Integrated assessment : new assessment methods literature review

The assessment of students in higher education performs a number of functions, some of which may not always be compatible with each other. Traditionally, the role of the assessor has involved determining the level of competence displayed in undertaking the task, and ideally, offering feedback on future learning needs (Rowntree, 1987). Assessment also provides grading for students’ work, allowing comparison of performance across a class, and across the curriculum for individual students. The subsequent gaining of a degree or professional qualification depends on students successfully completing a set of specified assessment tasks across the prescribed curriculum. As such, there may be stakeholders beyond the higher education institution, such as employers, regulatory bodies or clients, who believe the assessment process as being akin to certification or professional gatekeeping (Younes,1998). In professional courses such as social work, passing certain assessment tasks may be associated with notions such as fitness to practice and eligibility for professional registration as a social worker with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) or similar bodies in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, and beyond the United Kingdom. In terms of gatekeeping, assessment tasks may not only restrict who gains certification on exiting an educational programme, but also who is admitted in the first place. For example, requirements by registration authorities that students admitted to social work programmes have achieved specified levels of literacy and numeracy will require appropriate assessment tasks to determine equivalence for those entrants who have not achieved formal qualifications in these areas. Entry point assessments may also be used to determine whether credit should be granted on the basis of prior learning or experience (Slater, 2000) or to identify areas in which additional training may be required (Shera, 2001) In addition to gatekeeping, assessment clearly has a vital role to play in the ongoing development of learning and teaching strategies. It can be crucial in determining what, why and how students learn (Brown, Bull and Pendlebury, 1997) and there is increasing recognition of the necessity to align learning and assessment tasks, so that learning and assessment become aligned rather than being somewhat independent of each other (Biggs, 2003). Furthermore, in an era when evaluation of teaching is often reduced to student satisfaction surveys, critical reflection on work submitted for assessment can serve as an alternative method of evaluating the success of teaching. The nature of assessment has changed considerably since the 1970s, and is ongoing. The key changes have included moves from written examinations to coursework assignments and more emphasis on student participation in assessment (self and peer assessments), processes rather than products, and on competencies rather than content (Brown et al., 1997). Even the more traditional forms of assessment such as essays and examinations have undergone considerable innovations. Yet, in practice these seemingly radical changes may be more a wish list than a statement of fact. In actuality, some new forms of assessment, such as self and peer assessment may simply have been added onto rather than replaced more traditional modes of assessment (Cree, 2000). Changes to assessment in social work tend to reflect changes in higher education more widely such as the emergence of competency based and modular approaches to learning, as well more proceduralised assessment processes necessary to cope with higher numbers of students (Cree, 2000). There is considerable divergence of opinion amongst the social work education community in the United Kingdom as to whether such changes actually benefit social work students and their learning (eg Clark, 1997; Ford and Hayes, 1996; O’Hagan, 1997; Shardlow and Doel, 1996). There have also been concerns expressed as to whether some new forms of assessment are actually capable of achieving the learning they claim to facilitate Boud, 1999; Entwistle, 1990; Taylor, 1993). This report was commissioned by the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE) as a resource on assessment for the development of the new social work degree in Scotland and provides an overview of the current literature on assessment methods being utilised in social work education both in the United Kingdom and beyond. This report begins by reviewing the various methods of assessment in social work education which were found in the literature. We then go on to explore the developing literature on the involvement of persons other than social work academics, such as students and service users, in the assessment process. Finally, we consider the importance of developing and assessment strategy which might incorporate these various different forms of assessmen

Steerable filters generated with the hypercomplex dual-tree wavelet transform

The use of wavelets in the image processing domain is still in its infancy, and largely associated with image compression. With the advent of the dual-tree hypercomplex wavelet transform (DHWT) and its improved shift invariance and directional selectivity, applications in other areas of image processing are more conceivable. This paper discusses the problems and solutions in developing the DHWT and its inverse. It also offers a practical implementation of the algorithms involved. The aim of this work is to apply the DHWT in machine vision. Tentative work on a possible new way of feature extraction is presented. The paper shows that 2-D hypercomplex basis wavelets can be used to generate steerable filters which allow rotation as well as translation.</p

Integrated assessment : new assessment methods evaluation of an innovative method of assessment-critical incident analysis

For many people, the term “assessment” is associated with tasks, which are less than inspiring, which are undertaken only because they are hurdles, which must be crossed in order to achieve some form of accreditation or to enable entry into work or a further course of study. In this worldview, what is important for the student is the final determination or grade assigned to their work. While summative assessment, in which students submit work that is marked by experts and which contributes partially or fully to a final grade, plays an important role in the lives of students and educators, contemporary thinking about “assessment” is much more expansive

