title: Harnessing technology to improve formative assessment of student conceptions in STEM: forging a national network.
abstract: Concept inventories, consisting of multiple-choice questions designed around common student misconceptions, are designed to reveal student thinking. However, students often have complex, heterogeneous ideas about scientific concepts. Constructed-response assessments, in which students must create their own answer, may better reveal students' thinking, but are time- and resource-intensive to evaluate. This report describes the initial meeting of a National Science Foundation-funded cross-institutional collaboration of interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education researchers interested in exploring the use of automated text analysis to evaluate constructed-response assessments. Participants at the meeting shared existing work on lexical analysis and concept inventories, participated in technology demonstrations and workshops, and discussed research goals. We are seeking interested collaborators to join our research community.
authors.affiliation: Division of Science and Mathematics Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Haudek
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Merrill
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Munn
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nehm
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Urban-Lurain
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004738:Engineering / Q000193:education*; D008433:Mathematics / Q000193:education*; D012106:Research; D012586:Science / Q000193:education*; D012984:Software; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013672:Technology / Q000193:education*; D013850:Thinking