Monitoring the communication competence in an innovative context of project management learning

This document presents an innovative, formal educational initiative that is aimed at enhancing the development of engineering students' specific competences. The subject of project management is the common theoretical and practical framework that articulates an experience that is carried out by multidisciplinary groups. Full utilization of Web 2.0 platforms and Project Based Learning constitutes the applied methodology. More specifically, this study focuses on monitoring communication competence when working in virtual environments, providing an ad-hoc rubric as a final result

Strengthening communication skills in an innovative context of engineering project management learning

This document presents an innovative, formal educational initiative that is aimed at enhancing the development of engineering students’ specific competences when studying Project Management (PM) subject. The framework of the experience combines (1) theoretical concepts, (2) the development of a real-case project carried out by multidisciplinary groups of three different universities, (3) the use of software web 2.0 tools and (4) group and individual assignments of students that play different roles (project managers and team members). Under this scenario, the study focuses on monitoring the communication competence in the ever growing PM virtual environment. Factors such as corporal language, technical means, stage, and PM specific vocabulary among others have been considered in order to assess the students’ performance on this issue. As a main contribution, the paper introduces an ad-hoc rubric that, based on previous investigations, has been adapted and tested for the first time to this new and specific context. Additionally, the research conducted has provided some interesting findings that suggest further actions to improve and better define future rubrics, oriented to communication or even other competences. As specific PM subject concerns, it has been detected that students playing the role of Project Managers strengthen their competences more than those ones that play the role of Team Members. It has also been detected that students have more difficulty assimilating concepts related to risk and quality management. However those concepts related with scope, time or cost areas of knowledge have been better assimilated by the students

Improving engineering students' communication competence: designing innovative learning strategies

This research presents an innovative and formal educational initiative that is aimed at enhancing the development of engineering students’ specific competencies when studying Engineering Project Management subject. The framework of the experience combines theoretical concepts, the development of a real-case project carried out by multidisciplinary groups of three different universities, the use of software web 2.0 tools, and group and individual assignments of students that play different roles (project managers and team members). Under this scenario, this paper focuses on monitoring the communication competence in the ever growing Project Management virtual environment. Factors such as corporal language, technical means, stage, and management specific vocabulary among others have been considered in order to assess the students’ performance on this issue. As a main contribution, the paper introduces an ad-hoc rubric that, based on previous investigations, has been adapted and tested to this specific context. Additionally, the research conducted has provided some interesting findings that suggest further actions to improve and better define future rubrics, oriented to communication or even other competencies. As specific Project Management subject concerns, it has been detected that students playing the role of Project Managers strengthen their competencies more than those ones that play the role of Team Members. It has also been detected that students have more difficulty assimilating concepts related to risk and quality management. However those concepts related with areas of knowledge like scope, time or cost have been better assimilated by the students

Web-based system for adaptable rubrics: case study on CAD assessment

[EN] This paper describes the implementation and testing of our concept of adaptable rubrics, defined as analytical rubrics that arrange assessment criteria at multiple levels that can be expanded on demand. Because of its adaptable nature, these rubrics cannot be implemented in paper formats, neither are they supported by current Learning Management Systems (LMS). The main contribution of this work involves the adaptable capability of different levels of detail, which can be expanded for each rubric criterion as needed. Our rubrics platform provides specialized and intuitive tools to create and modify rubrics as well as managing metadata to support learning analytics. As an example of a practical assessment situation, a case study on Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD) systems training is presented. The validation process in this scenario proved the effectiveness of our adaptable rubric platform for supporting formative assessment in a multifaceted and complex field such as MCAD. The system also showed the potential of collecting user interaction metadata, which can be used to analyze the evaluation process and guide further improvements in the teaching strategy.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund, through the ANNOTA project (Ref. TIN2013-46036-C3-1-R).Company, P.; Contero, M.; Otey, J.; Camba, J.; Agost, M.; Pérez Lopez, DC. (2017). Web-based system for adaptable rubrics: case study on CAD assessment. Journal of Educational Technology and Society. 20(3):24-41. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/136958S244120

