This study examined the reliability and validity of the youth version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART-Y) for assessing adolescent risk behaviors among a sample of 98 inner-city African American adolescents (M age = 14.8, SD = 1.5). In addition to a relation with sensation seeking, BART-Y responding evidenced a significant relation with a…

This article presents the results of a factor analysis on the distance education surveys "Is Online Learning Right for Me?" and "What Technical Skills Do I Need?" Both surveys are 15-question, forced response, self-scoring guides that have face validity for individual traits and skills believed to contribute to potential success in an…

In this article, we examine the extent to which children with autism and children with learning difficulties can be discriminated from their responses to different patterns of sensory stimuli. Using an adapted version of the Short Sensory Profile (SSP), sensory processing was compared in 34 children with autism to 33 children with typical…

The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence to support the validity of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model survey. The participants for this study were undergraduate and graduate students (n = 1173) enrolled in fully online (57%) and blended online courses (43%) offered through WebCT during the spring 2008 semester at a mid-sized…

In an effective e-learning game, the learner's enjoyment acts as a catalyst to encourage his/her learning initiative. Therefore, the availability of a scale that effectively measures the enjoyment offered by e-learning games assist the game designer to understanding the strength and flaw of the game efficiently from the learner's points of view.…

This document describes the breadth of the research being conducted in 2008 by the Research and Development Division at Educational Testing Service (ETS). The research described falls into three large categories: (1) Research supported by the ETS research allocation; (2) Research funded by testing programs at ETS; and (3) Research funded by…

Measuring student intelligence has been problematic in the United States since standardized testing first began in the early 1900s. The omnipresence of standardized testing in student populations is illustrated by the most popular contemporary tests which are used by some scholars to advance the notion that intelligence differences between whites…

The chemistry version of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS-Chem) is a new instrument designed to measure students' (novices') beliefs about chemistry and learning chemistry compared to those of experts (instructors). This survey is intended to measure the effects of students' beliefs on learning, and to understand how…

The development of a 20-item semantic differential assessment instrument for measuring student attitudes toward the subject of chemistry is described (Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory-ASCI). Instrument subscales and survey items pertain to interest and utility, anxiety, intellectual accessibility, emotional satisfaction, and…

The Anamnestic Comparative Self Assessment (ACSA) measure of subjective well-being (SWB) aims to reduce the problems of cultural bias and relativity to external standards by allowing people to define the endpoints or "anchors" of the measurement scale. In medical terminology anamnestic denotes "based on memory". The ACSA uses…

Traditional student evaluations of teaching do not adequately assess the essential constructivist-based practices that have been recommended for effective online instruction. There is a need for student evaluation of teaching instruments that are specifically designed to provide online instructors with valid feedback about the effectiveness of…

This paper focuses on efficacy beliefs with respect to teaching mathematics; it aims at testing and validating an existing scale for measuring efficacy beliefs in the domain of mathematics, examining the development of preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs in mathematics during fieldwork, and identifying factors that contribute to the development…

The purpose of this study was to describe the development and validation of an instrument to identify various dimensions of the computer technology literacy self-assessment scale (CTLS) for elementary school students. The instrument included five CTLS dimensions (subscales): the technology operation skills, the computer usages concepts, the…

Although the belief has been expressed that performance assessments are intrinsically more fair than multiple-choice measures, some forms of performance assessment may in fact be more likely than conventional tests to tap construct-irrelevant factors. As performance assessment grows in popularity, it will be increasingly important to monitor the…

Clear descriptions of job expertise are required to support applications and improvements in personnel training and job performance. This report describes a practical approach to task analysis that integrates the issues, content, and methods of cognitive science and personnel psychology. Cognitively oriented task analysis employs a breadth, then…