DESIGN & VALIDATION METHODOLOGY FROM A LIFE PREDICTION PERSPECTIVE FOR THE STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS OF A RECREATIONAL PRODUCT

The paper outlines a design process flow diagram (methodology) that highlights the challenges of engineering design and allows both engineers and students to focus on the development of a creative, effective and profitable solution to meet particular life objective and additional criteria. A case study related to a recreational vehicle is also presented to validate the methodology. Therefore, to reach the objective of weight reduction for the structural subsystem in a hybrid roadster project, a methodology that allows the optimization of the design parameters according to several types of design criteria has been developed

Validation et consistance interne d’une batterie de tests pour l’évaluation multidimensionnelle de la lecture en français

Nous présentons les considérations théoriques qui guident l’élaboration de la batterie de tests destinée à l’évaluation de la lecture en français. Ensuite, nous étayons les cinq domaines ciblés par la Batterie d’épreuves multidimensionnelles pour l’évaluation de la lecture (BÉMÉL) : a) la sensibilité phonologique, b) les connaissances alphabétiques, c) l’identification des mots réels ou inventés, d) la sensibilité grammaticale, e) la compréhension des phrases et des textes. Nous rapportons les résultats d’une étude sur huit échelles de mesure représentant trois de ces domaines. Ces résultats attestent que la consistance interne des échelles est satisfaisante et que l’augmentation de la performance en fonction du niveau scolaire appuie la validité des concepts représentés par ces échelles. Nous concluons avec quelques observations sur le développement à venir.The authors present the theoretical underpinnings used in the development of a battery of tests to evaluate reading in French. The five areas targeted by the “Batterie d’épreuves multidimensionnelles pour l’évaluation de la lecture” (BÉMÉL) include: a) phonologic sensitivity, b) alphabet knowledge, c) identification of real and invented words, d) grammatical awareness, e) comprehension of sentences and text. Presented are the results of a study of eight measurement scales representing three of these areas. The results show that the internal reliability of these scales is satisfactory and that the improvement in performance at each school level supports the validity of the concepts represented by these scales. The authors conclude with several observations regarding future development.Presentamos las consideraciones teóricas que orientan la elaboración de la batería de tests que tiene por objetivo la evaluación de la lectura en francés. A continuación apuntalamos los cinco dominios enfocados para la Batería de pruebas multidimensionales para la evaluación de la lectura (BEMEL): a) la sensibilidad fonológica, b) los conocimientos alfabéticos, c) la identificación de las palabras reales o inventadas, d) la sensibilidad gramatical, e) la comprensión de las frases y de textos. Informamos de los resultados de un estudio basado en ocho escalas de medida que representan tres de estos dominios. Estos resultados confirman que la consistencia interna de las escalas es satisfactoria y que el incremento del rendimiento según el nivel escolar sostiene la validez de los conceptos representados por estas escalas. Concluimos con algunas observaciones sobre el desarrollo a futuro

The impact of a computer based adult literacy program on literacy and numeracy : evidence from India

With over 700 million illiterate adults in the world, many governments have implemented adult literacy programs across the world, although typically with low rates of success partly because the quality of teaching is low. One solution may lie in the standardization of teaching provided by computer-aided instruction. We present the first rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of a computer-based adult literacy program. A randomized control trial study of TARA Akshar Plus, an Indian adult literacy program, was implemented in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. We find large, significant impacts of this computer-aided program on literacy and numeracy outcomes. We compare the improvement in learning to that of other traditional adult literacy programs and conclude that TARA Akshar Plus is effective in increasing literacy and numeracy for illiterate adult women

SOURCES DE MATÉRIEL EN FRANÇAIS POUR L’ÉLABORATION D’ÉPREUVES DE COMPÉTENCES EN LECTURE ET EN ÉCRITURE

L’élaboration d’une épreuve de competences en lecture ou en écriture présente de nombreux défis. On doit assurer la représentativité des items par rapport au concept ciblé et prendre en compte les variables linguistiques susceptibles d’influencer le comportement mesuré. Les informations afferents à ces variables linguistiques proviennent typiquement des dictionnaires spécialises ou des etudes normatives sur la langue. Le but du present article est de rapporter les résultats d’une recension systématique des sources de materiel en français pouvant server à l’élaboration d’épreuves de competences en lecture et en écriture. Ce compte rendu est organize selon une taxinomie hiérarchique dans laquelle nous opérons une différenciation progressive entre les unites segmentales de la langue, des unites supralexicales aux unites infralexicales. Les variables pertinentes sont définies et les sources de matériels ou de données normatives sont présentées. Mots clés : évaluation des compétences en lecture et en écriture, ressources pour la construction des épreuves en français, données normatives sur le lexique du français The development of tests for the assessment of reading or writing skills always is a challenging task. A representative sample of items for the theoretical construct of interest must be selected and the linguistic variables likely to influence the behavior being measured must be taken into account. The most useful information for this purpose is found in specialized dictionaries and normative data studies. The goal of the present article is to systematically review the sources of material in French that can serve in the assessment of reading and writing skills. This review is broken down into the segmental units of the French language, from supra‐lexical to sub‐lexical units. The relevant variables are defined and the sources of material and normative data are presented.Key words: assessment of reading and writing skills, resources for test construction in French, normative data on the French lexicon

The impact of a computer-based adult literacy program on literacy and numeracy: Evidence from India

With over 700 million illiterate adults worldwide, governments in many developing countries have implemented adult literacy programs. Typically these programs have low rates of success partly because the quality of teaching is heterogeneous. Standardization of teaching provided by computer-aided instruction might be a solution. However, there is little rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of computer-based adult literacy programs in delivering high-quality literacy and numeracy in the developing world. To fill this void in the literature, we study the impact of a computer-based adult literacy program, Tara Akshar Plus, on the literacy and numeracy skills of previously illiterate adult women in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Through a randomized control trial, we measure learning outcomes with individual-level literacy and numeracy tests and find statistically significant positive impacts of this computer-aided program on literacy and numeracy outcomes of women who undergo the TARA Akshar Plus program—relative to the control group. The effects are statistically significant but small in magnitude for women who were entirely illiterate prior to the program. The learning impacts are substantially larger for learners who knew at least a handful of letters at the beginning of the program. We compare the improvement in learning to that of another adult literacy and numeracy program. We conclude that TARA Akshar Plus is the more effective of the two, but the literacy and numeracy level achieved are not large enough to make many entirely illiterate learners become functionally literate