Biology education research has now reached a level of maturity where the expectation is that researchers will assess the effectiveness of their innovation on student learning. This may include an examination of affective outcomes, such as student attitudes and beliefs, as well as student understanding of discipline-based content. A variety of tools are available to generate assessment data, each with certain advantages and disadvantages. They include not only quantitative measures, which lend themselves to familiar statistical analyses, but also qualitative techniques that can provide a rich understanding of complex outcomes. This article describes some of the most commonly used assessment techniques, their advantages and disadvantages, and typical ways such information is reported.

The 1998 Boyer Commission Report advocated improvement of undergraduate education at large research universities through large-scale participation of undergraduates in the universities' research mission. At a recent conference sponsored by the Reinvention Center, which is dedicated to furthering the goals of the Boyer Commission, participants discussed progress toward these goals and recommendations for future action. A breakout group representing the life sciences concluded that independent research experience for every undergraduate may not be feasible or desirable but that transformation of lecture courses to more inquiry-based and interactive formats can effectively further the Commission's goals.