The BVA uses a number of tools to generate and share data across campuses participating in our Research Action Clusters (RACs), working groups and special projects. BVA initiatives also develop tools for use in supporting evidence-based teaching.
Case Studies Interview Protocol
Developed by Mary Taylor Huber and Pat Hutchings, this interview protocol has served as a framework to guide the BVA’s case study interviews. Over the course of an initial (benchmark) two-day campus visit, formal interviews are conducted with individuals and small groups involved with course transformation in a target STEM department. Within each interview session, an emergent, conversational approach allows a more in-depth exploration of new threads, ideas heard in earlier sessions, and a focus on priorities. Interviews conducted midway through and after the conclusion of the initiative build on the same protocol and process. All participants in formal sessions sign a consent form approved by their institution’s Institutional Review Board.
Case Study Interview Protocols
Classroom Observation
The BVA’s RAC on course transformation, TRESTLE, is using the Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) to record student and instructor activities in the classroom. TRESTLE participants use COPUS observations for project measurement (measuring change in faculty teaching practices) and to provide formative feedback to instructors. The COPUS was developed at the University of British Columbia as part of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative. For more information about COPUS, please see the TRESTLE website.
The Generalized Observation and Reflection Protocol (GORP), a web-based version of COPUS has been developed at the University of California, Davis, a TRESTLE campus partner.
The Laboratory Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (LOPUS) has been used for classroom (laboratory) observation by TRESTLE participants at Queen’s University. Their version of the code descriptions is available here.
Framework for the Multidimensional Evaluation of Teaching
The BVA’s Research Action Cluster on evaluation teaching, TEVAL, is using a set of closely related frameworks for the multidimensional evaluation of teaching. Drawing on a common framework grounded in two decades of scholarship on scholarly teaching and its evaluation and the peer review of teaching, the specific tools developed at the University of Kansas, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of Massachusetts are frameworks are available here.
Teaching Practices Survey
Developed through the BVA collaboration to measure faculty teaching attitudes, beliefs, and practices, the Teaching Practices Survey instrument integrates and adapts surveys developed by the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, and used at the University of British Columbia, the University of Kansas, and the University of Saskatchewan. This survey is being used by campuses participating in TRESTLE, the BVA Research Action Cluster on course transformation.