Supporting physics teaching with research-based resources

To ensure that the assessment can be broadly usable, the developers administered a survey to physics faculty to determine the scope and content variability of thermal physics courses across institutions. They received over 70 responses from 63 unique institutions, approximately half of which are minority-serving institutions and women's colleges. They found that there is significant variation in the content covered at different institutions, but also some general agreement on a number of core content areas. They identified 10 key topics which were listed by the majority (95%) of survey respondents to focus on for the assessment development process. They then wrote assessment objectives that encompass core content goals within these 10 topics, which guided the writing of free-response assessment items that were piloted with students. Using student responses to the free-response items, they developed multiple-response versions, which includes both multiple-choice and coupled, multiple-response items. They piloted the U-STEP in multiple classes across various institutions during three semesters, and collected over 600 student responses in total. They used classical test theory to determine item difficulties and discriminations, and differential item functioning to identify potential bias in assessment items that can manifest as performance gaps between different genders and races.