Discusses what illustrations can do for technical communication projects. Presents criteria for deciding when to use illustrations and for choosing appropriate and effective illustrations. Discusses working with an illustrator. (SR)

A mnemonic is suggested to help evaluators remember the five guiding principles of evaluation developed by the American Evaluation Association. A character from F. Baum's "Wizard of Oz" is associated with each of these: (1) systematic inquiry; (2) competence; (3) respect for people; (4) responsibility to general and public welfare; and…

Discusses the concept of readability and examines readability formulae. Examines the linguistic criteria that from the basis for readability scores and argues that the criteria commonly used in readability do not constitute a satisfactory basis for assessing reading difficulty. (Author/VWL)

Provides a conceptual framework for the development of scoring procedures for performance assessments. The framework considers: (1) aspects of the performance to be scored; (2) criteria to evaluate aspects of the performance; (3) development of scoring criteria; and (4) application of scoring criteria. (SLD)

Describes a program by Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College to raise admission standards for new freshmen. Analyzes the steps taken to balance long-term quality against short-term concerns. (EV)

Discussion of the evaluation of digital libraries suggests a conceptual framework for evaluation. Reviews evaluation efforts in research and practice; examines the derivation of criteria used in evaluation; states the essential requirements for evaluation; and discuses constructs, context, and criteria of digital libraries. (Contains 20…

Reviews alternative methods of scoring a scale, evaluating the methods found in two journal volumes against seven articulated criteria, representing the information conveyed by each in an example. Converting scores to the percent of maximum possible score (POMP) is shown to provide useful additional information in many cases. (SLD)

Among proponents of critical thinking, Harvey Siegel stands out in his attempt to address fundamental epistemological issues. Siegel argues that discursive inclusion of diverse groups should not be confused with rational justification of the outcome of inquiry. He maintains that epistemic virtues such as inclusion are neither necessary nor…

When items on one list receive more encoding than items on another list, the improvement in performance usually manifests as an increase in the hit rate and a decrease in the false alarm rate (FAR). A common account of this strength based mirror effect is that participants adopt a more strict criterion following a strongly than weakly encoded list…

This article investigates the contention that we are seeing the emergence of new forms of knowledge production, transforming the expectations and assessment of fundamental research. We examine three dimensions in the assessment of research. Our studies show little evidence of any significant change in practice in the three sectors in which…

Objective: Chronic snoring that does not adhere to the criteria for a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome may be associated with learning and behavioral problems. We investigated the sleep structure of chronic snorers who had an apnea-hypopnea index of less than 1 event per hour and analyzed the cyclic alternating pattern. Methods:…

This paper reports the latest stage of a research project focused on developing students' understanding of assessment criteria, the assessment process and assessment standards. It explains the theory of a social-constructivist assessment process model and details one particular module where the authors have tried to put it into practice. In…

Context: Jichi Medical School (JMS) is the first and only medical school in Japan that was founded exclusively to graduate/prepare rural doctors. Purpose: To evaluate the long-term effect of JMS on the nationwide distribution of doctors. Methods: Data from the Japanese population census of 1995 and from the Japanese physician census of 1994 were…

The behavioural phenotype of autism was assessed in individuals with full mutation and premutation fragile X syndrome (FXS) using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale-Generic (ADOS-G) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R). The participants, aged 5-80 years, comprised 33 males and 31 females with full mutation, 7 males and 43 females with…

Whereas most ranking schemes aim at the identification of the universally best performing universities, value-driven rankings take a focused perspective: they aim at monitoring the progress of some kind of societal agenda based on social values and hence look for progress concerning specific educational contents. The emerging field of education…