This study highlights the role and importance of advanced, machine learning-driven predictive models in enhancing the accuracy and timeliness of identifying students at-risk of negative academic outcomes in data-driven Early Warning Systems (EWS). K-12 school districts have, at best, 13 years to prepare students for adulthood and success. They…

The multiple-choice (MC) item format has been widely used in educational assessments across diverse content domains. MC items purportedly allow for collecting richer diagnostic information. The effectiveness and economy of administering MC items may have further contributed to their popularity not just in educational assessment. The MC item format…

In educational measurement, Item Response Theory (IRT) provides a means of quantifying student knowledge. Specifically, IRT models the probability of a student answering a particular item correctly as a function of the student's continuous-valued latent abilities [theta] (e.g. add, subtract, multiply, divide) and parameters associated with the…

This dissertation describes an experiment to investigate how learners with different levels of background in computer science learn core concepts of computer science, in particular, algorithms. We designed a study to focus on cognitive task analysis for eliciting the empirical mental elements of learning two graph algorithms. Cognitive workload…

Divergent thinking (DT) tests are the most frequently used types of creativity assessment and have been administered in traditional paper and pencil format for more than a half century. With the prevalence of computer-based testing and increasing demands for large-scale, faster, and more flexible testing procedures, it is necessary to explore and…

This study is part of a larger design study that iteratively improves a robotics programming curriculum as well as a computational thinking (CT) instrument. Its focus was majorly on CT assessment and particularly on an online CT instrument with logging functionality that can store a student's problem-solving process by recording interactions…

Compressed time from matriculation to graduation prevalent in executive graduate degree programs means that traditional methods of identifying deficiencies in student writing during the course of study may not provide timely remediation enabling for student success. This study examined a writing-intensive, 10-month executive graduate degree…

Emotion plays an ever-present role in human existence, impacting nearly every behavior and decision in some way. Research in the behavioral sciences is rife with exploration of emotion and the role it plays in everything from business decision making to health-related behavior. However, affect, the feeling or experience of emotion, is complex and…

This dissertation reports development and validation studies of a Web-based standardized test of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL), designed to measure learners' off-line grammatical and pragmatic knowledge in multiple-choice format. Targeting Japanese majors in the U.S. universities and colleges, the test is designed to explore possible…

This dissertation study examined the reliability and validity claims of a modified version of the Spanish Modern Language Association Foreign Language Proficiency Test for Teachers and Advanced Students administered at George Mason University (GMU). The study used the 1999 computerized GMU version that was administered to 277 test-takers via…