Resources for Assessing Educational Interventions in Biology at the Collegiate Level

Most scientific research is judged based on the quality of controlled experiments and carefully analyzed results. In addition, proper levels of regulation in terms of biosafety and animal usage are a routine part of the scientific research process for laboratories. For many biologists, educational research is much more of a black box. While faculty have many great ideas on how to improve education, they struggle with the best way to evaluate whether their ideas lead to greater student outcomes. Here we provide a review of compliance issues related to educational research, as well as describe ways in which pedagogical innovations in biology can be assessed. We also describe some of the challenges related to educational research and how these could be addressed. Citation: Choi, Y. , Saphier, G.C. , and Anderson, W.J. 2016. Resources for Assessing Educational Interventions in Biology at the Collegiate Level. CourseSource. https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2016. 1 Editor: Robin Wright, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis MN Received: 5/4/2016; Accepted: 6/20/2016; Published: 9/19/2016 Copyright: © 2016 Choi, Saphier, and Anderson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Conf ict of Interest and Funding Statement: None of the authors have a financial, personal, or professional conflict of interest related to this work. *Correspondence to: 7 Divinity Ave, Bauer 204, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: william_anderson@harvard.edu CourseSource | www.coursesource. org 2016 | Volume 03 1 Essay Compliance and Assessment are Critical for Successful Innovation in STEM Education A series of national reports and commentaries calling for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education reform has gradually brought about changes in classroom environment and teaching methods (1-5). Terms such as “active learning,” “flipped classroom,” and “clicker questions” are no longer obscure to many science educators (6). Prestigious science journals have published science education research papers, and scientific communities have organized workshops where instructors can learn and discuss effective teaching strategies (1,7-9). Equipped with growing support and resources, science educators are encouraged to implement and assess novel teaching methods more than ever. However, many faculty members in higher education are apprehensive about performing any systematic evaluation of their pedagogical strategies (10) beyond conventional student course evaluations. For instance, it is not hard to find education research presentations at conferences that lack formal assessment. In many cases, researchers use affective assessments on how students view the intervention on their own outcome without using a more objective quantification, such as normalized learning gain. Sometimes, the assessment tools are inconsistent (and sometimes inappropriate) based upon the question asked. Furthermore, many of these studies are presented without obtaining IRB determination or approval prior to engaging in the research. To foster and disseminate research-based pedagogical strategies in STEM education, it is necessary to provide instructors, who were trained as scientists and thus are generally unaccustomed to the setting of educational research, with the tools necessary to assess their classroom innovations. To aid science educators in entering possible uncharted territory surrounding educational research, we address in this essay two issues that instructors should consider while planning for educational research: regulatory compliance and assessment tools for pedagogical interventions. What Regulatory Compliance Issues Arise from Education Research? Family Education Rights and Privacy Act In general, the compliance issues faced by faculty looking to conduct educational research are regulated by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and by the Department of Health and Human Services regulations for the Protection of Human Subjects (45CFR46), colloquially referred to as “the