Increasing Academic Rigor in a General Physiology Course and its Effect on Student Mastery of Course Objectives

Abstract

Thoughtfully designed and well‐written exam questions can serve as a place to collect useful data on student mastery of course objectives. Low academic rigor/challenge has been a recurring issue at a small private (~1200 students), Midwestern, liberal arts college as indicated by National Survey of Student Engagement institutional data and course teaching evaluation data for several years. Data presented here was collected over 4 years from exam questions designed to assess student mastery of course objectives following an increase in course academic rigor starting at year 3 of the 4 years of data collection. A scoring rubric was used assess student mastery of course objectives with 4‐basic levels: Advanced, Proficient, Partially Proficient, and Not Proficient. Following an increase in course academic rigor from year 2 to year 3 the percent of students performing at the Advanced level decreased significantly (p<0.05) for Exam2 (−11%) and Exam3 (−19%) course objective assessment questions. Mean exam scores also decreased significantly (p<0.05) from year 2 to year 3 for Exam2 (−11%) and Exam3 (−14%). Whole class discussions with students during year 3 revealed that the course objective assessment questions for Exam2 and Exam3 were not clearly written to mirror the course changes in academic rigor. Moreover, additional academic support for the increase in academic rigor was not provided for the students. Prior to year 4, exam questions were revised to better reflect changes in course academic rigor, more forms of academic support were added, and two new formative assessment strategies were created. From year 3 to 4 the percent of students performing at the Advanced level increased significantly (p<0.05) for Exam2 (+23%) and Exam3 (+42%) course objective assessment questions. Mean scores also increased significantly for Exam2 (+10%) and Exam3 (+11%) (p<0.05). This data highlights the important role that exam questions play as indicators in changes of student mastery of course objectives following increases in course academic rigor. However, instructors must provide additional academic support for the students that parallels any alterations made in course academic rigor.