BioSkills Guide: Development and National Validation of a Tool for Interpreting the Vision and Change Core Competencies

Abstract

To excel in modern STEM careers, biology majors need a range of transferrable skills, yet competency development is often a relatively underdeveloped facet of the undergraduate curriculum. Here, we have elaborated the Vision and Change core competency framework into a resource called the BioSkills Guide, a set of measurable learning outcomes that can be more readily interpreted and implemented by faculty. College biology educators representing over 250 institutions, including 73 community colleges, contributed to the development and validation of the guide. Our grassroots approach during the development phase engaged over 200 educators over the course of five iterative rounds of review and revision. We then gathered evidence of the BioSkills Guides content validity using a national survey of over 400 educators. Across the 77 outcomes in the final draft, rates of respondent support for outcomes were high (74.3% - 99.6%). Our national sample included college biology educators across a range of course levels, subdisciplines of biology, and institution types. We envision the BioSkills Guide supporting a variety of applications in undergraduate biology, including backward design of individual lessons and courses, competency assessment development, curriculum mapping and planning, and resource development for less well-defined competencies.