohort, there is a 15% increase in the average post-test scores compared to the pre-test scores that is statistically significant with a large effect size. The 2021 cohort spent more time learning online and started offline mode only in the fourth week of the second semester compared to the 2022 batch which started in the first semester of the university. The transition from online to offline mode and time taken to re-adjust in the offline mode along with the E-learning fatigue is there for both batches which indicates that a prolonged online learning followed by offline learning may affect student learning. Another factor that may be involved is the prior topics taught online if not learnt thoroughly may affect the topics that are subsequently introduced. We suggest recommendations to help students transition from online to offline to mitigate the problems during transition and readjustment period should there be any future situations such as the Covid pandemic or any global events. The students’ survey indicates that they seem to benefit from MP and LC in problem solving and conceptual understanding of EM. They find these tools easy to use and engaging. Overall, the students’ perspective about MP and LC is quite positive for both the groups. Therefore, these products can supplement the traditional lectures.