A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Students’ Open-Ended Responses about Course Inclusivity in General Chemistry 1

This exploratory study uses a mixed-method approach to examine students' perceptions of inclusion in a large first-semester General Chemistry course that occurred during Covid-19. In a survey given at the end of the semester, we asked students to rate their course inclusion and to provide an open-text explanation of their score. Qualitative analysis of these responses led to the development of primary categories comprising Academic, Identity, Nonspecific, Lack of Understanding, and Remote Learning. Overall, Academic, Remote Learning, and Nonspecific were the top reasons students gave for their level of inclusion. The Remote-Learning category contained phrases about remote-learning, zoom, or Covid-19 and then contained a second idea describing the reason for the student's level of inclusion, leading to Remote-Learning subcategories. These subcategories were similar to the other primary categories and Academic subcategories. A majority of the responses (55%) cited academic factors such as interactions among peers, interactions between students and instructors, or course structure. Overall, our exploratory findings suggest that instructors have much influence over factors influencing student perception of inclusion in their General Chemistry 1 classrooms.