Search for: All records

As quantum technologies transition out of the research lab and into commercial applications, it becomes important to better prepare students to enter this new and evolving workforce. To work toward this goal of preparing physics students for a career in the quantum industry, a senior capstone course called “Quantum Forge” was created at the University of Colorado Boulder. This course aims to provide students with a hands-on quantum experience and prepare them to enter the quantum workforce directly after their undergraduate studies. Some of the course’s goals are to have students understand what comprises the quantum industry and have them feel confident they could enter the industry if desired. To understand to what extent these goals are achieved, we followed the first cohort of Quantum Forge students through their year in the course in order to understand their perceptions of the quantum industry, including what it is, whether they feel that they could be successful in it, and whether or not they want to participate in it. The results of this work can assist educators in optimizing the design of future quantum-industry-focused courses and programs to better prepare students to be a part of this burgeoning industry. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

Photovoice is a type of participatory action research in which individuals document their experiences through photography. Through the taking, captioning, and reflecting on photographs that they have taken, participants are able to affect change within their communities. Participants also take part in an interview or focus group about their photos at the end of the photovoice process in which they determine themes that appear in their photos, allowing them to participate in the research being done. We used the photovoice methodology in a small, project-based, upper-division, physics capstone course at the University of Colorado Boulder, in which students worked on an authentic industry project in partnership with a company in the quantum industry. As an example of the types of research results and benefits one could obtain using photovoice, we present a discussion of how we implemented the photovoice process within this course and present some of our results, including students’ experiences with the photovoice process. Photovoice may be particularly useful in understanding new, unique courses, as it allows students to co-create research that highlights ideas about the course that researchers would not know to ask about in more traditional research methodologies such as reflection questions. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

Quantum mechanics is a subject rife with student conceptual difficulties. In order to study and devise better strategies for helping students overcome them, we need ways of assessing on a broad level how students are thinking. This is possible with the use of standardized, research-validated assessments like the Quantum Mechanics Concept Assessment (QMCA). These assessments are useful, but they lack rigorous population independence, and the question ordering cannot be rearranged without throwing into question the validity of the results. One way to overcome these two issues is to design the exam to be compatible with Rasch measurement theory which calibrates individual items and is capable of assessing item difficulty and person ability independently. In this paper, we present a Rasch analysis of the QMCA and discuss estimated item difficulties and person abilities, item and person fit to the Rasch model, and unidimensionality of the instrument. This work will lay the foundation for more robust and potentially generalizable assessments in the future. 

Recent years have seen a movement within the research-based assessment development community towards item formats that go beyond simple multiple-choice formats. Some have moved towards free-response questions, particularly at the upper-division level; however, free-response items have the constraint that they must be scored by hand. To avoid this limitation, some assessment developers have moved toward formats that maintain the closed-response format, while still providing more nuanced insight into student reasoning. One such format is known as coupled, multiple response (CMR). This format pairs multiple-choice and multiple-response formats to allow students to both commit to an answer in addition to selecting options that correspond with their reasoning. In addition to being machine-scorable, this format allows for more nuanced scoring than simple right or wrong. However, such nuanced scoring presents a potential challenge with respect to utilizing certain testing theories to construct validity arguments for the assessment. In particular, Item Response Theory (IRT) models often assume dichotomously scored items. While polytomous IRT models do exist, each brings with it certain constraints and limitations. Here, we will explore multiple IRT models and scoring schema using data from an existing CMR test, with the goal of providing guidance and insight for possible methods for simultaneously leveraging the affordances of both the CMR format and IRT models in the context of constructing validity arguments for research-based assessments.