Chapter 3 Educational Material Development
3.0.0.0.1 Instructors’ use of curriculum materials is believed to have three general types of outcomes: (1) improvement of educators’ pedagogical knowledge and “design capacity”; (2) increased opportunities for students to engage in “ambitious science,” aimed at developing their skills in both generation and use of scientific knowledge; and (3) improved student learning outcomes (Davis et al., 2016). The ATE program supports the creation, validation, and dissemination of educational materials in print or digital formats to be used for instructional or assessment purposes. Such materials include—but are not limited to— tests, lab experiments, instructional modules, and textbooks.
3.0.0.0.2 The PIs whose projects developed educational materials were asked to report the type and number of materials they developed or adapted and how those materials were disseminated beyond their institutions.
3.1 Educational Material Development
3.1.0.1 Forty percent of ATE projects created or substantially modified educational materials.
3.1.0.1.1 146 ATE projects developed or modified over 5,500 educational materials in 2021.
Additional materials developed include 270 instructor guides,180 case studies or problem sets, 120 program curricula, and 20 textbooks. One project developed 470 mini-lecture videos. ATE projects also developed 650 other types of materials.
Educational materials created in 2021 by ATE projects were primarily disseminated through the projects’ websites (65%) and conference presentations or booths (64%). This was followed by workshops (50%), ATE Central (the ATE program’s archiving platform; 47%), and commercial publication (6%).
One hundred twelve ATE projects disseminated educational materials that were created prior to 2021. These materials were primarily course curricula (53%), modules or instructional units (42%), and program curricula (36%). ATE projects also reported continued dissemination of lab experiments (34%), assessment activities or tests (33%), and lesson plans (31%) created in previous years.
Posting materials on a project’s website (63%) was the most prominent avenue for disseminating materials created in previous years. 52% of projects distributed materials at a conferences, and 47% of projects distributed materials that were developed in a previous year at workshops.
Thirty-six of the 135 projects that developed and/or disseminated educational materials kept track of which other institutions are using their program and/or course curricula.
Note that one project was responsible for a 68% drop in the number of institutions that used curricula created by ATE projects between 2020 (1,220) and 2021 (390).