1. The SALG is a free, reliable and valid instrument for assessing student learning. It includes both baseline (beginning of term) and end-of-term instruments, and is available atwww.salgsite.org. The SDG comprises Stephen Carroll—PI (Santa Clara University), Robert Mathieu (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Elaine Seymour (University of Colorado, emerita), and Tim Weston (University of Colorado). Susan Lottridge—formerly Sue Daffinrud—(Pacific Metrics) left the SDG in 2009. Melissa Ganus (Ganus Research) joined the group in 2011.
2. Scope creep (sometimes called feature creep, mission creep or requirement creep) refers to unplanned or uncontrolled changes to a project’s scope, often caused by adding features or requirements or applications that were not in the original project plan.
3. Key members of Seymour’s research team included Carolie Coates, Heather Thiry, Tim Weston and Susan Lottridge. PIs for ChemLinks Coalition: Making Chemical Connections, were Brock Spencer (Beloit College), James Swartz (Grinnell College), Sandra Laursen (University of Colorado), and David Oxtoby (University of Chicago). PIs for the ModularCHEM Consortium (Sweeping Change in Manageable Units: A Modular Approach to Chemistry Curriculum Reform) were C. Bradley Moore, Angelica Stacy, and Susan Kegley. The project director for ModularCHEM was Eileen Lewis.
4. This disjunction between SCEs and learning was important to the development of the SALG in two ways. First, the evaluation team observed that the lower scores on SCEs earned by some of the faculty teaching experimental classes led to failed tenure bids despite the fact that their students learned more than those in the control classes—whose instructors earned higher scores on SCEs. Seymour’s team wanted to create an instrument that could provide data that would allow teachers to push back against this kind of manifest injustice. Second, the wide (and often exclusive) use of SCEs to determine teaching scores in rank, tenure and promotion (RTP) decisions creates a powerful counterincentive to do the kinds of experiments—particularly ones that challenge students’ preconceptions—that can genuinely improve teaching and learning. Part of the purpose of the SALG is to facilitate this kind of research by developing a valid and reliable instrument that can document and defend such research and its results.
5. Seymour, E.
Wiese, D.
Hunter, A.
Daffinrud, S. Creating a Better Mousetrap: On-line Student Assessment of their Learning Gains; University of Colorado, Bureau of Sociological Research: Boulder, CO,2000.http://www.aacu.org/resources/sciencehealth/documents/Mousetrap.pdf(accessed July 11, 2012).