Examination of the inter-rater agreement among faculty marking a research proposal on an undergraduate health course

Copyright @ 2009 The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice.Purpose: This research looked at inter-rater agreement among faculty marking a research proposal on an undergraduate health course. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there were significant differences between marks as well as the comments given on research proposals that were double marked by two faculty members, where faculty were blind to the other marker’s marks and comments. Subjects: The subjects for this study consisted of 80 final year health students who submitted a research proposal and 13 full-time and 10 part-time faculty members who double marked the proposals. Methods: Faculty pairs marked the proposals independently and were required to meet with each other and discuss the marks given, reasons for the mark and the comments. Markers were asked to come to an agreement about the mark and the comments. Analyses: Agreement in marks was assessed using a Bland-Altman plot. Weighted Cohen's Kappa was used to estimate the agreement between the classifications given by markers. Comments were analyzed for differences using thematic analysis. Results: There was a wide discrepancy in the classification of students between markers. The weighted proportions found to agree on classification was 46%. Analysis of the comments indicated a wide discrepancy between markers. Conclusion: The outcomes of this study are similar to previous studies that have looked at inter-rater agreement when double marking was used to mark various types of written assignments. Further exploration of the inter-rater agreement in the marking process and other marking processes that results in a transparent system is needed

Knowledge-based assistance in costing the space station DMS

The Software Cost Engineering (SCE) methodology developed over the last two decades at IBM Systems Integration Division (SID) in Houston is utilized to cost the NASA Space Station Data Management System (DMS). An ongoing project to capture this methodology, which is built on a foundation of experiences and lessons learned, has resulted in the development of an internal-use-only, PC-based prototype that integrates algorithmic tools with knowledge-based decision support assistants. This prototype Software Cost Engineering Automation Tool (SCEAT) is being employed to assist in the DMS costing exercises. At the same time, DMS costing serves as a forcing function and provides a platform for the continuing, iterative development, calibration, and validation and verification of SCEAT. The data that forms the cost engineering database is derived from more than 15 years of development of NASA Space Shuttle software, ranging from low criticality, low complexity support tools to highly complex and highly critical onboard software

Computer program to generate attitude error equations for a gimballed platform

Computer program for solving attitude error equations related to gimballed platform is described. Program generates matrix elements of attitude error equations when initial matrices and trigonometric identities have been defined. Program is written for IBM 360 computer

Technology development: A partnership that makes sense

Discussed here is an approach to how academic institutions, government entities, and industrial organizations can work effectively to utilize their relative strengths to more effectively meet common goals. The discussion relates to the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) Research Institute for Computing and Information Systems (RICIS) Program to bring about this type of triad in the Clear Lake area. It is concluded that the interfaces among these groups must remain independent to maintain a healthy counterbalance to their respective entities. However, each entity can and must understand the entire mechanism to exploit each interface to the fullest. Only through such cooperation can the continued technical success of the NASA/Clear Lake area be assured

Further results on peripheral-tube model for ridge correlation

Peripheral one-tube model has shown to be a nice tool for dynamically understanding several aspects of ridge structures in long-range two-particle correlations, observed experimentally and obtained also in our model calculations using NexSPheRIO code. Here, we study an extension of the model, to initial configurations with several peripheral tubes distributed randomly in azimuth. We show that the two-particle correlation is almost independent of the number of tubes, although the flow distribution becomes indeed strongly event dependent. In our picture, the ridge structures are causally connected not only in the longitudinal direction but also in azimuth.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, prepared for ISMD 2012 Proceeding