Physics courses are intended to provide students with tools allowing them to achieve the learning outcomes and prepare them for the future. Course assessments have both a formative role of encouraging mental preparedness and creating learning moments and a summative role of quality control and evaluation of the course and course participants, students and instructors. Current practices in physics research and professional settings are increasingly collaborative. How does the pedagogy respond? In many cases by allowing and encouraging collaboration between course participants..Can we go further and enforce collaboration through group assessments? In this talk I report on my experiences with group assessments in introductory, intermediate, and advanced physics classes of varying sizes and I attempt to gauge  what success means in terms of  technical skills, motivation, engagement, and equity.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework can support instructors in designing courses that reduce barriers to learning for all students. The framework, developed by Center for Applied Special Technology [1], provides a set of research-based guiding principles and specific checkpoints that serve as a guide for developing classrooms that are more accessible. A recent study by Scanlon et al. examined the alignment of research-based physics curricula with the UDL checkpoints and concluded that these curricula were unaligned with many of the checkpoints, especially in terms of providing multiple means of engagement [2]. Here we present three concrete course modifications that physics instructors can use to move towards UDL, focusing on the UDL guiding principle of multiple forms of engagement. In particular, we present techniques to (1) design the social aspects of group-work to reduce student anxiety, (2) to increase mastery-oriented feedback, and (3) to provide students choice for course assignments [3].

References: [1] UDL: The UDL Guidelines. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/. [2] Scanlon, E et al. Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 14, 020101 (2018). [3] Eblen-Zayas, M. et al. Phys. Teach. 60, 628–631 (2022).

In our hands-on lab for calculus-based physics at CSUS, students work with PASCO smart carts to build a robust understanding of the connections between work and kinetic energy. Each module follows the same learning cycle. Students begin with reading and teamwork focused on developing a strong conceptual foundation, followed by lab and an out of class assignment designed to reinforce concepts. At the end of the week the students will complete an in-person assessment and discussion related to the module. The module will conclude with an out of class homework assignment. At the start of the work-kinetic energy module the students will build intuition on the concepts of both work and kinetic energy through team based guided inquiry learning. The lab, an essential element of the student learning cycle, gives students the opportunity to physically interact with the concepts through the equipment. Students check to see how much kinetic energy is generated by various quantities of work and prove that the amount of work done equals the change in the kinetic energy of their PASCO smart cart. At the end of the learning cycle the students demonstrate their learning through an assessment wrapping up that module.

Physics education research shows that students learn best while actively engaged with course material, rather than passively observing a lecture. The flipped classroom curriculum and peer instruction are two complementary methods that foster active student engagement. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of these interactive engagement (IE) approaches within the post-COVID 19 South African physics classroom. In this study, a flipped classroom curriculum combined with peer instruction was implemented in three first-year physics courses at Nelson Mandela University. The success of this combined IE approach was quantitatively measured against international benchmarks using the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) test. The results of this study explore the robustness of an IE approach to teaching and learning against topical challenges, such as online learning and large classes, by studying their impact on FCI performance. Use of the preliminary FCI score as a means for targeting limited college-readiness resources is also explored.