The college application process--which entails multiple forms, essays, test scores, and deadlines--can be intimidating. For students without substantial school and family support, the complexity of this process can become a barrier to access. William G. Tierney, Tracy Fullerton, and their teams at the University of Southern California approach…

This literature review has been undertaken for the Higher Education Academy (HEA). It explores recent scholarly contributions in the area of assessment and feedback in higher education (HE). As outlined in the HEA's terms of reference for this work, the contents of this review are designed to "help practitioners, policy makers and researchers…

Knowing that motivation is at the crux of learning, we examined students' motivation to engage--or not--in courses which include the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although many college instructors use ICTs, there are no studies on the perspectives of professors identified as exemplary users of technology. This is why we…

Collaborative testing has been shown to improve performance but not always content retention. In this study, we investigated whether collaborative testing could improve both performance and content retention in a large, introductory biology course. Students were semirandomly divided into two groups based on their performances on exam 1. Each group…

Australian legislation and educational policies may espouse, but not yet fully enact, inclusive assessments for all. In relation to the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), for example, almost 5% of students are either exempt or withdrawn. The achievement levels of these students, many of whom have disabilities, are not…

Item calibration is an essential issue in modern item response theory based psychological or educational testing. Due to the popularity of computerized adaptive testing, methods to efficiently calibrate new items have become more important than that in the time when paper and pencil test administration is the norm. There are many calibration…

This study examined the academic performance and preference of students with disabilities for two types of test administration conditions, computer-based testing (CBT) and pencil-and-paper testing (PPT). Data from a large-scale assessment program were used to examine differences between CBT and PPT academic performance for third to eleventh grade…

The ability estimation procedure is one of the most important components in a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) system. Currently, all CATs that provide K-12 student scores are based on the item response theory (IRT) model(s); while such application directly violates the assumption of independent sample of a person in IRT models because ability…

By forcing gifted educators to teach in preparation for state testing and national assessments, the joy of discovery is becoming an endangered species, and learning is becoming a chore rather than an opportunity. Is it possible to strike a more reasonable balance? Kelly Gallagher suggests a 50/50 approach. Half of academic endeavor should be in…

This paper proposes two new item selection methods for cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing: the restrictive progressive method and the restrictive threshold method. They are built upon the posterior weighted Kullback-Leibler (KL) information index but include additional stochastic components either in the item selection index or in…

The synthetic function is a weighted average of the identity (the linking function for forms that are known to be completely parallel) and a traditional equating method. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the benefits of the synthetic function on small-sample equating using various real data sets gathered from different…

This study combines the perspective of students (n = 137) and sales instructors (n = 248). It compares how well selling and sales management simulation games, case discussions, and traditional lectures are perceived to conform to the seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. The study further compares each method's performance…

In our pursue to study effective real-time feedback in Technology Enhanced Learning, we developed the Presentation Trainer, a tool designed to support the practice of nonverbal communication skills for public speaking. The tool tracks the user's voice and body to analyze her performance, and selects the type of real-time feedback to be presented.…

This research investigates the extent to which creative processes can be fostered through computer gaming. It focuses on creative components in games that have been specifically designed for educational purposes: Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL). A behavior analysis for measuring the creative potential of computer game activities and learning…

Children who expect they can bring about good outcomes and avoid bad outcomes tend to experience more personal successes. Little is known about factors that contribute to these "control expectancies". The purpose of the present study was to determine whether children's internal control expectancies occur in the context of parents'…