Principled development of Workplace English Communication part 1: a sociocognitive framework

Background: This study advances a sociocognitive approach to modeling complex communication tasks. Using an integrative perspective of linguistic, cultural, and substantive (LCS) patterns, we provide a framework for understanding the nature and acquisition of people’s adaptive capabilities in social/cognitive complex adaptive systems. We also illustrate the application of the framework to learning and assessment. As we will show, understanding the connection between measurement models and users’ needs is important to increase assessments’ educative usefulness. Questions Addressed: Our framework is designed to address questions regarding the following four areas: the nature of sociocognitive perspectives in educational measurement, the application of LCS patterns to complex communication tasks captured in an extended formative assessment of Workplace English Communication (WEC), the usefulness of psychometric models for instruction and assessment with such complex tasks, and considerations for measurement modeling. Conclusions: Our study concludes with reflections on the challenges of complex assessments such as WEC, the advantages of sociocognitive modeling for new assessment genres, and the roles of situated measurement models in meeting the challenges.Ye

Principled development of Workplace English Communication part 3: an Integrated Design and Appraisal Framework

Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) appliesBackground: An expanded skillset is needed to meet today’s shifting workplace demands, which involve collaboration with geographically distributed multidisciplinary teams. As the nature of work changes due to increases in automation and the elevated need to work in multidisciplinary teams, enhanced visions of Workplace English Communication (WEC) are needed to communicate with diverse audiences and effectively use new technologies. Thus, WEC is ranked as one of the top five skills needed for employability. Even so, results of employer surveys report that incoming employees lack communication competency (National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE], 2018). To address this issue, with a focus on WEC teaching and assessment, we describe a framework used to guide the design of WEC modules. We suggest that conceptual frameworks can be used to inform the design process of the module. In this article, we illustrate one such conceptual framework: the Integrated Design and Appraisal Framework (IDAF). IDAF holds consequences of testing as one of its central elements to guide test design and development. It emphasizes categorically identifying and ecologically modeling variables impacting WEC in general and the writing context in particular. It emphasizes the need for developing clearly articulated construct models to underpin the assessment, as well as incorporating a foundational focus on fairness and social consequences into the design process and use of assessments. Questions Addressed: In reference to the IDAF, our article addresses questions in the following three areas: the nature and benefits of an integrated design and appraisal approach to test design, development, and evaluation; the application of IDAF to complex communication tasks captured in formative assessment scenario-based modules of WEC; and the paramount importance of considering fairness and social consequences in the design and use of assessments administered to diverse populations. Thus, this article elaborates on the use of the IDAF to inform the design of WEC modules by explicitly articulating the needs of the test takers, the anticipated uses of the modules, and the contexts in which the modules would be used. Our questions are designed to address increasing complexities associated with the design of complex constructs such as WEC. This article describes considerations for the development of integrated learning and assessment modules for WEC. We start by reviewing principled assessment design frameworks, which have been used to inform the development of complex tasks across disciplines or fields. Following a description of WEC in terms of domain analysis and design patterns, we illustrate the application of the IDAF to inform the design of the modules. We conclude by providing an overview of our research questions and of how our article addressed them. We also discuss lessons learned with respect to the design of the prototype and the delicate balance of engaging in a principled design process that supports goals that empower students of diverse backgrounds to learn WEC. Conclusions: This article illustrates the application of the IDAF to inform the design and development of WEC modules. This article contributes to the literature on WEC and complex assessments of hard-to-assess constructs more generally by offering a way of thinking about designing, assessing, and then evaluating the design and assessment of interactive educational modules for teaching complex communication knowledge and approaches.Ye

Principled development of Workplace English Communication part 2: Expanded Evidence-Centered Design and Theory of Action frameworks

Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY NC-ND 4.0) appliesBackground: In today’s rapidly evolving world, technological pressures coupled with changes in the nature of work increasingly require individuals to use advanced technologies to communicate and collaborate in geographically distributed multidisciplinary teams. These shifts present the need to teach and assess an expanded set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, including how to communicate at work in collaborative environments using diverse forms of technology. They also present the opportunity to create novel forms of instructional materials and forms of assessment that extend the more traditionally used summative assessments to assessments used for learning and instruction. This design process can be facilitated through the use of conceptual frameworks employed to guide assessment design and development. Their use is important to support more expansive and complex design goals emerging in the design of assessments of 21st century skills such as Workplace English Communication (WEC). In this article, we reflect on an evolving WEC construct needed for today’s economy and discuss implications for expanding how we teach and assess it using formative assessments for learning. We then discuss the features of the expanded Evidence-Centered Design for learning and assessment systems (e-ECD) and Theory of Action (ToA) frameworks and illustrate their integrative application to inform the design and development of WEC training modules (or resources). We conclude with suggestions for next steps in this line of research. Questions Addressed: In reference to the e-ECD and ToA frameworks, our article addresses questions in two areas. We illustrate the benefits of using the ToA to explicitly identify the components of an assessment, its action mechanisms, stakeholders’ needs, score-based decisions and their impact, and the services designed for test takers and users. We illustrate the benefits of using the e-ECD framework to guide design efforts in principled ways to enable consideration of both key elements that relate evidentiary elements relevant to the construct, aspects of learning and assessment, and measurement models. Consideration of these frameworks is important to design assessments and make sense of the evidence for meaningful interpretation of students’ results. Conclusions: This article illustrates the application of conceptual (e.g., the e-ECD and ToA) frameworks that can be used to inform the design and development of similar modules for complex tasks of 21st century skills. This article contributes to the literature on WEC and complex assessments of hard-to-assess constructs more generally by offering a way of thinking about designing, assessing, and then evaluating the design and assessment of interactive educational modules for teaching complex communication knowledge and abilities while remaining attentive to (negative) consequences associated with the stakeholders designing, developing, and using the assessments.Ye

Introduction: meeting the challenges of Workplace English Communication in the 21st century

Open access article. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) applies[Abstract not available]Ye

Groundwater dynamics in coastal gravel barriers backed by freshwater lagoons and the potential for saline intrusion: Two cases from the UK

“NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Marine Systems. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Marine Systems, [VOL 123, (01.08.13)] DOI 10.1016/j.jmarsys.2013.04.004". The full text is under embargo until 01.08.15

Sicherung von Dämmen, Deichen und Stauanlagen : Handbuch für Theorie und Praxis ; Vol. V - 2015

Die Universität Siegen beschäftigt sich seit über 15 Jahren wissenschaftlich und im Bereich der anwendungsorientierten Forschung mit diesem Thema und hat dazu mittlerweile fünf Symposien durchgeführt. Mit der Veröffentlichung soll die langjährige Tradition als etablierte wissenschaftliche Plattform mit einem Wissensaustausch auf europäischer Ebene fortgesetzt werden. Die Bearbeitung dieser Thematik erfolgt auf der Basis der bewährten Kooperation zwischen Geotechnik und Wasserbau an der Universität Siegen. Aktuelle Ereignisse, wie z.B. die aus England oder Australien im Februar des Jahres 2014, machen uns aber auch deutlich, dass ein absoluter Schutz gegen Extremereignisse nicht möglich ist. Sie zeigen aber auch, dass dort wo technischer Hochwasserschutz konsequent umgesetzt wurde Schäden vermieden werden konnten. Wir sind nach den Ereignissen in den vergangenen Jahren aufgefordert wissenschaftlich noch leistungsfähigere und duktilere Systeme zu entwickeln. Weiter ist die Wissenschaft in der Pflicht, die Zivile Sicherheit im Hochwasser-schutz permanent zu bewerten, zu bearbeiten und ganzheitliche-interdisziplinäre und länderübergreifende Lösungen für die Zivilgesellschaft einzufordern

Interpreting the impact of flood forecasts by combining policy analysis studies and flood defence

