Student assessment in large-enrollment biology classes.

Area of Science:

• Biology Education
• Higher Education Pedagogy

Background:

• Large first-year university biology course enrollments pose significant challenges for effective student learning assessment.
• Traditional assessment methods like multiple-choice and open-ended questions may not fully capture deep conceptual understanding in large cohorts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel assessment instrument,
• Understand Before Choosing
• (UBC), in assessing student learning in large introductory biology courses.
• To compare the performance of UBC with traditional assessment methods.

Main Methods:

• The
• Understand Before Choosing
• (UBC) instrument was developed, comprising a 700-word text on a specific topic and five carefully crafted multiple-choice questions.
• UBC was implemented over six academic semesters.
• Student performance using UBC was compared against results from multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions.

Main Results:

• The
• Understand Before Choosing
• (UBC) instrument demonstrated superior performance in evaluating student comprehension compared to traditional assessment methods.
• Analysis indicated that UBC effectively measures students' ability to understand and apply concepts presented in the text.

Conclusions:

• The
• Understand Before Choosing
• (UBC) assessment tool is a viable and effective method for evaluating student learning in large introductory biology courses.
• UBC offers a more robust assessment of conceptual understanding than conventional multiple-choice or open-ended questions.