Development and Validation of Observational and Self-Report Instruments to Describe Teaching Practices in Online Undergraduate STEM Courses

使用在线教学的本科STEM课程正在迅速增长。为了应对这一趋势，STEM教育研究领域的领导者正在努力为研究人员和从业者开发一种共同的语言和工具，用于描述和评估在线STEM教学方法。在面对面的课堂上，教育研究人员和实践者可以访问并有效地使用经过验证的工具来研究教学效果。类似的在线教学工具还不存在。这些工具用于质量设计和控制目的。为了满足这一需求，该项目将开发并验证两个度量工具。第一个是观测方案。第二种是自我报告工具。这些工具将用于可靠地收集可比较的、非评估性的数据，用于描述、研究和改进在线本科STEM课程。该工具开发项目将使用顺序混合方法研究、设计、试点测试、完善，然后实施一项观察协议和一项自我报告调查，用于本科在线STEM课程的教学实践。这些工具将填补研究教学和学习环境的现有工具的空白。他们将以当前指导在线课程研究的理论为基础。它们还将与现有的仪器（由本研究小组和其他研究小组开发）相连接，形成观察类别和代码的连续体，以及可适用于各种当然方法的自我报告实践。

The use of online instruction for undergraduate STEM courses is growing rapidly. In response to this trend, leaders in the field of STEM education research are working to develop a common language and tools for researchers and practitioners to use to describe and assess online STEM instructional methods. In face-to-face classrooms, educational researchers and practitioners have access to and have made productive use of validated instruments for studying teaching effectiveness. Analogous tools do not yet exist for online instruction. These tools are needed for quality design and control purposes. To meet this need, this project will develop and validate two measurement tools. The first is an observational protocol. The second is a self-report instrument. These tools will be used to reliably collect comparable, non-evaluative data for the description, study, and improvement of online, undergraduate STEM courses.This instrument development project will use a sequential mixed methods approach to research, design, pilot-test, refine, and then implement an observation protocol and a self-report survey of instructional practices for undergraduate online STEM courses. These instruments will fill a gap in the available set of tools to study teaching and learning environments. They will be grounded in current theory guiding research on online courses. They will also be connected to current instruments (developed by this research team and others), forming a continuum of observation categories and codes, and self-reported practices that can be adapted for use across the spectrum of course approaches.