Modifying Existing Evaluation Instruments to Fit Your CS Research Needs

Developing your computer science education research evaluation instruments from scratch may be no longer necessary thanks to the growing catalog of instruments curated by CSEdResearch.org. This workshop will teach participants how to find, remix, and use existing instruments by delving into the process of taking openly shared resources and repurposing them for your projects. In addition to discussing the importance of using instruments that have been shown to have evidence of reliability and validity, the team from The University of Texas at Austin will discuss how they amended existing surveys and interview protocols to develop tools customized to their needs for their NSF-funded CSforAll Research Practitioner Partnership. Workshop participants will break into groups and be given extensive time to review and revise research instruments. Key takeaways from this workshop will be the steps you need to take to choose an instrument based on your research question and study design, the role that validity and reliability play in instrument design, how to make modifications to an instrument (if needed) to better address your research question, and how to add your instruments to the CSEdResearch.org site.