PENGEMBANGAN INTRUMEN ASESMEN UNJUK KERJA PADA MATERI GEOMETRI SEKOLAH MENENGAH PERTAMA

The purpose of this study was to develop a performance assessment instrument on subject matter of geometric through the many facet rasch model approach. Data were collected from 100 students on a small scale and 250 students on a large scale in junior high schools using 3 raters. The performance assessment instrument in the form of a rubric is used to assess the student's process of working on the questions, each question has a different rubric. The Rasch Many Faceted Measurement Model (MFRM) is used to analyze data by looking at three aspects, namely the facet person, rater agreement, and difficulty domain using the Facet program. For the facet person, the rater separation ratio was 4.96, while the reliability of the separation index was 2.15 which indicates that the assessors are separated reliably. The stratum index is 3.21 which indicates that there are three strata of rater severity that differ statistically in the sample of these 4 raters. The rater agrement obtained the reliability of the rater separation of 0.87 and the correlation between each assessor and the other ranged between 0.40 and 0.63, indicating adequate agreement among the raters in assessing test participants with their level of competence. The Difficulty Domain on the variable maps shows that the hard to soft range is from about +1 to −1 logit. Obviously, the ratings are not as bad, but the spread looks good considering there are 4 ratings. At the level of instrument practicality using the Glicman formula obtained from the T score of each rater I of 58, rater IX obtained a T score of 58.61, and from rater IV the lowest T score was 50.03 and it can be said that in general it is considered practical by the teachers. (rater) in assessing the practicality level of the instrument. ********** ujuan dari penelitian ini adalah mengembangkan instrumen asesmen unjuk kerja pada materi pelajaran geometri melalui pendekatan model many facet rasch. Data dikumpulkan dari 100 siswa skala kecil dan 250 siswa skala besar di sekolah menengah pertama dengan menggunakan 3 penilai. Instrumen asesmen unjuk kerja berupa rubrik digunakan untuk menilai proses siswa mengerjakan soal yang masing-masing soal memiliki rubrik yang berbeda. Model Rasch Many Faceted Measurement Model (MFRM) digunakan untuk menganalisis data dengan melihat tiga aspek yaitu facet person, rater agreement, dan domain kesulitan menggunakan program Facet. Untuk segi orang, rasio pemisah penilai adalah 4.96, sedangkan keandalan indeks pemisah adalah 2.15 yang menunjukkan bahwa penilai dipisahkan dengan andal. Indeks strata 3,21 yang menunjukkan bahwa terdapat tiga strata tingkat keparahan yang berbeda secara statistik pada sampel dari 4 penilai tersebut. Kesepakatan penilai memperoleh reliabilitas pemisahan penilai sebesar 0,87 dan korelasi antara masing-masing penilai dengan yang lainnya berkisar antara 0,40 dan 0,63, yang menunjukkan kesesuaian yang memadai di antara penilai dalam menilai peserta tes dengan tingkat kompetensinya. Domain Kesulitan pada peta variabel menunjukkan bahwa kisaran keras hingga lunak adalah dari sekitar +1 hingga −1 logit. Memang ratingnya tidak seburuk itu, tapi spreadnya terlihat bagus mengingat ada 4 rating. Pada tingkat kepraktisan instrumen menggunakan rumus Glicman diperoleh dari nilai T masing-masing penilai I sebesar 58, penilai IX memperoleh nilai T sebesar 58.61, dan dari penilai IV nilai T paling rendah adalah 50.03 dan dapat dikatakan bahwa secara umum hal tersebut dianggap praktis oleh para guru. (penilai) dalam menilai tingkat kepraktisan instrumen

Mathematics & Statistics 2017 APR Self-Study & Documents

UNM Mathematics & Statistics APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Spring 2017, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission

Applications of technology and large data in statistics education and statistical graphics

This dissertation is a composite of research preformed in the fields of statistics education and statistical graphics. The three body chapters stand as the pillars of this work; tied together by the common theme of overcoming challenges and grasping opportunities that are posed by emerging technologies and prodigious data sources. In Chapter 1 a review of the literature is conducted to lay the foundation upon which the work of the main body chapters is built. Chapter 2 is an educational experiment comparing the learning outcomes from simulation-based and traditional statistical inference curricula. Chapter 3 studies the development of a shiny application to connect students to large data. Chapter 4 contributes to research on binned scatterplots as a graphical tool for visualizing large data. Each body chapter in this dissertation is intended be submitted for publication individually; therefore, more detailed abstracts may be found at the beginning of each chapter

An Investigation of Conceptual Knowledge: Urban African American Middle School Students\u27 Use of Fraction Representations and Fraction Computations in Performance-Based Tasks

A relatively large number of 8th-grade public middle school students in the United States, particularly in urban communities, are not performing at acceptable levels in mathematics. One concept that poses significant difficulty for these students and negatively affects their overall mathematics achievement is fractions. Many researchers have attributed these difficulties primarily to traditional fraction instruction that emphasizes procedural rather than conceptual knowledge. Therefore this study was designed to investigate how students use their computational and conceptual knowledge and fraction representations to solve fraction-related performance-based mathematical tasks. Social constructivism was used as the theoretical framework in examining conceptual knowledge related to learning fractions. This qualitative study was implemented in an urban middle school in the southeast. It involved an initial sample of 37, 8th-grade, African American pre-algebra students who completed a fraction interest questionnaire and two fraction pretests. During the implementation period, 34 students in the researcher’s pre-algebra class completed three performance-based tasks, three reflection logs, and participated in an interview after completing each task. Of the 34 students who completed all tasks, three were purposefully selected as the informants for the study. In addition, observations, field notes, and artifacts (student work) were utilized to facilitate triangulation of the data. The findings of the study indicated the informants could compute fractions with an average of 85% of mastery but could conceptualize fractions only to a small extent. This validated prior findings and led to the conclusion that student deficiency with fractions results primarily from their level of conceptual knowledge. In the investigation of the ways in which 8th-grade students use fraction representations, this study found the informants used representations to develop a visual map of their mathematical thinking and reasoning and to check the accuracy of their computations. Therefore, this study suggests, when students’ mathematical learning experiences relative to fractions have not emphasized the use of representations to develop conceptual knowledge, they may not be comfortable with the accuracy of the solutions demonstrated in their fractions models