269 research outputs found
Higher education reform: getting the incentives right
This study is a joint effort by the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) and the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies. It analyses a number of `best practicesÂż where the design of financial incentives working on the system level of higher education is concerned. In Chapter 1, an overview of some of the characteristics of the Dutch higher education sector is presented. Chapter 2 is a refresher on the economics of higher education. Chapter 3 is about the Australian Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS). Chapter 4 is about tuition fees and admission policies in US universities. Chapter 5 looks at the funding of Danish universities through the so-called taximeter-model, that links funding to student performance. Chapter 6 deals with research funding in the UK university system, where research assessments exercises underlie the funding decisions. In Chapter 7 we study the impact of university-industry ties on academic research by examining the US policies on increasing knowledge transfer between universities and the private sector. Finally, Chapter 8 presents food for thought for Dutch policymakers: what lessons can be learned from our international comparison
Technology and Testing
From early answer sheets filled in with number 2 pencils, to tests administered by mainframe computers, to assessments wholly constructed by computers, it is clear that technology is changing the field of educational and psychological measurement. The numerous and rapid advances have immediate impact on test creators, assessment professionals, and those who implement and analyze assessments. This comprehensive new volume brings together leading experts on the issues posed by technological applications in testing, with chapters on game-based assessment, testing with simulations, video assessment, computerized test development, large-scale test delivery, model choice, validity, and error issues. Including an overview of existing literature and ground-breaking research, each chapter considers the technological, practical, and ethical considerations of this rapidly-changing area. Ideal for researchers and professionals in testing and assessment, Technology and Testing provides a critical and in-depth look at one of the most pressing topics in educational testing today
Building on Progress - Expanding the Research Infrastructure for the Social, Economic, and Behavioral Sciences. Vol. 1
The publication provides a comprehensive compendium of the current state of Germany's research infrastructure in the social, economic, and behavioural sciences. In addition, the book presents detailed discussions of the current needs of empirical researchers in these fields and opportunities for future development. The book contains 68 advisory reports by more than 100 internationally recognized authors from a wide range of fields and recommendations by the German Data Forum (RatSWD) on how to improve the research infrastructure so as to create conditions ideal for making Germany's social, economic, and behavioral sciences more innovative and internationally competitive. The German Data Forum (RatSWD) has discussed the broad spectrum of issues covered by these advisory reports extensively, and has developed general recommendations on how to expand the research infrastructure to meet the needs of scholars in the social and economic sciences
Advancing Human Assessment: The Methodological, Psychological and Policy Contributions of ETS
​This book describes the extensive contributions made toward the advancement of human assessment by scientists from one of the world’s leading research institutions, Educational Testing Service. The book’s four major sections detail research and development in measurement and statistics, education policy analysis and evaluation, scientific psychology, and validity. Many of the developments presented have become de-facto standards in educational and psychological measurement, including in item response theory (IRT), linking and equating, differential item functioning (DIF), and educational surveys like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Programme of international Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In addition to its comprehensive coverage of contributions to the theory and methodology of educational and psychological measurement and statistics, the book gives significant attention to ETS work in cognitive, personality, developmental, and social psychology, and to education policy analysis and program evaluation. The chapter authors are long-standing experts who provide broad coverage and thoughtful insights that build upon decades of experience in research and best practices for measurement, evaluation, scientific psychology, and education policy analysis. Opening with a chapter on the genesis of ETS and closing with a synthesis of the enormously diverse set of contributions made over its 70-year history, the book is a useful resource for all interested in the improvement of human assessment
Advancing Human Assessment: The Methodological, Psychological and Policy Contributions of ETS
Educational Testing Service (ETS); large-scale assessment; policy research; psychometrics; admissions test
Digital game-based learning: effects on students' perceptions and achievements in a business process management course
For the Degree of MCom by Dissertation in the Field of Information SystemsThe study aimed to investigate the impact of the introduction of digital game-based
learning (DGBL) and its effect on students’ perceptions of competence, usefulness,
and enjoyment, as well as their achievement. The context of the study was a third
year Business Process Management (BPM) module, within an information systems
course at the University of the Witwatersrand. Eight research questions were
formulated and ten hypotheses were derived. The study was underpinned by Deci
and Ryan (2002)’s self-determination theory (SDT) of human motivation, which
included two of the sub-theories of SDT, cognitive evaluation theory (CIT) and
organismic interaction theory (OIT), as well as Ryan et al. (2006)’s adaptation of the
construct of presence into SDT.
