Online biology program admits premed students, but are they prepared for medical school?

ASU’s fully online B.S. in Biological Sciences: What it is and how it is inclusive?
ASU is known for its mission to be inclusive; as ASU’s charter states “ASU is measured not by whom it excludes, but whom it includes, and how they succeed.” To further this mission, ASU launched the first fully online Bachelor of Science degree program in Biological Sciences in Fall 2017- one of the first online Biology degree programs in the nation. Similar to ASU’s in-person biology degree, students complete a general biology curriculum, except that coursework is completed solely online, including biology lab instruction which is offered through Labster's virtual reality platform.

ASU’s online biology degree program is gaining national attention because it is accessible to students who may face difficulty in accessing an in-person program; it provides students with the flexibility and the convenience to complete their coursework anytime and anywhere. This program is setting the groundwork for creating a more diverse and inclusive scientific community since, compared to in-person students, a higher proportion of online students are first-generation college students, transfer students, students who work full-time, and students who identify as primary caregivers. Thus, ASU’s online biology degree program is increasing access to students who otherwise might not have access to a biology degree.

ASU Online students want to be medical doctors but are they prepared?

A recent study was conducted to better understand introductory biology student aspirations in the online and in-person biology degree programs at ASU and found that the most common desired career among students in both degree programs is a medical doctor (Cooper, Gin, & Brownell, 2019). In fact, almost 40% of online students want to go to medical school. However online students knew fewer criteria that medical schools consider when admitting students.

Online Students were:

• Less able to identify criteria for medical school acceptance
• Less aware of key experiences like shadowing professionals or participating in undergraduate research
• Less likely to participate in pre-professional organizations with leadership opportunities
• Less able to access professors, mentors or peers for career advice

Applications with the above criteria would be considered more competitive in the medical school application process. It would appear that these online premed students do not seem to currently have access to the same knowledge or experiences that in-person students do as far as what is often considered essential for getting in to medical school.

This implies that online premed students would benefit from opportunities to build connections with individuals who could offer advice on pre-medical opportunities and career choices, and that ASU’s biology degree program could integrate such experiences into the curriculum to better serve these online premed students.

Thinking outside the typical curriculum to develop an online biology degree program

The current online biology degree program mimics that of the in-person program, and efforts have been made to ensure that there are strong similarities between both programs in terms of learning goals, curriculum mapping, and degree requirements. However, perhaps a different way of envisioning an online degree program in biology

would be to consider what could be done uniquely online or what could be done better online than in-person. What could be personalized for students through an online experience that is much harder to do in a large in-person course? Are there any unique skills that could be developed by doing all of one’s coursework online?

Obviously getting access to undergraduate research experiences would be a challenge for online students who may live in educational deserts where they could not physically work in a research lab. However, can online degree programs offer students a chance to get involved in research done remotely or entirely virtually?

One way of providing online biology students with a unique research experience could be through an online course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Online biology programs could offer CUREs related to computational biology or bioinformatics, where students could work on real research problems and only need a computer and internet connection to contribute to a real research project.

To meet students’ needs for leadership opportunities, online degree programs could consider creating online pre-professional student groups with opportunities for leadership positions, such as online Facebook communities for students interested in pre-health. Leadership in online communities could even be advertised by students as a unique perk, since the skills of being able to manage people remotely are becoming increasingly important in society today.

This work can inform online educators, online program developers, and university administrators interested in improving not only access for students, but the success for students to be able to reach their academic and career goals.

For more information, check out the study:

Cooper, K. M., Gin, L. E., & Brownell, S. E. (2019). Diagnosing differences in what Introductory Biology students in a fully online and an in-person biology degree program know and do regarding medical school admission. Advances in physiology education, 43(2), 221-232.

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Guest Blogger: Erika Nadile

Erika Nadile is a first-year PhD student in Sara Brownell's Biology Education Research Lab at ASU interested in improving equity in the undergraduate biology classroom. She wants to explore the experiences of first-generation students as she is the first in her immediate family to attend college.