Introducing CHIRAL Assessment Library

Dear Chemistry Education Research Community,

A common challenge that we - the chemistry education community - face is identifying robustly developed assessments to implement in our classrooms and research projects. Scouring the literature for an appropriate assessment that measures whatever cognitive, affective, or behavioral niche we need to measure can be time-consuming. Furthermore, the development of a comprehensive summary of the available evidence that supports an assessment requires expertise in many advanced fields.

That is why we are excited to announce the launch of the Chemistry Instrument Review and Assessment Library, or CHIRAL. This free tool, available at chiral.chemedx.org, is the product of a collaborative NSF IUSE project (#1915424 | #1914996 | #1915343) that has identified and cataloged over 500 assessments used within the chemistry education community. CHIRAL allows you to quickly identify potential assessments based on keywords (i.e. "attitude", "stoichiometry", etc.) and categorical filters (i.e. designed for undergrads, multiple choice format, topic, etc.) for ease of finding what you need. For every assessment found on CHIRAL, users will see 5 tabs (please see below screenshots for examples):

* Overview: Reference to original publication in which the assessment was first developed and details about the assessment including number of items, language, country, format, domain, topic, targeted population, etc.

* Evidence: A table that summarizes the reported evidence of validity and reliability collected from papers that cite the assessment

* Review (currently available for 39 assessments): A summary written by panels of experts from within our community that provides details and recommendations about the existing evidence for validity and reliability pertaining to published administrations of an assessment

* Versions: Details about who else has modified/translated the assessment or which assessment the current one is derived from

* Citations: List of every published paper that references or administers the assessment

In addition to these features, CHIRAL also contains a glossary to help navigate the jargon associated with assessment development, links to additional resources that host similar assessment-focused information, and a deep-dive into the ongoing efforts of how our team catalogue, review, and organize everything.

It is our sincerest hope that CHIRAL provides a tool to the chemistry education community that will improve our collective ability to identify robust assessments in chemistry. We spent the last three years to build this tool for the community to use, so we are very interested in hearing your feedback about additional assessments that you would like to see listed, features that you want to see implemented, or any errors that you notice.

We will be discussing CHIRAL and our catalog/review process at the upcoming BCCE (#1050 at 4:50 PM on Wednesday, August 3 in WALC 1018) for anyone who would like to see more of the CHIRAL. Please reach out to any members of the project team with any questions you may have.

Happy assessment searching!

Jack Barbera, jbarbera@pdx.edu, Portland State University (project lead, panel review coordinator)

Regis Komperda, rkomperda@sdsu.edu, San Diego State University (primary database compiler & manager)

Jordan Harshman, jharshman@auburn.edu, Auburn University (webmaster & glossary editor)

CHIRAL Screenshots

Search CHIRAL for keywords, like "attitude":

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image001_32.png

Browse CHIRAL for categories, like all assessments that measure "Bonding":

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image002_12.png

The Overview tab provides quick details about the instrument:

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image003_8.png

The Evidence tab displays a summary of every resource that reports evidence of validity and reliability:

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image004.jpg

The Review tab (if available) provides a summary written by a panel that reviewed the evidence and provides recommendations:

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image005_2.png

The Versions tab will show how this assessment has been modified and if it is a modification of an existing assessment:

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image006_4.png

The Citations tab will list papers that have used the assessment in some way:

https://cer.chemedx.org/sites/cer.chemedx.org/files/image007_2.png

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