ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING IN INTRODUCTORY-LEVEL OCEANOGRAPHY COURSES

The Introductory Oceanography Concept Inventory Survey (IO-CIS) is an assessment tool that was developed for implementation as a pre-instruction and post-instruction “test” that measures student learning gains in both traditional lecture-style courses and more interactive courses. The IO-CIS was developed and validated for an introductory-level oceanography course for upper division students who were mainly non-science majors. Development of this assessment tool was based on Classical Test Theory and utilized a mixed methods approach (i.e. both qualitative and quantitative). It was further refined using Item Response Theory.

The course for which it was developed was taught at a large west central state university. Student responses from three different sections of the course taught by two different instructors comprise the total population of student responses used in the development of this assessment tool. Student participation was voluntary and no incentives for participation were offered. One section had 92 students participate in a pre-instruction administration of the IO-CIS, another section had 81 students participate in a post-instruction administration of the IO-CIS, and another section had 152 students participate in the pre-instruction administration and 139 students in the post-instruction. The IO-CIS has the potential to be used in introductory-level oceanography courses taught at other institutions.