Guidelines for Access to Restricted Resources on PhysPort

PhysPort contains several kinds of resources for which access is restricted to verified educators, including:

  • Research-based assessment instruments (e.g. Force Concept Inventory) and answer keys
  • Assessment Data Explorer, where faculty can upload student responses to research-based assessment instruments and get automatic analysis and visualization of results
  • Some classroom video, for which students have consented to be viewed only by educators

These resources are available to researchers and educators for the purposes of research into student learning and evaluation of classroom teaching. You may access these resources if you are a verified educator or education researcher. To be verified, you must demonstrate that you are:

  • a non-student member of the American Association of Physics Teachers*, or
  • a faculty member or instructional staff at a college, university, or K-12 institution, or
  • a researcher at a non-profit educational organization, or
  • a curriculum developer who wishes to use these resources to assess the effectiveness of your curriculum

These resources are not available to students who are the target populations of these assessment and teaching tools, nor to curriculum developers or corporate entities who wish to use the questions therein.

*Non-student AAPT members can be verified as educators instantly by an automatic check of the AAPT member directory. All other verification requests will need to wait for a human to check them.

Frequently Asked Questions about accessing restricted resources on PhysPort:

I'm a student and I want to use these resources to study and learn. Why can't I have access to them?

We commend you for your interest in learning physics. However, these resources are designed for research, and if students use them for studying, it makes it harder for researchers to use them to assess the impact of their instruction. We encourage you to access the many other resources for students available on the web.

Back to FAQ menu

I'm an undergraduate student doing research in physics education and I need access to these resources for my research. What should I do?

Please ask your faculty advisor to request access, and to provide you with the resources you need for your research.

Back to FAQ menu

I'm a graduate student doing research in physics education and I need access to these resources for my research. What should I do?

If you are listed as a member on your research group's website, please submit a verification request and include a link to this website with your request. Otherwise, please ask your faculty advisor to send an email to verification@physport.org verifying that you are a member of their research group.

Back to FAQ menu

I'm a graduate student in charge of teaching a course and I need access to these resources in order to improve and/or assess my teaching. What should I do?

If you are listed as an instructor on your departmental website, please submit a verification request and include a link to this website with your request. Otherwise, please ask the faculty member who assigned you to teach the course to send an email to verification@physport.org verifying that you are teaching a course.

Back to FAQ menu

I'm an instructor or researcher at an institution that does not have a website or does not list me on its website. What should I do?

Please submit a verification request, and send a letter confirming your institutional affiliation on official letterhead to verification@physport.org.

Back to FAQ menu

I work for a company that develops curricula. I want to incorporate these resources into our product. What should I do?

Research-based assessment instruments should not be incorporated into educational materials because this makes it harder for researchers to use them to assess the impact of their instruction. We do not allow any other redistribution or use of resources from our site. If you would like to use a particular resource, you may contact the developer of that resource directly and ask their permission.

Back to FAQ menu

I work for a company that develops curricula. I want to use these resources to do research on the effectiveness of our curricula. What should I do?

Please submit a verification request, and include an explanation of exactly how you would like to use these resources.

Back to FAQ menu

I don't fit neatly into any of the categories you list, but I believe I should have access. What should I do?

Please submit a request through our educator verification form, and include a short explanation of why you should have access.

Back to FAQ menu