Building Community Capacity for Assessment of Student Learning in Undergraduate Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

虽然许多学院和大学的教师了解循证教学的重要性，但获得编写清晰而深刻的评估问题所需的培训的机会有限，这些问题可以可靠地评估学生对生物化学和其他STEM学科的理解。该项目的目的是培训来自美国东南部学院和大学（包括该地区许多历史悠久的黑人学院和大学）的约30名教师，学习编写有效评估问题的最佳实践。这将通过为分子生命科学学院举办讲习班来完成。在讲习班上，参加者将与经验丰富的同事一起工作，他们将提供关于有效问题写作原则的培训，更重要的是，与他们一起编写说明性例子，最后是参加者自己的问题。将建立一个在线社区，以保持参与者与主持人之间的联系，支持参与者在课堂上应用学到的经验教训。反过来，预计研讨会的毕业生将指导有兴趣提高自己的问题写作能力的同事。教育工作者的专业发展有可能在多年内使大量学生受益。为了提供分子生命科学有效问题设计的培训，该项目将在2020年夏季为30名科学家/教育工作者组织为期一天半的研讨会。该研讨会将建立在组织者在设计和评分由美国生物化学和分子生物学学会提供的年度本科生认证考试中获得的专业知识的基础上。研讨会将开始介绍如何编写有效的问题和相应的规则，然后动手实践修改问题，并最终创建新的问题。一位主旨发言人将讨论评估方面的最佳做法。讲习班最后将反思问题编写过程，并维持一个问题编写者社区。在亚特兰大地区举行，研讨会将广告到不同的本科院校，包括少数民族服务的学院和大学。该讲习班将是区域性的，具有双重目标，即使教育工作者能够针对具体的学习目标提出明确的问题，并为建立一个包容性的全国社区奠定基础，将对有效问题设计感兴趣的教育工作者联系起来。该项目由生物基础设施处生物科学理事会和本科教育处教育和人力资源理事会共同资助，作为应对“本科生物学教育的愿景和变革：行动呼吁”中提出的挑战的努力的一部分。（http：//visionandchange/finalreport）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

While many college and university faculty understand the importance of evidence-based instruction, opportunities to obtain the training required to write clear and incisive assessment questions that reliably evaluate student understanding of biochemistry and other STEM subjects are limited. The purpose of this project is to train a cadre of approximately thirty instructors from colleges and universities in the Southeastern United States, including the area's many historically black colleges and universities, in best practices for writing effective assessment questions. This will be accomplished through a workshop for molecular life sciences faculty. In the workshop, participants will work with experienced colleagues who will provide training on the principles of effective question writing and, more importantly, work with them on illustrative examples and, finally, on the participants' own questions. An online community will be established to maintain contact between the participants and the facilitators to support the former in applying lessons learned in their classrooms. In turn, it is anticipated that workshop graduates will mentor colleagues interested in improving their own question-writing abilities.Professional development of educators has the potential to benefit large numbers of students over many years. To provide training in effective question design for the molecular life sciences, this project will organize a one-and-a-half-day workshop for thirty scientists/educators in Summer 2020. The workshop will build on expertise gained by the organizers in designing and scoring the annual undergraduate certification exam offered by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The workshop will begin with an introduction to writing effective questions and corresponding rubrics, followed by hands-on practice in revising questions and ultimately creating new questions. A keynote speaker will discuss best practices in assessment. The workshop will conclude with reflections on the question-writing process and sustaining a community of question writers. Held in the Atlanta area, the workshop will be advertised to diverse undergraduate institutions, including minority-serving colleges and universities. The workshop will be regional in scope and will have the dual goals of equipping educators to construct clear questions targeted to specific learning objectives and laying the foundation for an inclusive, national community that connects educators interested in effective question design. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action" (http://visionandchange/finalreport).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.