This project will plan a research collaboration network to explore and share strategies used in assessing the effectiveness on student learning of technology interfaces between faculty and students in undergraduate biology education. New technologies, especially those involving distance-learning and Web 2.0 tools, are being incorporated into biology education, making many previous learning assessment tools ineffective. Thus new research tools and assessments must be developed to determine whether these technology-enhanced teaching strategies indeed improve student learning. For the purpose of this project, we will limit the definition of "technology in biology education" to those technologies that serve as an interface between and among faculty and students. These technologies include web-based lessons, video conferencing, podcasting, social networking and other similar technologies. This project will fund two planning meetings which will identify the major research and assessment concerns on this topic in order to prepare a proposal for a Research Collaboration Network to address these issues. The planning meetings will be held at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas in the spring and early summer of 2010.
The intellectual merit of the proposed activity includes bringing together experts from biology, instructional technology, assessment, and virtual networking. The group will plan the necessary infrastructure and assessments that will be needed to support and disseminate an interdisciplinary research community focused on assessing the effectiveness of learning technologies in undergraduate biology education. Since a growing number of undergraduate students are exposed to technology-enhanced instruction in their biology courses, this project will have broader impact by determining the types of assessments and collaborations needed by the community of scholars who are engaging in research on technology-enhanced biology education. The planning workshops and focus groups will engage biology and education researchers from across the country who represent a variety of institutions, disciplines, and backgrounds.
This project is supported jointly by the Biological Sciences Directorate and the Division of Undergraduate Education.
This project sought to obtain information from the biology education research community on how best to establish a research network on the assessment of learning technologies in biology education. The information gathered in this incubator project was used to prepare a full proposal to the NSF Research Network Coordination program. The grant team collected this information through a focus group meeting, by attending biology education conferences to speak with attendees, and through online surveys. Using the collected information, the grant team prepared as our major outcome a full proposal to the NSF Research Coordination Program. That proposal seeks to establish the Biology Education - Technology Assessment (BETA) Network for biology education researchers. The goal of this network is to improve biology education by better understanding how to use technology in teaching settings. This goal will be acheived by developing a strong research network of biology educators and other experts who can properly assess the use of technology in biology teaching. The proposed network would provide online resources for research collaboration and information sharing. The network would also develop and present workshops on technology assessment and the resources of the network at national education conferences that are attended by biology educators. Once a strong network has been established, the proposal also seeks to organize a national conference on assessment of technology in biology education to be held in the final year of the proposed project.
