The Evolution of a Testing Tool for Measuring Undergraduate Information Literacy Skills in the Online Environment

The construction and validity of an assessment tool mapped to objectives in a high enrollment credit-bearing information literacy course delivered primarily online is the focus of this article. An open book and non-proctored objective test can be a reliable measure for assessing student competencies in basic information literacy skills, both at the course level and for reporting to national accrediting bodies and state agencies. An analysis of overall student performance on test items that are mapped to information literacy outcomes helps to identify competencies that need improvement in a course, as well as provide a baseline for informing the process of assessing student learning outcomes in an undergraduate curriculum

Assessment testing can be used to inform policy decisions : the case of Jordan

Over the past two decades, the Jordanian education system has made significant advances. Net enrollment in basic education increased from 89 percent in 2000 to 97 percent in 2006. Transition rates to secondary education increased from 63 to 79 percent in the same period. At the same time, Jordan made significant gains on international surveys of student achievement, with a particularly impressive gain of almost 30 points on the science portion of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Changes in test scores over time are presented and analyzed using decomposition analysis. The trends are related to policy changes over time. It is argued that benchmarking education systems and constant feedback between researchers and policymakers contributed to this achievement.Tertiary Education,Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education,Primary Education

The Benefits of a Better Education System: What Cross-Country Data Can Tell Us

Previous cross-country analyses of the factors that affect education outcomes have focused on measures of school inputs such as average pupil-teacher ratios, teacher characteristics, and availability of learning materials. The capacity of the education system to translate these inputs into education outcomes has not been researched in the same way because internationally comparable measures of the quality of the system have not been available. Assessing the quality of an education system is an immense task, but efforts have been made to construct a unique database with information on the quality of the education system in a large number of countries. This paper uses that database to examine how indicators of system quality are associated with measures of learning that are approximately comparable across countries, as well as with average years of schooling and people’s view of their education system. The paper estimates these relationship controlling for the level of educaton expenditure and per-capita GDP across countries. Although measures of the quality of the education system can be improved significantly, the findings indicate that better education systems do yield better education outcomes

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Evaluación de lo preparada que está Argentina para la economía del conocimiento: medición del conocimiento y habilidades de los alumnos en matemáticas y ciencias con resultados de PISA 2000

Evaluación de lo preparada que está Argentina para la economía del conocimiento: medición del conocimiento y habilidades de los alumnos en matemáticas y ciencias con resultados de PISA 200

Multivariate Stable Densities as Functions of One Dimensional Projections

The density of a generald-dimensional stable random vectorXis expressed as an integral over the sphere in dof a function of the parameters of the one dimensional projections ofX. These formulas give insight into the form of multivariate stable densities and are useful for numerical calculations. Corollaries give simplified expressions for symmetric stable and the[alpha]=1 strictly stable densities, relations among the densities in different dimensions, and values of the densities at the location parameter for all cases except the[alpha]=1, non-strictly stable ones. Expressions for the densities in the multidimensional analog of Zolotarev's (M) parameterization and a discussion of computational versions of the formulas are also given.stable distributions multivariate densities

Salat Empat Mazhab

x + 43