Flood forecasting is necessary to save lives and reduce damages. Reducing damages is important to save livelihoods and to reduce the recovery time. Flood alerts should contain expected time of the event, location and extent of the event. A flood alert is not only one message but part of a rehearsed flow of information using multiple canals. First people have to accept the fact that there might be a threat and what the threat is about. People need a reference to understand the situation and be aware of possible measures they can take to assure their own safety and reduce damages. Information to the general public has to be consistent with the information used by emergency services and has to be very clear about consequences and context of possible measures (as shelter in place or preventive evacuation). Emergency services should monitor how the public is responding to adapt their communication en operation during a crisis. Flood warnings and emergency services are often coordinated by different government organisations. This is an extra handicap for having consistent information out on time for people to use. In an information based society, where everyone has twitter, email and a camera, public organisations may have to trust the public more and send out the correct information as it comes in. In the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat, the National Water Authority and the National Public Works Department, is responsible for or involved in forecasting in case of floods, policy studies on flood risk, policy studies on maintenance, assessment and design of flood defences, elaborating rules and regulations for flood defences, advice on crisis management to the national government and for maintaining the main infrastructure in the Netherlands (high ways and water ways). The Water Management Center in the Netherlands (WMCN) has developed a number of models to provide flood forecasts. WMCN is run for and by all managers of flood defences and is hosted by Rijkswaterstaat. Other organisations use these forecasts to define the consequences of the forecast, to take measures (as the evacuation of camping places on rivers banks or lake shores) or to estimate the conditional probability of failure of a flood defence. Increasing the resilience of the population by disseminating information from both policy studies (flood scenarios) and flood forecasts has been the project goal of the MEGO project “Module Evacuatie Grote Overstromingen”, an information tool for large scale evacuation due to floods. This information is available on a national website. The MEGO project has focussed on making the information from two major policy studies on flood risk available, the first sturdy determined new risk-based standards for flood defences (WV21). The second study determined the current flood risk (VNK-2). The MEGO database contains a selection of verified flood scenario’s. For each scenario the hydraulic loads which will cause a flood are known as are the probabilities of flooding and predicted casualties and damages. Overland flow maps are available. MEGO combines this data with the flood forecast, open data of the “Cadastre” (national Registry), the national digital terrain model (AHN) and the main infrastructure (local, regional and national). The site offers prepared and real time maps for professionals during a crisis, and tools to increase risk awareness for citizens. The software was recently renamed national water and flood information system, “Landelijk Informatiesysteem Water en Overstromingen (LIWO) ’ when it went live in 2016. In LIWO the second goal of MEGO was realized, by adding the information from flood forecasts. It is an open source model

Interpreting the impact of flood forecasts by combining policy analysis studies and flood defence

Flood forecasting is necessary to save lives and reduce damages. Reducing damages is important to save livelihoods and to reduce the recovery time. Flood alerts should contain expected time of the event, location and extent of the event. A flood alert is not only one message but part of a rehearsed flow of information using multiple canals. First people have to accept the fact that there might be a threat and what the threat is about. People need a reference to understand the situation and be aware of possible measures they can take to assure their own safety and reduce damages. Information to the general public has to be consistent with the information used by emergency services and has to be very clear about consequences and context of possible measures (as shelter in place or preventive evacuation). Emergency services should monitor how the public is responding to adapt their communication en operation during a crisis. Flood warnings and emergency services are often coordinated by different government organisations. This is an extra handicap for having consistent information out on time for people to use. In an information based society, where everyone has twitter, email and a camera, public organisations may have to trust the public more and send out the correct information as it comes in. In the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat, the National Water Authority and the National Public Works Department, is responsible for or involved in forecasting in case of floods, policy studies on flood risk, policy studies on maintenance, assessment and design of flood defences, elaborating rules and regulations for flood defences, advice on crisis management to the national government and for maintaining the main infrastructure in the Netherlands (high ways and water ways). The Water Management Center in the Netherlands (WMCN) has developed a number of models to provide flood forecasts. WMCN is run for and by all managers of flood defences and is hosted by Rijkswaterstaat. Other organisations use these forecasts to define the consequences of the forecast, to take measures (as the evacuation of camping places on rivers banks or lake shores) or to estimate the conditional probability of failure of a flood defence. Increasing the resilience of the population by disseminating information from both policy studies (flood scenarios) and flood forecasts has been the project goal of the MEGO project “Module Evacuatie Grote Overstromingen”, an information tool for large scale evacuation due to floods. This information is available on a national website. The MEGO project has focussed on making the information from two major policy studies on flood risk available, the first sturdy determined new risk-based standards for flood defences (WV21). The second study determined the current flood risk (VNK-2). The MEGO database contains a selection of verified flood scenario’s. For each scenario the hydraulic loads which will cause a flood are known as are the probabilities of flooding and predicted casualties and damages. Overland flow maps are available. MEGO combines this data with the flood forecast, open data of the “Cadastre” (national Registry), the national digital terrain model (AHN) and the main infrastructure (local, regional and national). The site offers prepared and real time maps for professionals during a crisis, and tools to increase risk awareness for citizens. The software was recently renamed national water and flood information system, “Landelijk Informatiesysteem Water en Overstromingen (LIWO) ’ when it went live in 2016. In LIWO the second goal of MEGO was realized, by adding the information from flood forecasts. It is an open source model