Improving Health Science Faculty\u27s Comprehension of Test Item-Analysis

Background: Differences in testing can lead to student frustration and questionable evaluation of student learning. Inconsistency in testing practices include differing levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, Faculty-written items versus publisher test bank items, and variations in grading. Failure to provide quality student learning assessment and evaluation tools and methods can negatively impact both student and program outcomes. Performing analysis of test items can improve quality of and consistency in evaluation of student learning. Objective/Purpose of the Project: This quality improvement DNP project investigated the impact of an educational intervention on multiple choice question (MCQ) test-item analysis on the Health Sciences Department Faculty of a small community college. Methods: Seven of 66 Health Science Faculty participants attended a one-hour educational session on test item-analysis. Data were collected via a pre-test/post-test survey design. In addition to demographic data, a Likert scale was used to rate participants’ knowledge of, confidence in completing, and ability to overcoming barriers to implementing test item analysis. Participants also completed an item analysis on a practice test item, rating difficulty, discrimination, and plan for use. Finally, upon completion of the intervention, participants were asked to rate their intent to incorporate test item-analysis into their curricula. Paired sample t-tests and frequency distributions were used to describe results. Results: Participants reported an increase in comprehension of (p = .030) and confidence in completing test item analysis (p = .008), as well as an increase in the ability to overcome barriers to implementing test item analysis (p = .030) following the educational session. Pre-education, 2(14.3%) correctly responded to item analysis difficulty, discrimination, and plan for use, compared to 3(43%) post education. 71.4% (N=5) strongly agreed to intent to incorporate item analysis into their curricula following education. Conclusions/Application to Practice: Performing test item analysis as part of a program testing policy can improve the quality of evaluation of student learning, increase use of evidence-based practices in education and strengthen health science programs through consistency in grading practices

Tunisia : mass tourism in crisis?

Successive governments in post-colonial Tunisia have sought to develop mass tourism as an avenue for social and economic development. Political instability and increasing media coverage have more recently led to a dramatic reduction in foreign tourist arrivals. Tunisia provides insights into the intersections of modernity, mass tourism, authoritarianism and terrorism, and in a world marred by terrorist attacks it becomes increasingly important to analyse the specific contexts from which these emerge. This chapter aims to address some of these issues by evaluating mass tourism development in Tunisia, highlighting the social and economic advances Tunisia has achieved, before analysing the situation since the Jasmine revolution of 2011. In order to fully analyse mass tourism in Tunisia, we draw on our own experience, which includes over 30 years of research in Tunisia, and fieldwork carried out shortly after the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in the capital city Tunis. Finally, the chapter looks towards the future of mass tourism in Tunisia, arguing that while mass tourism has delivered positive advances, if it is to continue to do so the industry must be diversified and adapted to meet new needs

Case study report The view of the EU cultural and science diplomacy from Tunisia. EL-CSID Working Paper Issue 2018/13 • April 2018

Tunisia is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), revised in 2015, alongside 15 other countries from Southern and Eastern neighbouring regions, and beneficiary from the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). Although the Euro-Mediterranean relationship under previous guises was slightly impeded or besmirched at some point by its dependency to the old Tunisian regime1, now, due to its role at the forefront of the democratic movement in the region, post-2011 Tunisia enjoys a relatively privileged status amongst the MENA countries in general, and in the Maghreb in particular2. A “privileged partnership” was established in 20123. This place was confirmed in 2016 by the Joint communication to the European Parliament and the Council: “Strengthening EU support for Tunisia”4. European days have been organised in 2016. In November of this same year, the HR/VP Federica Mogherini payed a visit to Tunis, and the EU Commissioner for ENP, Johannes Hahn, attended the conference “Tunisia 2020”. In December 2016, the Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi went to Brussels to sign the “EUTunisia Youth Partnership”. Tunisia is one of the top beneficiaries of EU regional programmes for the Southern neighbourhood, in areas such as environment, energy, migration and security. The support to Tunisia amounted to 250 million € in 2016, and to 300 million € in 2017. The EU’s support to Tunisia encompasses many domains: economic reforms, private sector, employability, vocational training, schools, higher education, health, agriculture and rural development, decentralisation and regional development, environment and energy, transportation, governance, justice, security, human rights and civil society, gender equality, media and culture, migration and mobility, cross-border cooperation

Tunisia in turmoil: how should the EU react?

