Description an analysis of the validation process of the instrument for measuring academic achievement, degree of interest and satisfaction of non-STEM undergraduate students in a Biological Sciences innovative course of the General Education component

Abstract

The assessment evaluates, among other criteria, the competences on research and
creation that the undergraduate student acquires in his path through university, On the other hand,
the authors’ discipline-based education research required the designing and validation of an
evaluation instrument capable of measuring the student improvement in knowledge and
comprehension of the medullar topics that are offered in the course Ciencia, Biotecnología y
Sociedad. Additionally, it measured the “non-STEM” participant transition in interest and
satisfaction toward aspects such as: continuing graduate studies, investigating in their field of
expertise, or taking other courses in the Biological Sciences field. The CiBi 3028 course is a
curricular innovation in which Biotechnology is the topic that interlace the rest of the topics to be
discussed. The laboratory experiences are totally related to the main topic. The designed
measuring tool consists of three (3) parts. The first one consists in a survey about
sociodemographic variables of the participants. The second part is a questionnaire that permits
to evaluate the levels of interest and satisfaction of the students taking CiBi 3028. Meanwhile, the
third part consists of a diagnostic test to evaluate the progress of the alumni on the medullar
concepts and the laboratory procedures that are discussed and practiced in the course.
The measuring tool was evaluated by a panel of three professors. After this peer evaluation, a
pilot test of the instrument was administrated to a 27 students’ group of CiBi 3028. The data
collected from this pilot test are described in this paper. The results of the factorial analysis that
was carried out for the evaluation of the instrument show correlations in a factor greater than 0.40,
which lets retain all the instrument items without modifications. For the instrument’s reliability, the
Cronbach’s Alpha test was used, in which is obtained a value of 0.77. The result allows to certify
it as valid and adequate for its utilization in the education research project carried out by the
authors. The instrument format and the described validation protocol could be adapted for the evaluation of diverse courses and curricular innovations for the different disciplines that comprise
the General Education.