COPUS stands for Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM. It is reliable, meaning different well-trained observers are able to independently log nearly the same data. High reliability is not difficult to achieve because the tool is designed to simply describe what is happening among teachers and students across the class period. This low-inference feature makes it possible for undergraduates to reliably take COPUS data in an unbiased way.
While COPUS was developed within larger STEM classrooms, the categories of data that are logged are general enough to be informative for a number of class settings and styles.
COPUS was developed and validated in 2013 by former CU Science Education Initiative postdoc Michelle Smith, SEI Director Sarah Gilbert, and CU Nobel Prize winner Carl Weiman (). It has since has been used in recent education research (; ). COPUS is being used in a number of institutions of higher ed, including BU and UC-Davis, to promote the advancement of teaching and learning. .
Ìý
Ìý