This paper describes, and lays out an argument for, the use of a procedure to help groups of reviewers to judge the quality of prior research reports. It argues why such a procedure is needed, and how other existing approaches are only relevant to some kinds of research, meaning that a review or synthesis cannot successfully combine quality…

Purpose: The purpose of this supplement article is to provide a resource of pertinent information concerning implementation science for immediate research application in communication sciences and disorders. Method: Key terminology related to implementation science is reviewed. Practical suggestions for the application of implementation science…

Citizen science, participatory research, and volunteer monitoring all describe research where data are collected by non-professional collaborators. These approaches can allow for research to be conducted at spatial and temporal scales unfeasible for professionals, especially in current budget climates. Mobile computing apps for data collection,…

Mixed-Method studies have emerged from the paradigm wars between qualitative and quantitative research approaches to become a widely used mode of inquiry. Depending on choices made across four dimensions, mixed-methods can provide an investigator with many design choices which involve a range of sequential and concurrent strategies. Defining…

This discussion constructs a survey data quality strategy for institutional researchers in higher education in light of total survey error theory. It starts with describing the characteristics of institutional research and identifying the gaps in literature regarding survey data quality issues in institutional research and then introduces the…

The article grounds the structure of the external evaluation of colleges at the level of the non-university higher education sector, and it reveals the problems met in this process as well as possibilities for their solution: the phenomenon of the external evaluation of colleges is discussed and its concept is presented; the external evaluation…

Programme evaluation is essential for quality assurance in education. In this paper, we describe our evaluation strategy for the first year of a new medical programme. Although we used multiple methods in the evaluation, the use of the focus group method was core. This paper reports our experiences of focus groups for this purpose. We describe the…

This guide is designed to help researchers make sure that their research reports include enough information about study measures so that readers can assess the quality of the study's methods and results. The guide also provides examples of write-ups about measures and suggests resources for learning more about these topics. The guide assumes…

This fact sheet provides answers to frequently asked questions about psychological evaluations for infants, children and adults who are deaf-blind, we hope to clarify the evaluation process and the active roles that may be taken by everyone who is involved--family members, professionals, educators, and the student. Finally, by discussing quality…

The functions of the institutional review board (IRB) at Duke University (North Carolina) are reviewed in the context of the recent four-day shutdown by federal regulators of all clinical trials at the institution. Observation of the process revealed a paperwork-driven process in which many projects, some of them highly specialized, must be…

This paper begins by reviewing some of the different models of third-party observation of university teaching that can be found in the literature. Having analysed these, it argues that--if "peer" is taken to indicate equality of status--only one is genuinely a model of peer-observation. It proposes an alternative categorisation of third-party…

Over the past few decades there has been a rise in the number of federally funded large scientific research initiatives, with increased calls to evaluate their processes and outcomes. This article describes efforts to evaluate such initiatives in one agency within the U.S. federal government. The authors introduce the Evaluation of Large…

Over the last decade the proportion of students in higher education obtaining aggregate marks over 60 per cent has steadily increased. Whilst standards of learning and teaching may have improved due to the existence of quality assurance agencies and the efforts of individual higher education institutions a significant factor remains that could…

The U.S. Department of Education's attempt to apply quality assurance methods to its own operations is discussed in this symposium. Three presentations, including handouts, charts, and outlines, describe the quality assurance techniques and research methodologies used by the Department and present some initial results of the program. The first…

Program reviews became widely used as quality assurance activities in the United States beginning in the 1970s. Since then, they have evolved as an essential component in demonstrating institutional effectiveness to accrediting bodies. The paper discusses various approaches to reviews with a focus on a recently reengineered institutional program…