The Relationship Between i-Ready Diagnostic and 10th Grade Students\u27 High-Stakes Mathematics Test Scores Heath Andrew Thompson

Twenty percent of the 2013-2014 sophomore class at a Washington high school was failing high-stakes tests, making these students ineligible to graduate. In an attempt to help students identify their academic proficiency with respect to the Common Core Curricular Standards 9 months before the high-stakes exam, the high school recently introduced the adaptive diagnostic software i-Ready. Cognitive learning theories comprised the framework for this study, which posit that learning is dependent on previous knowledge and central to measuring performance levels. The purpose of this quantitative correlational project study was to examine whether 10th grade students\u27 achievement on i-Ready math scores (N = 220) could predict the subsequent high-stakes mathematics scores on the End of Course Exam while controlling for gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The i-Ready emerged as a statistically significant predictor of the End of Course Exam scores with β = .64 (p \u3c .001), explaining R2 = .43 of the criterion variance. Gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status had no significant moderating influence. The project deliverable as a result of this study was a position paper advising the use of the i-Ready as a predictor for the End of Course Exam at the high school under study. The implications for positive social change include allowing educators to use the i-Ready as an early warning system for students in danger of failing high-stakes exams. This study may help identify students at risk of not graduating who could benefit from instructional support

The level of knowledge required in various manufacturing engineering competency areas in the state of Oregon

This study was conducted to determine the level of knowledge required by graduating manufacturing engineering students in various manufacturing engineering competency areas as perceived by managers of manufacturing from 17 major manufacturing industrial classifications in the state of Oregon. Methods and Procedures A preliminary listing of competency areas was developed by reviewing literature in manufacturing, engineering, management and education. This preliminary listing was presented to a jury 'of experts who validated its content and suggested revisions. The final listing was then developed into a questionnaire which was field tested with managers of manufacturing. This final questionnaire contained 56 manufacturing engineering competencies with a five-point Likert-type scale consisting of not necessary, minimal, general, substantial and advanced as response selections to determine the level of knowledge required. A selected sample of 158 manufacturing managers responded to the questionnaire. The results were statistically analyzed with the one-way analysis of variance and the Student-Newman-Keuls test. Findings and Conclusions The compency area mean scores ranged from 3.8153 to 1.8089 with 21 competency areas requiring substantial knowledge, 28 requiring general knowledge, and 7 requiring a minimal knowledge level. The competency area requiring the highest level of knowledge was the area of energy conservation while the area of fine arts was perceived as requiring the lowest level of knowledge. Significant differences were found in 18 of the 59 competency areas included in the study. Of the ten significantly different competency areas which could be specifically identified, there were seven cases where the significantly different group was the Apparel and Other Finished Product classification. Recommendations Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that 49 of the 56 competency areas in the study be included in the manufacturing engineering curriculum and that the remaining 7 competency areas should not be emphasized in curriculum planning

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

COGNITIVE PRESENCE IN PEER FACILITATED ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE DISCUSSION: THE PATTERNS AND HOW TO FACILITATE

This study, in the context of peer-facilitated asynchronous online discussion, explored the characteristics and patterns of students’ cognitive presence, and examined the practices that aim to enhance cognitive presence development. Participants were 53 students from a graduate-level online course that focused on the integration of educational technologies. Data were collected from discussion transcripts, student survey, student artifacts, and researcher’s observations. Results demonstrated four phases of students’ cognitive presence: Triggering event, Exploration, Integration, and Resolution. Among the four phases, students’ cognitive presence tended to aggregate at the middle phases: Integration and Exploration. Percentage of the Resolution was very low. The distribution of students’ discussion behaviors further revealed: a) the hierarchical relationship between the four phases: Integration and Resolution involved a higher-level of cognitive engagement, and Triggering event and Exploration involved a lower-level of cognitive engagement; b) the phase of Resolution heavily relied on experiment, while the other three phases heavily relied on making use of personal experience; c) creating of cognitive presence occurred in both the private space of individual activities and the shared space of having dialogues. The conversation analysis of threads and episodes explored the temporal evolvement of cognitive presence. The results showed that, in an ongoing discussion, students’ cognitive presence evolved in a non-linear way, rather than strictly phase by phase as suggested by the PI model. Experiments were designed and conducted to determine the effects of two pedagogical interventions – 1) providing guidance on peer facilitation techniques; 2) asking students to label their posts. The results showed that the Intervention 1 and the combination of two interventions credibly improved students’ cognitive presence. They were especially effective in improving Integration, a higher level of cognitive presence. After having added Intervention 2, cognitive presence increased from the first-half to the second-half semester, although the improvement was not found to be statistically credible. This study confirmed the close association between and among cognitive presence, social interaction, and peer facilitation. The results clearly showed that Intervention 1 – providing guidance on peer facilitation credibly improved students’ social interaction and peer facilitation. However, Mixed findings were obtained for Intervention 2 – asking students to label their posts. It was found that Intervention 2 positively increased students’ social interaction. However, it did not show any impact on students’ peer facilitation behaviors. It is also worth noting that the effect of the combination of two interventions was much larger than any single one of them. Conversation analysis was conducted to zoom in on the dynamic process of discussion. The cases revealed that when students were provided with the guidance on peer facilitation techniques, they tended to use a variety of facilitation techniques in a strategic way to help peers to achieve a sustained and deeper-level conversation. Compared to the control group, the students in the treatment group showed more peer facilitation behaviors, which led to more conversations and more higher-level cognitive presence. This study has unpacked the complexity of students’ cognitive presence in a peer-facilitated discussion environment, especially when students are coached in performing teaching presence. The results shed light on the pedagogical practices and strategies of creating an online learning community that incubates rich cognitive presence. Finally, implications are discussed for the research and practices in online instruction and discussion analytics

