http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/isee_pdp20yr_assessment/rss Recent eScholarship items from Assessment Mon, 21 Sep 2026 06:47:42 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fz0181f Developing the final summative assessment of a course at the start of curriculum development is an implementation of “backward design,” whereby learning objectives are identified first and the curriculum is engineered end-to-beginning to achieve them. We trained in backward design through the Professional Development Program (PDP) and adapted PDP assessment ideas for evaluation of curriculum designs and teaching efficacy. A pre‑/post-quiz is an assessment administered the first and last day of a course; a learner’s scores are used to measure normalized gain: the ratio of what a student learned during a course relative to what they knew entering it. The intentional process of developing a pre‑/post-quiz for every course focuses the educator on the essential understanding desired of the learners exiting the course. The normalized-gain statistics for the course can then be used to evaluate the course’s efficacy, and improvements to the curriculum can be monitored by tracking the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6fz0181f Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Cooksey, Kathy L Jonsson, Patrik https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dh7k64h The majority of physics and astronomy undergraduate major classes are structured around problem sets, an approach that does not typically make it possible for students to learn in an inquiry-based manner analogous to how scientists conduct research. One of the reasons professors often do not attempt an inquiry approach is the lack of educational tools needed to facilitate this method of learning. In this work, I describe how Astrobites — a website run by astronomy graduate students with the goal of making the latest research more accessible to undergraduates — is ideally suited to serve as an educational tool that can make problem sets more inquiry-based. I discuss how I designed inquiry-based problem sets that make use of Astrobites for several different astronomy classes that target physics and astronomy majors. I also present strategies for implementing such assignments based on assessment from the students, and provide example problem sets that received good student feedback.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dh7k64h Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000 Hammer, Michael