Developing Online Value Inventories to Predict and Improve Student Success in STEM Education

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Assessment/Research (91) This Phase 2 CCLI project is continuing to develop and test assessment tools focused on measuring the value that students place on learning science and mathematics. A primary goal is to provide instructors with improved methods for shaping their courses and curricula so as to improve student success in STEM education, building on earlier work that produced the Science Value Inventory (SVI) and Math Value Inventory (MVI). These instruments were developed to test the idea that real STEM literacy requires students to find value in their STEM courses. Data from testing the paper versions of both instruments indicate that they are both valid and reliable. They are now in use in a variety of institutions around the country. Analysis of survey results has detected significant gender differences, and variations among instructors and curricula. Analysis has also found similarities in how students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Midwestern state universities value science. This project is more widely disseminating these tools for general education, and working on developing similar tools for STEM majors. The project phases and goals are to (1) Develop and implement an accessible, efficient web-based system for administering the MVI and SVI instruments. Project tasks being conducted include validating the online versions, and creating an automated process for recording student registration, student responses, demographic information, and submission of instructor and course information. (2) Develop new online value inventories to use with STEM majors. Project tasks being conducted include initial testing and modification of the instruments to ensure that they are valid and reliable using online protocols. This task requires the development of more sensitive instruments, because undergraduate STEM majors tend initially to place greater value on science or math (or both). The Web-based system constructed in the first phase of this work is being used to administer these inventories, analyze and distribute the results, and build a database that provides insight into how value affects STEM majors' prospects for success.(3) Conduct analyses to determine the power of these instruments in predicting student success in STEM education. The collected data are being used to build a national database of student values, allowing comparison against national norms, as well as subgroups based on institutional type, student background, ethnicity, gender and other variables.