Education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is increasingly online, even the laboratory components of STEM courses. As online laboratory education trends upward in terms of enrollment and variety of course offerings, the central question remains: Is online equivalent to a traditional face-to-face (F2F) lab experience? In this…

In response to remote learning needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, introductory lecture and laboratory courses typically delivered fully in person were offered in a completely virtual format for the first time. Introductory laboratory courses are pivotal foundations for future discipline-specific learning and serve as prerequisites for a myriad of…

The United States is not graduating enough science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors for the increasing number of available employment opportunities and national security needs. The purpose of this study was to quantify the magnitude of STEM attrition at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), a military service academy…

This article investigates how mastery of prerequisite course material impacts student learning in follow-on courses. To measure the importance of prerequisite skills, we compare the exam scores of students with a GPA of 3.0 or better in their multidisciplinary prerequisite classes to the exam scores of students with a GPA of less than 3.0 in their…

Educators have been grappling with the problem of students retaining and applying in later years information learned in prerequisite courses. One general faculty complaint is that students appear to retain very little from their prerequisite courses, even if they completed the course in the semester immediately before. In order to determine if…