Remote Interview Methods in Chemical Education Research

Student interviews have found an increasingly important place in the educational research landscape. They are used to create and validate assessments and concept inventories, as well as to more clearly elucidate student thinking. One-on-one interviews are most often completed in person at the researcher's or student's institution. There are significant advantages, however, of conducting interviews remotely including access to more varied populations, travel-related time and cost savings, and the ability of a single researcher to efficiently collect data at multiple institutions. This paper presents a description of a remote interview process along with details of ways to maintain commonality with its in-person analog. Our research provides evidence that the efficacy of results is maintained and that remote interviews provide a viable alternative to more costly and time-intensive on-site interviews. These results are particularly timely as ways to enable graduate education and research to continue during the COVID-19 pandemic response.