Evolution of an Environmental Science College

Governors State University was established in July, 1969, by the State of Illinois as a free-standing upper division university with a mandate to develop a new model of higher education system. William E. Engbretson, the first and only President of GSU, invited me to join the administrative staff as Dean in September, 1969. I have had the opportunity to participate in planning ail systems of the University during the past six years. As a biologist-ecologist I had had considerable experience In various science curriculum development and science teacher education projects. Hence, I was interested in developing a College of Environmental and Applied Sciences that was non-departmentalized and that included a truly interdisciplinary curriculum which would prepare various kinds of environmental. generalists and specialists. A survey of the literature In 1969, 1970 identified many books and articles dealing with problems of higher education in general, but the paucity of literature about the history and evolutlon of colleges and schools of science was astounding. No references were found concerning colleges of science in new upper division universities. The National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and a few committees and commissions were just beginning to talk and write about Interdisciplinary science curricular possibilities at the university level. And little, if any, consideration had been given to competency-based curricula In science at the college or university level. There were no colleges of environmental science in the United States. To this date there is no definitive publication on the evolution of a college of environmental science. The purpose of this book is to place on record the brief six-year history and evolution of a college of environmental and applied sciences In a new upper division university where the total curriculum is interdisciplinary and competency-based. It is my hope that this report on the brief six-year life of this experimenting college will be useful to scientists who in the future may plan and develop still other kinds of science colleges. In the development of a new university and a different kind of science college, certain persons make major contributions. The College of Environmental and Applied Sciences and this book would be very different if it were not for the intellectual contributions of Peter Fenner, James Joseph Gallagher, Donald S. Douglas, and Robert A. Kloss who have worked as colleagues in the College since 1970. Bob Kloss died unexpectedly In January, 1975, prior to the completion of this book. Robert E. Tumelty was a member of the original team of six professional scientists who planned the College. He left the University after three years; all others of the original team are still helping to guide the College and University to maturity. William E. Engbretson, the first and continuing President of Governors State University, contributed significantly to my thinking about alternative curricula, strategies and modes of instruction, and needs of the commuting student. Without his support during the past six years, it would have been impossible to develop an experimenting environmental science college. He was also responsible for encouraging me to write this book during a six-month sabbatical leave which he endorsed. It Is not possible to place a value on the advice, counsel and support given to me and the College by Keith Smith, the first Vice President tor Administration. Smitty joined the University in the fa!l of 1969 and strong leadership until his unexpected, sudden death in the spring of 1974. During the past two years Mary P. Endres, Vice President for Academic Affairs, has provided stimulating advice and counsel to me and my colleagues in the College. In many ways, she has influenced the College as it matures. A very special note of appreciation and gratitude to my wife, Betty, who typed and proofread the entire manuscript for this book. Her penchant for clear, straightforward use of language has greatly improved the book. (From the Preface

Enhancing Free-text Interactions in a Communication Skills Learning Environment

Learning environments frequently use gamification to enhance user interactions.Virtual characters with whom players engage in simulated conversations often employ prescripted dialogues; however, free user inputs enable deeper immersion and higher-order cognition. In our learning environment, experts developed a scripted scenario as a sequence of potential actions, and we explore possibilities for enhancing interactions by enabling users to type free inputs that are matched to the pre-scripted statements using Natural Language Processing techniques. In this paper, we introduce a clustering mechanism that provides recommendations for fine-tuning the pre-scripted answers in order to better match user inputs

Business process modelling in ERP implementation literature review

Business processes are the backbone of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. Business process modelling (BPM) has become essential for modern, process driven enterprises due to the vibrant business environments. As a consequence enterprises are dealing with a substantial rate of organizational and business processes change. Business process modelling enables a common understanding and analysis of the business processes, which is the first step in every ERP implementation methodology (blueprint phase). In order to represent enterprise processes models in an accurate manner, it is paramount to choose a right business process modeling technique and tool. The problem of many ERP projects rated as unsuccessful is directly connected to a lack of use of business process models and notations during the blueprint phase. Also, blueprint implementation phase is crucial in order to fit planned processes in an organization with processes implemented in the solution. However, business analysts and ERP implementation professionals have substantial difficulties to navigate through a large number of theoretical models and representational notations that have been proposed for business process modeling (BPM). As the availability of different business process modeling references is huge, it is time consuming to make review and classification of all modeling techniques. Therefor, in reality majority of ERP implementations blueprint documents have no business process modeling included in generating blueprint documents. Choosing the right model comprise the purpose of the analysis and acquaintance of the available process modelling techniques and tools. The number of references on business modelling is quit large, so it is very hard to make a decision which modeling notation or technique to use. The main purpose of this paper is to make a review of business process modelling literature and describe the key process modelling techniques. The focus will be on all business process modeling that could be used in ERP implementations, specifically during the blueprint phase of the implementation process. Detailed review of BPM (Business process modeling) theoretical models and representational notations, should assist decision makers and ERP integrators in comparatively evaluating and selecting suitable modeling approaches

A conceptual framework for capability sourcing modeling

Companies need to acquire the right capabilities from the right source, and the right shore, at the right cost to improve their competitive position. Capability sourcing is an organizing process to gain access to best-in-class capabilities for all activities in a firm's value chain to ensure long-term competitive advantage. Capability sourcing modeling is a technique that helps investigating sourcing alternative solutions to facilitate strategic sourcing decision making. Our position is applying conceptual models as intermediate artifacts which are schematic descriptions of sourcing alternatives based on organization's capabilities. The contribution of this paper is introducing a conceptual framework in the form of five views (to organize all perspectives) and a conceptualisation (to formulate a language) for capability sourcing modelling