Examining the designs of computer-based assessment and its impact on student engagement, satisfaction, and pass rates

Many researchers who study the impact of computer-based assessment (CBA) focus on the affordances or complexities of CBA approaches in comparison to traditional assessment methods. This study examines how CBA approaches were configured within and between modules, and the impact of assessment design on students’ engagement, satisfaction, and pass rates. The analysis was conducted using a combination of longitudinal visualisations, correlational analysis, and fixed-effect models on 74 undergraduate modules and their 72,377 students. Our findings indicate that educators designed very different assessment strategies, which significantly influenced student engagement as measured by time spent in the virtual learning environment (VLE). Weekly analyses indicated that assessment activities were balanced with other learning activities, which suggests that educators tended to aim for a consistent workload when designing assessment strategies. Since most of the assessments were computer-based, students spent more time on the VLE during assessment weeks. By controlling for heterogeneity within and between modules, learning design could explain up to 69% of the variability in students’ time spent on the VLE. Furthermore, assessment activities were significantly related to pass rates, but no clear relation with satisfaction was found. Our findings highlight the importance of CBA and learning design to how students learn online

TRECVID: evaluating the effectiveness of information retrieval tasks on digital video

TRECVID is an annual exercise which encourages research in information retrieval from digital video by providing a large video test collection, uniform scoring procedures, and a forum for organizations interested in comparing their results. TRECVID benchmarking covers both interactive and manual searching by end users, as well as the benchmarking of some supporting technologies including shot boundary detection, extraction of some semantic features, and the automatic segmentation of TV news broadcasts into non-overlapping news stories. TRECVID has a broad range of over 40 participating groups from across the world and as it is now (2004) in its 4th annual cycle it is opportune to stand back and look at the lessons we have learned from the cumulative activity. In this paper we shall present a brief and high-level overview of the TRECVID activity covering the data, the benchmarked tasks, the overall results obtained by groups to date and an overview of the approaches taken by selective groups in some tasks. While progress from one year to the next cannot be measured directly because of the changing nature of the video data we have been using, we shall present a summary of the lessons we have learned from TRECVID and include some pointers on what we feel are the most important of these lessons

Map Calculus in GIS: a proposal and demonstration

This paper provides a new representation for fields (continuous surfaces) in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), based on the notion of spatial functions and their combinations. Following Tomlin's (1990) Map Algebra, the term 'Map Calculus' is used for this new representation. In Map Calculus, GIS layers are stored as functions, and new layers can be created by combinations of other functions. This paper explains the principles of Map Calculus and demonstrates the creation of function-based layers and their supporting management mechanism. The proposal is based on Church's (1941) Lambda Calculus and elements of functional computer languages (such as Lisp or Scheme)

Full-field interferometry using infinity corrected optics

In this paper the construction of full-field (imaging) interferometers using infinity corrected optics commonly used in microscopy is discussed, with an emphasis on self-mixing interferometry configurations where the imaged light field is mixed with itself rather than a reference wave. Such configurations are used in speckle shearing interferometry, flow visualisation and quantitative flow measurement. The critical considerations for constructing path-length imbalanced full-field interferometers for these and similar applications are discussed, expressions are derived for key calculations and interferograms from example interferometers are presented. These include the concept of balancing the infinity-spaces of the two arms via the use of a glass block to minimise the optical path difference variation across the interferogram and ensure adequate sampling of the fringes on the detector. Further, the use of tilted glass blocks in single-pass and double-pass arrangements is detailed for the generation and control of spatial carrier fringes without extensive realignment of the interferometer, and for phase shifting

Information and ideas : concept design in three industrial contexts

This paper reviews the application of a new concept design method in a number of industrial settings. The ICR Grid is intended to better integrate information into the concept design process. In addition to sketching and sharing concepts in a manner similar to the 6-3-5 Method, participants undertake information search tasks, use specific information items for concept development, and reflect on the merit of concepts as the session progresses. Three different companies were invited to utilise the method to address current design issues. Grid output, observation and semi-structured interviews were used to assess the performance of the method, with marked differences in use across organisations highlighting future potential applications and development

Project Testbed: Argument Mapping and Deliberation Analytics

One key goal of the Catalyst project was to design metrics that could capture and represent aspects of the conversation’s structural quality, to assist harvesters and moderators. Many such metrics, alerts and visualizations were developed in the course of the project, but initial user testing has shown that users find it difficult to interpret abstract signals. Following that, we have both introduced new analytics that we felt could be more directly useful, and improved the representation of existing ones. We evaluated their usefulness in a smaller conversation and in experimental settings

