As part of an NSF-funded (#1915424/#1914996/#1915343) project, a team of researchers (Jack Barbera, Portland State University; Regis Komperda, San Diego State University; and Jordan Harshman, Auburn University) is working to build an assessment library. As we design this resource, we are looking for feedback from the chemistry education community to make it as valuable as possible. We would like to invite you to participate in a brief interview about how we can make this tool useful for you.
What is CHIRAL?
CHIRAL stands for The CHemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library. Our goal is to develop an assessment library capable of enhancing the evidence used to support instructional practices in chemistry education. Many of the resources here will be valuable to faculty and high school teachers in chemistry to help them improve student learning. We will design a site to contain 1) a searchable database of available inventories which can be filtered according to several parameters, 2) an overview of the goals, purpose, references, evidence for validity and reliability of the assessment, and other relevant metadata about the assessment, 3) panel-reviews that summarize the existing evidence for validity and reliability of the data produced by the assessment in literature, and 4) a glossary of key terms used frequently in assessment research.
What will I find on CHIRAL?
The figure below provides a mock-up of how CHIRAL will be displayed.
Figure 1: View of future CHIRAL website
Part 1 shows a catalog which is searchable and browsable by keywords, domains, specific topics, and other pertinent information. Part 2 contains various information of an instrument, such as name of the inventory, publication date, number of items. For each instrument, a brief summary about the instrument will be displayed on the main search results page. Expanding the record for each instrument will make five tabs available: (A) an overview summarizing instrument metadata and the development history; (B) a peer review panel summary of the available evidence for validity and reliability; (C) validity and reliability evidence presented for data collected using the instrument; (D) alternative versions and translations of the instrument; and (E) citations of published literature utilizing this instrument. Part 3 is the searchable glossary, the entire page will be indexed so that every time a term or concept appears that may be unfamiliar to the user, the user can click it and gain access to an in-page glossary that defines this term in varying levels of detail.
In addition to developing the features described above, we will also solicit other desired features from the chemistry education community through a needs assessment study. This will ensure that the CHIRAL website contains features, information, and tools that the chemistry education community finds useful.
How can I participate in this project?
We would like to invite you to participate in this NSF funded CHemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library (CHIRAL) project. Your participation will provide valuable insights for developing desired features for the CHIRAL website that will be beneficial to the chemistry education community.
We are inviting faculty in chemistry departments and high school chemistry teachers to participate in an interview conducted via Zoom. The goal of the interview is to identify which features would be desired by and/or beneficial to the community by asking questions about the knowledge of assessment terms and concepts, current use of evidence-based assessments, and hypothetical scenarios of how faculty might use a library such as CHIRAL. This interview is expected to last about 45 minutes and our research group will provide a $25 Amazon gift card as a thank you for each participant's contribution and time.
If you are interested in this opportunity, email qzc0009@auburn.edu(link sends e-mail) and we will schedule an interview time and date. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions that you have about this project or how you can participate. Thank you for your time.
Best regards,
Qi Cui
*Preview image: Alexandr Borecky(link is external) from Pexels(link is external).