A machine vision extension for the Ruby programming language

Dynamically typed scripting languages have become popular in recent years. Although interpreted languages allow for substantial reduction of software development time, they are often rejected due to performance concerns. In this paper we present an extension for the programming language Ruby, called HornetsEye, which facilitates the development of real-time machine vision algorithms within Ruby. Apart from providing integration of crucial libraries for input and output, HornetsEye provides fast native implementations (compiled code) for a generic set of array operators. Different array operators were compared with equivalent implementations in C++. Not only was it possible to achieve comparable real-time performance, but also to exceed the efficiency of the C++ implementation in several cases. Implementations of several algorithms were given to demonstrate how the array operators can be used to create concise implementations.</p

Effective one-component description of two-component Bose-Einstein condensate dynamics

We investigate dynamics in two-component Bose-Einstein condensates in the context of coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations and derive results for the evolution of the total density fluctuations. Using these results, we show how, in many cases of interest, the dynamics can be accurately described with an effective one-component Gross-Pitaevskii equation for one of the components, with the trap and interaction coefficients determined by the relative differences in the scattering lengths. We discuss the model in various regimes, where it predicts breathing excitations, and the formation of vector solitons. An effective nonlinear evolution is predicted for some cases of current experimental interest. We then apply the model to construct quasi-stationary states of two-component condensates.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

SQE-ezed Out: SRA, Status and Stasis

This article considers the proposals to introduce the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) from a widening participation angle. It argues that the SQE will not increase access to the solicitors profession but will instead perpetuate patterns of subordination and risks further silencing already unrepresented social groups. The paper examines the widening participation agenda in relation to the solicitors profession concluding that there is little incentive or real commitment to widening access. The paper then examines the SQE and the widening access rhetoric which has, for a time at least, accompanied it and questions whether the assertions and assumptions about how the SQE can improve diversity in the profession really hold true

Peer observation and review of teaching in College Higher Education

This is the authors' PDF version of an article published in Peer observation and review of teaching in College Higher Education published by SEDA© 2014.This book chapter discusses how peer observation of teaching (POT) has become established practice in higher education (HE). It focuses on data generated from a small scale study of the nature and use of POT within an HE in FE context and argues that using a developmental, peer approach (as opposed to one focussed upon Ofsted grading criteria) is a cornerstone of higher education and needs to be embedded into HE in FE in order to develop an genuine and collegial HE culture within a further education college

First-order sidebands in circuit QED using qubit frequency modulation

Sideband transitions have been shown to generate controllable interaction between superconducting qubits and microwave resonators. Up to now, these transitions have been implemented with voltage drives on the qubit or the resonator, with the significant disadvantage that such implementations only lead to second-order sideband transitions. Here we propose an approach to achieve first-order sideband transitions by relying on controlled oscillations of the qubit frequency using a flux-bias line. Not only can first-order transitions be significantly faster, but the same technique can be employed to implement other tunable qubit-resonator and qubit-qubit interactions. We discuss in detail how such first-order sideband transitions can be used to implement a high fidelity controlled-NOT operation between two transmons coupled to the same resonator.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Clues to the nature of dark matter from first galaxies

We use thirty-eight high-resolution simulations of galaxy formation between redshift 10 and 5 to study the impact of a 3 keV warm dark matter (WDM) candidate on the high-redshift Universe. We focus our attention on the stellar mass function and the global star formation rate and consider the consequences for reionization, namely the neutral hydrogen fraction evolution and the electron scattering optical depth. We find that three different effects contribute to differentiate warm and cold dark matter (CDM) predictions: WDM suppresses the number of haloes with mass less than few $10^9$ M$_{\odot}$; at a fixed halo mass, WDM produces fewer stars than CDM; and finally at halo masses below $10^9$ M$_{\odot}$, WDM has a larger fraction of dark haloes than CDM post-reionization. These three effects combine to produce a lower stellar mass function in WDM for galaxies with stellar masses at and below $\sim 10^7$ M$_{\odot}$. For $z > 7$, the global star formation density is lower by a factor of two in the WDM scenario, and for a fixed escape fraction, the fraction of neutral hydrogen is higher by 0.3 at $z \sim 6$. This latter quantity can be partially reconciled with CDM and observations only by increasing the escape fraction from 23 per cent to 34 per cent. Overall, our study shows that galaxy formation simulations at high redshift are a key tool to differentiate between dark matter candidates given a model for baryonic physics.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, submitted to MNRA