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

虽然许多学院和大学教师都明白循证教学的重要性，但获得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科目的理解所需的培训的机会是有限的。这个项目的目的是培训来自美国东南部的学院和大学的大约30名骨干教师，包括该地区许多历史上的黑人学院和大学，以编写有效的评估问题的最佳实践。这将通过分子生命科学学院的研讨会来完成。在研讨会上，参与者将与经验丰富的同事一起工作，他们将提供有效问题写作原则的培训，更重要的是，与他们一起使用说明性示例，最后是参与者自己的问题。将建立一个在线社区，以保持参与者和辅导员之间的联系，以支持参与者在课堂上应用所学的课程。反过来，预计工作坊的毕业生将指导有兴趣提高自己的问题写作能力的同事。多年来，教育工作者的专业发展有可能使大量学生受益。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学会提供的年度本科认证考试方面获得的专业知识为基础。工作坊将首先介绍如何写有效的问题和相应的规则，然后是动手练习修改问题，最终创造新问题。主讲人将讨论评估中的最佳实践。研讨会最后将反思问题撰写过程和维持问题撰写者社区。研讨会在亚特兰大地区举行，将向不同的本科院校进行宣传，包括少数民族学院和大学。该研讨会将在区域范围内进行，并将有两个目标，即装备教育工作者构建针对特定学习目标的明确问题，并为一个包容性的国家社区奠定基础，该社区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司生物科学司和教育和人力资源司本科教育司共同资助，作为其应对“本科生物学教育的愿景与变革：行动呼吁”（http://visionandchange/finalreport）所提出的挑战的努力的一部分。该奖项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知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.