Announcements

Users find value in OER lessons

Our recent paper in Frontiers finds that users make only minor adaptations as they implement OER lessons in their courses.

Assessing scientific practices?  Why not?

Check out our paper in PLOS ONE exploring factors associated with testing scientific practices on lower-division biology exams.

Assessing scientific practices?  Not so much.

Our new paper in CBE-LSE finds that lower-division biology lecture courses primarily test conceptual knowledge and facts, with limited exposure to scientific practices.

Congrats, Dr. Kirkwood-Watts!

Dana Kirkwood-Watts successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on student engagement with formative assessments.

Congrats, Dr. Uminski!

Crystal Uminski successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on assessment motivation and science practices.

Assessment stakes and setting

Our new paper published in CBE-LSE explores how concept assessment performance changes based on where and how it is administered.

UNL hosting X-DBER 2023 conference

This virtual conference will bring together researchers and practitioners from across STEM disciplines to discuss frontiers in interdisciplinary education research. 

Access and barriers to online homework

We published a paper surveying students on the challenges students face in completing online homework assignments in CBE-LSE.

Sharing knowledge about knowledge sharing

Our publication on faculty teaching conversations in Int J STEM Educ was recently featured in a blog post on PERbites. 

Revisiting clickers

This new paper in JMBE explores how student clicker responses translate into performance on homework and exam questions.

Formative assessment in the news

Our collaboration with Southeast CC and CYFS/MAP investigating student experiences with online assignments was featured in Nebraska Today.

Master's thesis defense

Congratulations to graduate student Allison Upchurch for successfully defending her Master's thesis identifying barriers to online homework assignments.

Vision and Change through OERs

Our collaborative research focused on how the Vision and Change call to action has inspired the OER movement was featured by Nebraska, Cornell, and UMaine.

Lightning talk first prize

Congratulations to graduate student Crystal Uminski for being awarded first place for her lightning talk at the UNL Biology Student Association Symposium.

A window into the first day of classes

This new paper explores what STEM instructors do and say on the first day of class, published online in CBE-LSE.

3-D models bring biochemistry to life

Our collaborative project to develop 3-D printed models of macromolecules for biochemistry courses was featured in Nebraska Today.

Paper on faculty social networks around teaching

Published in PNAS and featured in the Chronicle and Nebraska Today, this paper discovered that innovative teachers tend to talk to like-minded colleagues about teaching, rather than faculty who teach different from them.