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Reaction Coordinate Diagram Inventory (RCDI)

Purpose

The Reaction Coordinate Diagram Inventory (RCDI) was developed to assess the understanding and confidence level of students about kinetic and thermodynamic information within the coordinate diagram. 

Population

RCDI is commonly administered in undergraduate chemistry courses (general chemistry and organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and biophysical chemistry) 

Typical Performance

We have not performed an analysis of the LASSO data for typical performance, but the literature study shows that the prescore (pre-OCI) of correct answers is fewer than 60%, and postscore (post-OCI) is 90.8%, 82.5%, and 68.7 % for three institutions.

Example question:

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Validity

RCDI has been administered to college chemistry students, and valid data supported by relevant articles listed below:

●      Atkinson, M. B., Popova, M., Croisant, M., Reed, D. J., & Bretz, S. L. (2020). Development of the Reaction Coordinate Diagram Inventory: Measuring student thinking and confidence. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(7), 1841–1851. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b01186

●      Atkinson, M. B., & Bretz, S. L. (2021). Measuring changes in undergraduate chemistry students’ reasoning with reaction coordinate diagrams: A longitudinal, multi-institution study. Journal of Chemical Education, 98(4), 1064–1076.

●      Atkinson, M. B., Croisant, M., & Bretz, S. L. (2021). Investigating first-year undergraduate chemistry students’ reasoning with reaction coordinate diagrams when choosing among particulate-level reaction mechanisms. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 22(1), 199-213.           

Research

We recommend using Google Scholar and the citations listed under validation to find articles of interest.

Example LASSO Report

Please follow this link to our example report for concept inventories.

Similar Instruments

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