Cultivating active learners by enabling instructors to monitor and enhance student buy-in and utilization of research-based instructional strategies

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This project will explore ways to improve student buy-in and utilization of research-based instructional strategies (RBIS) that have been demonstrated to improve student learning and persistence across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Over the past decades, the federal government has made substantial investments in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of RBIS. These investments have resulted in increasingly greater implementation in classrooms across the country. However, many faculty have noted that they encounter student resistance when using RBIS. The PI team from UNL is developing a means by which instructors can monitor and improve student engagement in and use of RBIS. Because of the widespread appeal and demonstrated impact on student learning of RBIS that serve in particular as formative assessments (FAs) (e.g., Just-in-Time Teaching, Peer Instruction), the PI team is focusing on this subset of RBIS. The project goals reflect a comprehensive set of development, research, and dissemination efforts designed to provide instructors with a customizable instrument and support model to optimize student engagement with FAs. To achieve these goals, the PI team is developing a closed-ended Formative Assessment Buy-in and Utilization Survey (FABUS) to gauge how students perceive and interact with particular FA activities. To broaden the impact of the project, they also are administering the FABUS at multiple institutions and conducting research to determine the relationships between buy-in, utilization, and learning related to various FA methods. Finally, they are creating a model for how a local community of instructors can use FABUS to identify issues, guide changes, and assess whether course alterations improve student learning through engagement in and utilization of FAs. The instruments developed and the knowledge gained through this project have the potential to improve student STEM learning in classrooms across the nation, as instructors use these tools to promote student use of RBIS.