This study touches upon three major themes in the field of information literacy (IL): the assessment of IL, the association between IL knowledge and skills, and the dimensionality of the IL construct. Three quantitative measures were developed and tested with several samples of university students to assess knowledge and skills for core facets of…

As learning center professionals, we have much to gain by conducting assessment to understand how our services help college students develop their academic strategies. The type of data we collect makes a difference in the interpretations we can draw, however. An initial step in becoming a scholarly practitioner is to consider the strengths and…

Self-perception, which mediates between knowledge and behavior, increasingly plays an important role in the determination of the ability to comprehend and respond to information on the Internet. Teachers need to gain insights about how EFL readers feel about themselves as readers in the Internet-based learning environment. There is a critical need…

We report on the development, validation, and implementation of a collection of test items designed to detect misconceptions related to first-year computer science courses. To this end, we reworked the development scheme proposed by Almstrum et al. ("SIGCSE Bulletin" 38(4):132-145, 2006) to include students' artifacts and to…

The authors describe several types of classroom assessment techniques (CATs) and cognitive scaffolding procedures that they have developed over the years. They then bring the procedures together in a sample lecture/group learning class presentation.

Findings derived from self-reported, structured survey questionnaires are commonly used in evaluation and applied research to inform policy-making and program decisions. Although there are a variety of issues related to the quality of survey evidence (e.g., sampling precision), the validity of response processes--how respondents process thoughts…

Many measurement biases affect student evaluations of instruction (SEIs). However, two have been relatively understudied: halo effects and ceiling/floor effects. This study examined these effects in two ways. To examine the halo effect, using a videotaped lecture, we manipulated specific teacher behaviors to be "good" or "bad"…

In this article, we set out to assess QuADEM (Quality Assessment of Digital Educational Material), one of the latest methods for evaluating online language learning courseware. What is special about QuADEM is that the evaluation is based on observing the actual usage of the online courseware and that, from a checklist of 12 different components,…

With the widespread availability of Internet and computer technology, on-line web-based learning has become prevalent in the field of teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language (CSL/CFL). This study examined the concepts of usability and types of design elements that help construct an effective web-based learning environment, as well as their…

Identifies cognitive strategies used during the categorization of qualitative data and investigates how various factors may be related to the testimonial validity of the categories. Essay writers ranked sets of categories in terms of overall quality and rated them while thinking aloud. Think-aloud protocols for the "best" and…