The assassination of the opposition leader in Tunisia exposed the underlying divisions between members of the ruling classes, between those in and outside of government, between religious groupings and secularists, and between the coastal areas and the hinterland of Tunisia. Since the revolution, tackling social inclusion has become a pressing problem: men versus women, young versus old, opponents versus supporters of the old regime and political forces inside Tunisia versus those in exile. The National Constituent Assembly (NCA)’s inability to address these fault lines and approve the second draft of the constitution has hampered the transition of the country towards the next elections, while all of the above have undermined trust in the political process. Although Tunisians are primarily responsible for the political processes in their country, argue authors Hrant Kostanyan and Elitsa Garnizova, the EU should step up its efforts to deliver on its commitments in the areas of money, market and mobility

Linfield College: Study Abroad in Tunisia, Italy, and Austria

This letter from returnee Matt Davies explains the value of studying abroad in Tunisia, Italy, and Austria

Sector level cost of equity in African financial markets

This paper assesses the effectiveness of Liu (2006) metrics in measuring illiquidity within a multifactor CAPM pricing model. Costs of equity are estimated using this model for the major sectors within Africa’s larger equity markets: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa. In all countries, the cost of equity is found to be highest in the financial sector and lowest in the blue chip stocks of Tunisia, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa. At an aggregate level, Nigeria and Zambia have the highest cost of capital

EXCHANGE RATE AND INFLATION TARGETING IN MOROCCO AND TUNISIA

Morocco and Tunisia have started to open their markets to international trade and capital flows in order to bolster investment and growth. These liberalization programs require important adjustments in their economic policies, in particular their exchange rate regimes and monetary policies. This objective of this paper is to examine why Morocco and Tunisia should progressively opt for greater exchange rate flexibility as well as a monetary policy based on inflation targeting rather than exchange rate targeting and money-growth rules, as their markets are increasingly liberalized. First, their past economic policies are reviewed and analyzed. Second, the theoretical sources of inflation (cost push and demand pull factors as well as factors due to financial liberalization) are identified. Third, a Markov switching model with time-varying transition probabilities is estimated for Morocco and Tunisia to provide important information concerning the mechanisms underlying inflation regime changes. The empirical results provide evidence that high inflation regimes are more persistent in Morocco than in Tunisia, and that inflation regime switches can be explained by external shocks in the 1970s, and by the sound fiscal and monetary policies in the mid-1980s. Finally the institutional and operational conditions for the success of an inflation-targeting framework are outlined.Markov switching; Inflation; Inflation targeting, Monetary policy, Central Banks; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination; Morocco; Tunisia

THE ADOPTION OF HIGH YIELDING WHEATS IN TUNISIA

Since 1966 strenuous efforts have been made to introduce into Tunisia some of the new high yielding wheat varieties in order to accelerate cereals production. This paper seeks to analyze some of the data now available on the new wheats in Tunisia and to explore some of the economic problems of increased cereals production with these varieties.Crop Production/Industries,

Agricultural and non-agricultural outputs and energy consumption in Tunisia: empirical evidences from cointegration and causality

This short paper investigates the cointegration and causality link between energy consumption and agricultural, non-agricultural outputs (manufacturing sector and services sector) and overall gross domestic product in Tunisia for 1971-2003 period. Empirical results suggest that there is only unidirectional causality running from agricultural and non-agricultural sectors to energy consumption as well as from overall GDP growth to energy consumption. This unidirectional causality signifies a less energy dependent economy and suggests that it is sectoral growth that drives the energy consumption in Tunisia and not vice versa. Empirical results suggest also that Tunisian agricultural sector growth does not depend on energy, and high consumption of energy do not implies more productivity in the short run for this sector.energy consumption, output growth, causality, cointegration, Tunisia, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,