Development of Learning Objectives for Non-Major Introductory Biology Using a Delphi Method

Biology faculty have consensus-based guidelines based on Vision and Change principles about what to teach introductory biology majors. In contrast, faculty have not reached a consensus concerning the learning goals for introductory non-majors courses. Yet, more than 8 out of 10 undergraduates are not science majors. The goal of this study was to develop and evaluate learning objectives for non-majors introductory biology courses. We performed a modified-Delphi study of learning objectives (LOs) for non-majors biology. We engaged a total of 38 biology faculty experts from institutions across the US in three iterative rounds to identify, rate, discuss, and re-rate >300 LOs for non-majors biology courses. Faculty provided feedback to determine whether the LOs are critical for students to learn and if the LOs encompass what students need to learn about this issue, as well as if anything is missing. As a result of expert evaluation, 60.7% of LOs (164) were deemed critical. Experts also suggested 22 additional new LOs.