murban-lurain | Community

CREATE for STEM

Prof. Mark Urban-Lurain

Associate Professor Emeritus and Associate Director for Engineering Education Research Emeritus

About

I am now retired but am doing project consultations related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.

My research interests are in theories of cognition, how these theories inform the design of instruction, how we might best design instructional technology within those frameworks, and how the research and development of instructional technologies can inform our theories of cognition.

In recent years, my research has focused on using a variety of statistical and machine learning techniques to analyze student writing in introductory STEM courses.

I am also interested in preparing future STEM faculty for teaching, incorporating instructional technology as part of instructional design, and STEM education improvement and reform.

Current Projects

I am the founding PI for the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response research group. We apply computerized analysis techniques, like machine learning, to evaluate student constructed responses about key concepts in a range of STEM disciplines. From this research, we've built tools like the Constructed Response Classifier (or CRC tool). These tools are freely accessible at the website, making it possible for you to easily evaluate your students' responses.

Publications

Some of our recent publications

Zhai X, Haudek KC, Shi L, Nehm RH, Urban-Lurain M. From substitution to redefinition: A framework of machine-learning based science assessment. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. 2020. doi:10.1002/tea.21658.

Jescovitch LN, Scott E, Cerchiara JA, et al. Comparison of Machine Learning Performance Using Analytic and Holistic Coding Approaches Across Constructed Response Assessments Aligned to a Science Learning Progression. Journal of Science Education and Technology. 2020. doi:10.1007/s10956-020-09858-0.

Bierema A, Hoskinson A-M, Moscarella RA, et al. Quantifying cognitive bias in educational researchers. International Journal of Research \& Method in Education. 2020. doi:10.1080/1743727X.2020.1804541.

Yoho R, Kohn K, Haudek KC, Merrill JE, Urban-Lurain M. Exploring the meaning of function as a complex idea embedded within the crosscutting concept of structure and function. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. 2020;31.