The article discusses current evaluation methodologies used to assess the usability, user enjoyment, and pedagogical efficacy of virtual learning environments (VLEs) and serious games. It also describes the evaluations of two recently developed projects: a virtual learning environment that employs a fantasy 3D world to engage deaf and hearing…

This study examines how to support accounting students to experience deep learning. A sample of 81 students in a third-year undergraduate accounting course was studied employing a phenomenographic research approach, using ten assessed learning tasks for each student (as well as a focus group and student surveys) to measure their experience of how…

This paper describes a multistep Enhanced Formative Assessment Program (EFAP) that features a Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) component. The program, which teaches students to become more effective learners, has been applied in a wide range of academic disciplines. In this paper we report on how the EFAP-SRL model can be applied to the area of…

Students and teachers play different roles and thus have different perceptions about the effectiveness of assessment including structure, feedback, consistency, fairness and efficiency. In an undergraduate Business Information Systems course, a rubric was designed and semi-automated through a learning management system (LMS) to provide formative…

Supervisor assessments are critical for both formative and summative assessment in the workplace. Supervisor ratings remain an important source of such assessment in many educational jurisdictions even though there is ambiguity about their validity and reliability. The aims of this evaluation is to explore the: (1) construct validity of ward-based…

Although the current interest in informal learning seems recent, performance improvement professionals have long had an interest in informal learning-the ways that people learn outside of formal structures. The earliest forms of learning for work were informal, including de facto and formal apprenticeship programs and the "school of…

The strength of our nation's economy is dependent on a workforce that is highly skilled, and skilled workers are in high demand. Institutions preparing these individuals for employment have high expectations to meet. Since 1998 when the Department of Labor released the Workforce Investment Act, employers, and the nation as a whole, have been…

This article focuses on the impact of a specific formative assessment procedure, negotiated assessment, on teacher professional learning. Negotiations between the assessor and the teacher as assessee seem to be especially promising for this teacher learning. However, there is no empirical evidence yet that has confirmed this. We explored teachers'…

Teaching science to students with special needs requires different approaches. A program at the study site supplemented packaged science kits with animal-assisted instruction, but such an approach was never evaluated. The purpose of this study was to provide a formative program evaluation documenting students' reactions to the use of animals…

Margaret Heritage presents a practical guide to formative assessment as a process of "inquiry and action" essential to twenty-first century learning. In the wake of the development of the Common Core standards and the effort to develop the appropriate assessments to accompany them, formative assessment has attracted increasing attention…

The ability to distinguish between correlational and causal claims is core knowledge for scientific literacy. News reports of scientific research prominently feature these claims. Thus, this knowledge has significant real-world application, and distinguishing among claims is critical to making sense of the reported research. We constructed an…

Library instruction methods most frequently focus on teaching students searching skills to navigate the maze of library databases to locate appropriate research materials. The current theory of critical information literacy instruction calls on librarians to spend more of their time in the classroom focused on understanding the social, political,…

This article analyzes the use of research evidence in school-board deliberations in three school districts in Wisconsin. In these settings, the circulation, meaning, and function of research depended importantly on the interests and backgrounds of advocates, the composition of audiences, and the values and contexts of decision-making. Board…

The opportunity offered by the Umea Symposium to probe the intersection of quality and assessment immediately brings into focus a wider issue -- that of the quality of education which assessment aspires to support. Prompted by recent research into formative assessment in Scottish primary school contexts, the paper explores how formative assessment…

Within a response to intervention system of teaching and learning, important instructional decision-making (e.g., implementation of targeted intervention) is regularly tied to the results of formative assessments administered to students throughout the academic year. The validity of these instructional decisions depends to an extent on the…