Search for: All records

For a decade, BioMolViz has been developing tools to improve visual literacy instruction. In collaboration with the biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) education community, our group authored a Biomolecular Visualization Framework to assess visual literacy skills and used the framework’s learning objectives in the backward design of assessments. Our validation process, which includes iterative revision by our working group of faculty, expert panel review, and large-scale classroom testing, has produced a subset of validated assessments which are available in our online repository, the BioMolViz Library. Nearly 200 assessments are now moving through the earlier phases of our validation process. With an eye always on inclusivity, we used our large-scale field testing data to examine performance trends. Upon observing some differences in performance that correlated with gender and race, we organized semi-structured interviews with small groups of undergraduate students to further evaluate our assessments. Disaggregating students into groups by gender, we asked students to share initial impressions and engage in collaborative reflection on their problem solving strategies. As we thematically code our interview transcripts, which include male and female groups from three U.S.-based institutions, we seek to further improve the clarity of our assessments, while exploring approaches to problem solving that may uncover demographic-related differences and make visual literacy more inclusive for all learners. 

A brief glance through molecular biology and biochemistry textbooks underscores the importance of interpreting visual images in the molecular life sciences. In fact, biomolecular visual literacy has been deemed a threshold concept, essential for student success in the field. As one example, grasping the information displayed in visual representations is a gateway to a deep understanding of structure-function relationships, a core concept in biology education. Despite much interest, few studies have examined the assessment of visual literacy skills in the area of biomolecules. Ten years ago, BioMolViz began an initiative to improve biomolecular visualization instruction and assessment, which focused on developing validated assessments to probe students' visual literacy skills. In 2023, we introduced the BioMolViz Library, a repository where instructors can access the instruments built by our community. A subset of these assessments were administered in classrooms in a pilot field test during the 2022–2023 academic year. We gained invaluable information from both quantitative and qualitative data collected. Lessons learned from this first classroom test guided the design of the 2023–2024 large-scale field testing we describe here with over ten partner institutions, high enrollment classes, and an increased number of items per survey. We present the results of our analysis of item difficulty, discrimination, and distractor analysis, alongside a robust analysis of the influence of gender and race/ethnicity on student performance. To improve the statistical power of the study, we exchanged open-ended written feedback for an increased number of assessment items administered on each survey. However, recognizing the value of student feedback obtained through a mixed methods analysis from our 2022–2023 study, we followed up with focus groups to explore the perceptions and problem solving process of both low- and high-performing students. We present the results of our assessment validation, including an analysis of the influence of learner level, gender identity, and race/ethnicity on performance. We include suggestions for equitable and inclusive assessment methods as we continue to strive to improve visual literacy instruction. This material is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants RCN-UBE #1920270 and NSF-IUSE #1712268. 

While visual literacy has been identified as a foundational skill in life science education, there are many challenges in teaching and assessing biomolecular visualization skills. Among these are the lack of consensus about what constitutes competence and limited understanding of student and instructor perceptions of visual literacy tasks. In this study, we administered a set of biomolecular visualization assessments, developed as part of the BioMolViz project, to both students and instructors at multiple institutions and compared their perceptions of task difficulty. We then analyzed our findings using a mixed-methods approach. Quantitative analysis was used to answer the following research questions: (1) Which assessment items exhibit statistically significant disparities or agreements in perceptions of difficulty between instructors and students? (2) Do these perceptions persist when controlling for race/ethnicity and gender? and (3) How does student perception of difficulty relate to performance? Qualitative analysis of open-ended comments was used to identify predominant themes related to visual problem solving. The results show that perceptions of difficulty significantly differ between students and instructors and that students’ performance is a significant predictor of their perception of difficulty. Overall, this study underscores the need to incorporate deliberate instruction in visualization into undergraduate life science curricula to improve student ability in this area. Accordingly, we offer recommendations to promote visual literacy skills in the classroom.