The effects of laryngeal mask airway passage simulation training on the acquisition of undergraduate clinical skills: a randomised controlled trial

Background\ud Effective use of the laryngeal mask airway (LMA) requires learning proper insertion technique in normal patients undergoing routine surgical procedures. However, there is a move towards simulation training for learning practical clinical skills, such as LMA placement. The evidence linking different amounts of mannequin simulation training to the undergraduate clinical skill of LMA placement in real patients is limited. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness in vivo of two LMA placement simulation courses of different durations. \ud \ud Methods\ud Medical students (n = 126) enrolled in a randomised controlled trial. Seventy-eight of these students completed the trial. The control group (n = 38) received brief mannequin training while the intervention group (n = 40) received additional more intensive mannequin training as part of which they repeated LMA insertion until they were proficient. The anaesthetists supervising LMA placements in real patients rated the participants' performance on assessment forms. Participants completed a self-assessment questionnaire. \ud \ud Results\ud Additional mannequin training was not associated with improved performance (37% of intervention participants received an overall placement rating of > 3/5 on their first patient compared to 48% of the control group, $X^2$ = 0.81, p = 0.37). The agreement between the participants and their instructors in terms of LMA placement success rates was poor to fair. Participants reported that mannequins were poor at mimicking reality. \ud \ud Conclusions\ud The results suggest that the value of extended mannequin simulation training in the case of LMA placement is limited. Educators considering simulation for the training of practical skills should reflect on the extent to which the in vitro simulation mimics the skill required and the degree of difficulty of the procedure. \ud \u

Visualising accessibility: an interactive tool and two applications to empirical case studies of urban development and public engagement

While a substantial body of literature exists on the theoretical definitions and measures of accessibility, the extent to which such measures are applied into practice to assess project alternatives is less frequent (Geurs and Van Wee, 2004). Recent studies affirm that one of the main barriers to the usability of accessibility measure is the lack of visualisation quality and mapping tool for accessibility representation (te Brömmelstroet et al, 2014), while visualisation tools are commonly recognised as the most effective methodology to facilitate knowledge sharing, particularly in those processes involving public stakeholders and non-experts with different expertise. Starting form this consideration, this paper presents an application of the Interactive Visualisation Tool, named InViTo (Pensa and Masala, 2014a; 2014b; Pensa, et al., 2014; Pensa, Masala and Lami, 2013; Pensa, Masala and Marina, 2013) able to generate maps of the level of perceived accessibility (i.e. “desirability”) of different urban areas. Desirability is here computed as the perceived level of access to different urban items as transport supply (metro and rail stations, public transport stops, parking) and urban activities such as hospitals, schools, museums. In this respect, the concept of desirability encompasses a measure of accessibility to several urban facilities, and the perception that residents of the study area have of such facilities. The InViTo tool allows to build up maps of desirability interactively, by making selection of the chosen items and by giving differential weights to each items. This makes the tools powerful and very useful particularly when discussing and showing analysis results to stakeholders, who could have the opportunity to see in real time the results of different scenario alternatives and assumptions. © AET 2014 and contributors 2 In the paper two applications are presented. The first one to the empirical case study of Rome, presents the steps to undertake in order to apply the tool: from data gathering, maps coding, and results representation. The second application aims at exploring the potential usability of the tool in engaging public stakeholders into the assessment of different urban development options. Furthermore, the results of a workshop held in Turin, in which public and private stakeholders were interactively involved, are discussed. The paper is organised as follows. In section 2, an overview of the InViTo tool is given with a focus on its applicability formeasuring accessibility. In section 3 the results of the two InViTo applications are discussed. Conclusions are drawn in section 4, with an outlook to undergoing research issues

The insider on the outside: a novel system for the detection of information leakers in social networks

Confidential information is all too easily leaked by naive users posting comments. In this paper we introduce DUIL, a system for Detecting Unintentional Information Leakers. The value of DUIL is in its ability to detect those responsible for information leakage that occurs through comments posted on news articles in a public environment, when those articles have withheld material non-public information. DUIL is comprised of several artefacts, each designed to analyse a different aspect of this challenge: the information, the user(s) who posted the information, and the user(s) who may be involved in the dissemination of information. We present a design science analysis of DUIL as an information system artefact comprised of social, information, and technology artefacts. We demonstrate the performance of DUIL on real data crawled from several Facebook news pages spanning two years of news articles