The study adopted a single group natural experiment pre-post design and a
longitudinal relational design. The study was conducted with a sample of 24
students. Three baseline surveys were used to measure students’ levels of intrinsic
motivation, perceived competence and perceived usefulness. This was done prior to
the introduction of IBM’s Innov8 2.0, which was the digital learning game used in the
study. The baseline surveys were administered one week apart, prior to the
introduction of the game. After the game was introduced, an endline survey was
used to capture students’ levels of intrinsic motivation, perceived competence,
perceived usefulness and presence with the game. Learning achievement was
measured through the use of three assessments conducted one week, one month
and two months after the end of the BPM course.
Hypothesis testing was conducted using t-tests, correlation, and PLS regression
techniques. Results confirmed significant effects of the digital game to decrease
perceived competence, a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and
achievement, and a positive relationship between presence and intrinsic motivation.
As a result of the study, we now know that DGBL effects achievement through
intrinsic motivation when in close proximity to the assessments. DGBL can appear to
decrease perceived competence as it appears to be a feedback mechanism, which
should be seen as a positive rather than negative effect. Certain DGBL
characteristics such as presence increase intrinsic motivation perceptions.MT201
2013-2014 Graduate Catalog
Academic catalog for Armstrong Atlantic State University
Transforming Institutions
Higher education is coming under increasing scrutiny, both publically and within academia, with respect to its ability to appropriately prepare students for the careers that will make them competitive in the 21st-century workplace. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that many global issues will require creative and critical thinking deeply rooted in the technical STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines.
Transforming Institutions brings together chapters from the scholars and leaders who were part of the 2011 and 2014 conferences. It provides an overview of the context and challenges in STEM higher education, contributed chapters describing programs and research in this area, and a reflection and summary of the lessons from the many authors’ viewpoints, leading to suggested next steps in the path toward transformation
Ensuring improvement or improving assurance: student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher education
Student feedback-based evaluation of teaching, courses and programs is a familiar
feature of the contemporary Australian higher education landscape. Over the last three
decades, it has moved from a largely peripheral and experimental presence to a
significant institutional position, moving rapidly from the status of an academic
development fringe dweller to a privileged institutional citizen. It is now a powerful
proxy for assuring the quality of teaching, courses and programs across diverse
discipline and qualification frameworks. The data it generates increasingly guides
significant judgments about academic appointment, performance and promotion. Its
outcomes also inform the student marketplace around institutional and program quality,
and will potentially shape performance funding of Australian universities.
This significant evolution and its implications for academic teaching is therefore a
legitimate matter of scholarly interest. Yet, although there is evidence of considerable
research interest in the quantitative instruments of student feedback and the effective
use of their outcomes, research around its contemporary function is much more limited.
This thesis attempts to address this gap, by exploring the forces that have shaped the
progressive emergence student feedback-based evaluation in Australian higher
education and the influence it exerts on contemporary approaches to academic teaching.
The research uses the explanatory potential of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT)
with the objective of generating a critical understanding of the development, function
and potential of student feedback-based evaluation.
This analysis is developed through a series of interpretive lenses. The thesis firstly
analyses the historicity of student feedback-based evaluation - both at a general level
and in its specific evolution in Australian higher education. This encounters the forces
that have shaped its design and use, as well as the tensions that have been fundamental
to this evolved form and function. Secondly, by analysing the current institutional
framing of student feedback-based evaluation, the thesis considers the complex
demands that shape its contemporary state. This adopts a particular focus on the
increasingly ambiguous relationship of student feedback with pedagogical and academic
development that results from elevating tensions between various drives for quality
improvement, quality assurance, performance management and institutional marketing.
Thirdly, qualitative case studies involving two cohorts of postgraduate teachers at an Australian
university are considered. These case studies are framed by the use of a novel CHAT-informed,
action research model. The situated cases provide an insight into the current state and the
developmental potential of student feedback-based evaluation in an Australian higher education
setting. These outcomes are analysed to further understand the increasingly complex relationship
between student feedback- based evaluation and institutional demands, professional discourses and
pedagogical change. It also provides a means of considering the broader developmental potential
that arises from collective forms of academic engagement derived from the elevated use of
qualitative forms of student feedback. Based on this analysis, tentative conclusions are drawn
about the affordances and constraints of orthodox quantitative student evaluation. In addition, the
potential of more complex engagement with the student voice is considered, to assess its ability to
incite substantial pedagogical and academic development in higher education environments
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