This study aims to examine the effects of mixture item response theory (IRT) models on item parameter estimation and classification accuracy under different conditions. The manipulated variables of the simulation study are set as mixture IRT models (Rasch, 2PL, 3PL); sample size (600, 1000); the number of items (10, 30); the number of latent…

Lord's Wald test for differential item functioning (DIF) has not been studied extensively in the context of the multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) framework. In this article, Lord's Wald test was implemented using two estimation approaches, marginal maximum likelihood estimation and Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation, to detect…

Educational systems typically contain a large pool of items (questions, problems). Using data mining techniques we can group these items into knowledge components, detect duplicated items and outliers, and identify missing items. To these ends, it is useful to analyze item similarities, which can be used as input to clustering or visualization…

We extend a unified and easy-to-use approach to measurement error and missing data. In our companion article, Blackwell, Honaker, and King give an intuitive overview of the new technique, along with practical suggestions and empirical applications. Here, we offer more precise technical details, more sophisticated measurement error model…

Business analytics courses, such as marketing research, data mining, forecasting, and advanced financial modeling, have substantial predictive modeling components. The predictive modeling in these courses requires students to estimate and test many linear regressions. As a result, false positive variable selection ("type I errors") is…

Current uses of value-added modeling largely ignore or assume away the potential for teachers to be more effective with one type of student than another or in one subject than another. This paper explores the stability of value-added measures across different subgroups and subjects using administrative data from a large urban school district. For…

The aim of the study was to investigate how raters come to their decisions when judging spoken vocabulary. Segmental rating was introduced to quantify raters' decision-making process. It is hoped that this simulated study brings fresh insight to future methodological considerations with spoken data. Twenty trainee raters assessed five Chinese…

Planned missing data designs allow researchers to increase the amount and quality of data collected in a single study. Unfortunately, the effect of planned missing data designs on power is not straightforward. Under certain conditions using a planned missing design will increase power, whereas in other situations using a planned missing design…

This paper outlines a novel approach to engineering education research that provides three dimensions of learning through an experiential class activity. A simulated decision activity brought current research into the classroom, explored the effect of experiential activity on learning outcomes and contributed to the research on innovation decision…

Both adults and young children possess powerful statistical computation capabilities--they can infer the referent of a word from highly ambiguous contexts involving many words and many referents by aggregating cross-situational statistical information across contexts. This ability has been explained by models of hypothesis testing and by models of…

It is common to assume during a statistical analysis of a multiscale assessment that the assessment is composed of several unidimensional subtests or that it has simple structure. Under this assumption, the unidimensional and multidimensional approaches can be used to estimate item parameters. These two approaches are equivalent in parameter…

Nursing students are expected to apply knowledge from lectures and laboratories to the clinical setting. One major challenge of nursing educators is facilitating the transfer of knowledge to the clinical-practice setting. Simulation-based education provides students with an experiential-learning activity within the context of a simulated clinical…

A new class of parametric models that generalize the multivariate probit model and the errors-in-variables model is developed to model and analyze ordinal data. A general model structure is assumed to accommodate the information that is obtained via surrogate variables. A hybrid Gibbs sampler is developed to estimate the model parameters. To…

Cross-national comparisons of responses to survey items are often affected by response style, particularly extreme response style (ERS). ERS varies across cultures, and has the potential to bias inferences in cross-national comparisons. For example, in both PISA and TIMSS assessments, it has been documented that when examined within countries,…

Online virtual worlds are becoming important tools in foreign/second language instruction in view of the fact that they enhance learner motivation, promote autonomy and social presence in a 3D environment. Virtual worlds are a type of reality in which students can meet and communicate with other learners in the target language using text, voice or…