Collaborative Research: Development and Assessment of Interactive Video Vignette Modules for Biology Teaching

这个改进本科STEM教育（IUSE）项目是罗切斯特理工学院和阿尔弗雷德大学的合作项目。它解决了生物科学课程鼓励学生批判性思考、注重统一概念、实践实验设计、数据分析和科学模型的需要。有证据表明，向这些重点的转变需要使用互动式教学实践，这已被证明可以提高学生的学习成果。该项目创建的模块包括许多教学实践，这些实践已被发现有效地提高了对“愿景与变革倡议”（http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/）和“下一代科学标准”（http://www.nextgenscience.org/）所定义的生物学核心概念的深刻理解。每个模块的基础将是一种新的基于网络的学习工具，称为交互式视频短片（IVVs）。试管婴儿结合了从教育和关于人们如何学习的认知研究中吸取的经验教训。他们通过让学习者参与现实世界的问题，为学生提供所需的支持、反馈和指导，并要求他们反思自己的学习过程，从而促进主动学习。PI团队正在创建14个模块，帮助生物学学生克服常见的概念和学习困难，并丰富学生对如何通过观察和实验构建科学知识的理解。这些模块的设计和实施是根据PI团队进行的试点项目的结果进行的。在该项目中，当IVVs被用于生物学入门和高级细胞生物学课程时，学生的学习效果显著。PI团队正在扩大他们对学习成果的研究，以包括使用所有新开发的ivv。研究方法包括教学前和教学后的评估，以检查学生的学习成果，比较使用IVVs的学生和传统课堂上的学生的学习成果，以及直接询问（调查和访谈）关于学生对生物科学的态度。在RIT和阿尔弗雷德大学测试的模块随后将在PI团队招募的广泛机构中进行研究。从这些研究中获得的知识为STEM课程的设计提供了信息，并为这些有效的教学实践有效地融入全国传统生物学课程的方式提供了信息。

This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project is a collaborative endeavor involving Rochester Institute of Technology and Alfred University. It addresses the need for biological sciences courses to encourage students to think critically, focus on unifying concepts, and practice experimental design, analysis of data, and scientific models. Evidence reveals that the shift to these emphases requires the use of interactive instructional practices that have been shown to increase student learning gains. The modules being created by this project include many instructional practices that have been found to be effective in improving deep understanding of core concepts in biology defined by the Vision and Change initiative (http://visionandchange.org/finalreport/) and the Next Generation Science Standards (http://www.nextgenscience.org/). The cornerstone of each module will be a new genre of web-based learning tools called Interactive Video Vignettes (IVVs). IVVs incorporate lessons learned from education and cognitive research on how people learn. They promote active learning by engaging learners with real-world problems, providing needed support, feedback, and guidance for the students, and requiring them to reflect on their own learning processes. The PI team is creating 14 modules that help biology students overcome common conceptual and learning difficulties and enrich student understanding of how scientific knowledge is constructed through observation and experimentation. The design and implementation of the modules are informed by the results of a pilot project carried out by the PI team. In that project, dramatic student learning gains were observed when IVVs were used in an introductory biology and an upper level cell biology course. The PI team is extending their research on the learning outcomes to include the use of all of the newly developed IVVs. The research methods include pre- and post-instruction assessment to examine student learning gains, comparative learning gains of students using the IVVs and students in traditional lecture classes, and direct queries (surveys and interviews) concerning students' attitudes to the biological sciences. Modules tested at RIT and Alfred University will subsequently be studied at a broad range of institutions recruited by the PI team. The knowledge resulting from these research studies is informing the design of STEM courses and the ways in which these effective instructional practices can be effectively integrated into traditional biology curricula nationwide.