We revisit the empirically observed positive correlation between DIF and difficulty studied by Freedle and commonly seen in tests of verbal proficiency when comparing populations of different mean latent proficiency levels. It is shown that a positive correlation between DIF and difficulty estimates is actually an expected result (absent any true…

"Viva voce" or oral examinations are an intrinsic part of the examination of many doctoral theses. There is some ambiguity about their purpose; however, they are generally perceived to be an opportunity for the candidate to respond to the examiners' comments and questions. They also allow examiners to assure themselves of the candidate's…

Compared to their written counterpart, oral assessments provide a wealth of information about student understanding. Instead of deciphering a static response, oral assessments provide instructors the opportunity to probe student explanations, obtaining a more complete picture of their understanding. Moreover, students explaining their conceptual…

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Board of Surgery (ABS) shifted from in-person to remote administrations of the oral certifying exam (CE). Although the overall exam architecture remains the same, there are a number of differences in administration and staffing costs, exam content, security concerns, and the tools used to give the…

Field study--in the form of field trips, fieldwork, or field courses--is identified as a core element of geographic education and training (Speights-Binet and Gamble 2009). By involving place-based, active, and experiential learning, field study is cited as an example of a High-Impact Educational Practice. Common assessment products used in field…

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated challenges with assessment, especially in online environments that threaten academic integrity. In the wake of the pandemic, faculty in higher education were seeking alternative assessments that meet the assessment goal(s) of their classroom. Even though the COVID-based disruptions are diminishing, higher…

Oral exams may be as old as academia itself, but they are now rare in STEM undergraduate courses in the U.S. Can they be resurrected to help students develop oral communication skills, foster a sense belonging to a scholarly community, and change how students approach learning? This past spring, as we transitioned to emergency remote learning, my…

Postsecondary mathematics classrooms continue to become more diverse, which implores educators to continue to incorporate more diverse modes of assessment to support all learners. However, researchers have found that mathematics assessment at the postsecondary level has remained mostly stagnant, with traditional, closed-book exams dominating the…

Purpose: In the UK and countries following similar systems of doctoral assessment, there is little research-based evidence about what goes on in vivas. However, "doctoral assessment 'horror stories'", abound. The purpose of this paper is to report a study focussing on difficult doctoral examining experiences and argue that sharing such…

The process of creating and administering traditional tagged anatomy laboratory examinations is time consuming for instructors and limits laboratory access for students. Depending on class size and the number of class, sections, creating, administering, and breaking down a tagged laboratory examination may involve one to two eight-hour days.…

This article reports on techniques of teaching abstract algebra which were developed to achieve multiple student objectives: reasoning and communication skills, deep content knowledge, student engagement, independence, and pride. The approach developed included a complementary combination of inquiry-based learning, individual (not group) homework…

The in-class essay is not an effective means to assess student ability in a history exam. History teachers should instead ask short-answer questions in order to test what the American Historical Association calls "objective" knowledge: the ability to identify concepts, historical actors, organizations, events, and so forth. Such questions,…

There has been relatively little research on the pre-conceptions of doctoral students about the final examination, the viva voce and hence there is a shortage of evidence to underpin activities designed to prepare them for this experience. The present paper, which is based upon data from a wide range of focus groups of pre-viva students, seeks to…

It is costly for faculty to deal with cheating. Keith-Spiegel et al. (1998) identified several of these costs and argued that they can be grouped into four categories: emotionality, difficult, fear, and denial. I argue that the emotional and fear costs for faculty make it unlikely that the common approaches to dealing with plagiarism will be…

Regression analyses are frequently employed by health educators who conduct empirical research examining a variety of health behaviors. Within regression, there are a variety of coefficients produced, which are not always easily understood and/or articulated by health education researchers. It is important to not only understand what these…