RESEARCH ARTICLE Measuring experiences of interest-related pursuits in connected learning Andrew Maul 1 • William R. Penuel 2 • Nathan Dadey 3 • Lawrence P. Gallagher 4 • Timothy Podkul 5 • Emily Price 2 Ó Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2016 Abstract This paper describes an effort to develop a survey instrument capable of mea- suring important aspects of adolescents’ experiences of interest-related pursuits that are supported by technology. The measure focuses on youths’ experiences of connected learning (Ito et al. in Connected learning: an agenda for research and design. Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, Irvine, 2013), an emerging model of learning across settings supported by digital media. Specifically, the instrument aims to measure the depth with which youth are able to engage in an interest-related pursuit, the level of support and encouragement they receive from peers, and the degree to which their pursuit involves performance or media production as an essential feature. The survey also elicits infor- mation regarding the connections between youths’ interest-related pursuits and academic goals, the involvement of adults as co-participants in pursuits, and youths’ access to technology tools they deem necessary for their pursuits. The paper reports on results from a pilot study and two rounds of field-testing, in which we evaluated the validity and relia- bility of the instrument and compared results with evidence from interviews with youth. Our aim was to investigate the feasibility of an approach to measuring youths’ interest- related pursuits to inform future research and evaluation of initiatives focused on digital media and learning. Keywords Connected learning Á Survey Á Measurement Á Interest development & William R. Penuel william.penuel@colorado.edu 1 Education 3109, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9490, USA 2 UCB 249, School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80302, USA 3 The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc., 31 Mount Vernon Street, Dover, NH 03820, USA 4 Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA 5 SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA 123 Education Tech Research Dev DOI 10.1007/s11423-016-9453-6