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

虽然许多学院和大学教职员工明白循证教学的重要性，但获得所需培训的机会有限，这些培训需要编写清晰而深刻的评估问题，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一支由大约30名教师组成的干部队伍，他们来自美国东南部的学院和大学，包括该地区许多历史上的黑人学院和大学，学习撰写有效评估问题的最佳做法。这将通过为分子生命科学教员举办的研讨会来实现。在研讨会上，参与者将与经验丰富的同事合作，他们将提供有效问题写作原则的培训，更重要的是，与他们一起就说明性例子以及最后参与者自己的问题进行培训。将建立一个在线社区，以保持参与者和主持人之间的联系，以支持前者在课堂上应用所学到的经验教训。反过来，预计工作坊毕业生将指导对提高自己的问题写作能力感兴趣的同事。教育工作者的专业发展有可能在未来多年造福于大量学生。为了为分子生命科学提供有效的问题设计培训，该项目将在2020年夏季为30名科学家/教育工作者组织一个为期一天半的研讨会。研讨会将以组织者在设计和评分美国生物化学和分子生物学协会提供的年度本科认证考试方面获得的专业知识为基础。研讨会将首先介绍如何编写有效的问题和相应的规则，然后是修改问题和最终创建新问题的实践练习。一位主旨发言人将讨论评估方面的最佳做法。讲习班结束时将对问题写作过程进行反思，并维持一个问题写作者社区。研讨会在亚特兰大地区举行，将向不同的本科生机构宣传，包括为少数族裔服务的学院和大学。研讨会的范围将是区域性的，并将具有双重目标，即使教育工作者能够针对具体的学习目标构建明确的问题，并为建立一个包容的、全国性的社区奠定基础，该社区将连接对有效问题设计感兴趣的教育工作者。该项目由生物科学局生物基础设施司和教育与人力资源局本科教育司共同资助，作为他们努力应对“本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁”(http://visionandchange/finalreport).This奖反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估)中提出的挑战的一部分。

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.