The Assessment Workshop will describe the broad range of measures available to assess the potential outcomes of visualization technologies for teaching science. The objective of the workshop will be to familiarize participants with unique methodological approaches to assess changes in cognition, learning outcomes, pedagogical methods and social interactions that may result from using visualizations in scientific and educational settings.

The workshop will introduce methods in a practical manner, and participants are not expected to have prior experience in evaluation and assessment. Topics will include the justification and application of both quantitative and qualitative methods, formative and summative content assessment, protocolanalysis, case studies, randomized clinical trials, response time measures and participant observation. The workshop will emphasize the execution of various methods in authentic laboratory and classroom contexts.

During the workshop each participant will have the opportunity to design explicit assessment protocols for their own visualizations as well as collaborate with other workshop members on assessment designs. Workshop participants should come prepared to illustrate their own visualization tool or project and articulate potential assessment issues they wish to address. They should also bring with them a laptop suitably modified for wireless internet communication and problem-sharing. Prospective participants should provide a brief description of the visualization project they wish to assess in their application for the Workshop, which should be forwarded to the Workshops Organizer, Ghislain Deslongchamps (ghislain@unb.ca), once they have been accepted as Conference participants.

workshop leaders

Michael Stieff

Educational science researcher
College of Education
U.  of Maryland

David Geelan

Science education researcher
U. of Queensland

Martin Storksdieck
Director of Project Development
Institute for Learning Innovation
George Washington U.

Shaaron Ainsworth
Cognitive psychologist
Dept. of Psychology
Nottingham U.

workshop application

Inquiries and applications for participation in the workshop should be directed to:

Ghislain Deslongchamps
Department of Chemistry
University of New Brunswick
P.O. Box 4400
Fredericton, NB  E3B 5A3, Canada
ghislain@unb.ca

Workshop information

There is no registration fee for this workshop – funding from NSF covers all the costs of running the pre-conference workshops. Participants are responsible only for the cost of their meals and accommodation. Two nights accommodation (Friday and Saturday night) costs £112  and must be booked directly through Magdalen College (see below). Unfortunately, Magdalen cannot offer accommodation on the preceding Thursday night - people arriving early will need to make their own arrangements.

After Conference Registration and subsequent acceptance for workshop participation, accommodation can be booked directly through Magdalen College:

Catherine Hughes

Home Bursar's Assistant

Magdalen College

Oxford

OX1 4AU

catherine.hughes@magd.ox.ac.uk

Please specify the workshop title when booking your accommodation. Only persons who have prepaid the workshop accommodation fee will be admitted to the workshop.