Collaborative Research: CourseSource: Developing, Disseminating, and Understanding the Usefulness of Resources for Evidence-based Undergraduate Biology Teaching

尽管许多STEM课程已经实施了基于证据的教学法，但大多数大学课程的主要特点仍然是说教式授课。事实上，许多STEM教师在实施有效的教学法（如主动学习和包容性教学实践）方面犹豫不决，即使他们知道这些实践可以改善学生的学习。然而，本科教学效率的提高可能不需要全面修改课程，而是可以通过微小的改变来实现，研究支持这样的假设，即适当的教学资源可以实现渐进式的改变。该项目将支持和扩展CourseSource杂志，CourseSource是根据NSF/AAAS本科生物学教育愿景和变化倡议的建议创建的。CourseSource是一本以证据为基础，经过实地测试的本科生物学课程杂志，以通用格式发布严格的同行评审课程。该项目将支持编写和出版更多的课程。此外，它将支持关键自动化和功能的开发，使CourseSource成为一个具有高可用性和用户响应能力的可持续期刊。最后，开发一套广泛的网络分析工具将能够识别教材的特征，从而使其被其他人采用或适应。开发CourseSource将为出版循证教材提供重要途径，项目成果将有助于理解高等教育教师实施循证教学与设计/传播有效教材之间的关系。在同行评议的高质量期刊上发表基于证据的教学材料，有望提高基于证据的教学对晋升和终身教职的价值，帮助支持学院和大学的终身教职研究人员的这些实践。此外，通过项目活动获得的信息将被迭代地直接用于改进CourseSource Lessons，从而加强期刊对实施循证教学的影响。该项目揭示的设计原则将与其他教育改革工作和教学资源的数字资源库相关。

Although many STEM courses have implemented evidence-based pedagogies, didactic lectures remain the predominant feature of most college classes. In fact, many STEM instructors hesitate to implement effective pedagogies, such as active learning and inclusive teaching practices, even when they know that these practices can improve student learning. However, improvements in undergraduate teaching effectiveness may not require full-scale revision of courses, but instead can result from small changes, and research supports the hypothesis that incremental changes can be enabled by the right kind of teaching resources. This project will support and expand the journal, CourseSource that was created in response to recommendations from the NSF/AAAS Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education initiative. CourseSource is a journal of evidence-based, field-tested lessons in undergraduate biology that publishes rigorously peer-reviewed Lessons in a common format. This project will support the development and publication of additional Lessons. In addition, it will support development of critical automation and functionality needed to make CourseSource a sustainable journal with high levels of usability and user responsiveness. Finally, development of a broad suite of web analytics will enable the identification of teaching materials characteristics that lead to adoption or adaptation by others.Developing CourseSource will provide an important avenue for publishing evidence-based teaching materials, and project outcomes will contribute to an understanding of the relationship between implementation of evidence-based teaching by higher education instructors and the design/dissemination of effective teaching materials. Publication of evidence-based teaching materials in a peer-reviewed, high-quality journal is expected to increase the value of evidence-based teaching for promotion and tenure, helping to support these practices by tenure-track, research faculty in colleges and universities. In addition, the information learned through the project activities will be used iteratively and directly to improve CourseSource Lessons, thus strengthening the impact of the journal on implementation of evidence-based teaching. The design principles uncovered as a result of this project will be relevant for other educational reform efforts and digital repositories of teaching resources.