A psychometric perspective on personalized assessment in education

Education has long grappled with the intricacies of providing truly personalized assessment. This dissertation addresses the limitations of conventional assessment methods, especially the widely employed linear tests. A variety of models and methods are introduced to enhance the efficiency, validity, and reliability of assessments. A robust procedure to create fair fixed-length tests, utilizing randomly selected items from an item bank, is delineated, emphasizing guidelines on item setup and procedures to adjust scores based on mean test difficulty. This approach incorporates traditional statistical measures, such as Cronbach’s alpha and the Spearman-Brown prediction formula, to ensure the reliability of tests using random item selections. Secondly, a model for computerized adaptive practice, inspired by the Elo rating system, is introduced. This model, exemplified by the Maths Garden system, updates ability and item difficulty estimations in real-time. It factors in both response time and accuracy in its scoring rule, with children's performance data substantiating its reliability, validity, and user satisfaction. Furthermore, this newly proposed scoring rule, is investigated for its performance across various domains. Findings revealed its strong reliability and validity without discernible individual performance biases. Lastly, in the realm of Elo-based adaptive systems, the importance of item quality is highlighted. Through simulations, methods to determine item discrimination were compared, with the logistic model inclusive of the intercept emerging as the most effective. This method's effectiveness was further affirmed using real-world data from the aforementioned Maths Garden system

A Practical Procedure for the Construction and Reliability Analysis of Fixed Length Tests with Random Drawn Test Items

A procedure to construct valid and fair fixed-length tests with randomly drawn items from an item bank is described. The procedure provides guidelines for the set-up of a typical achievement test with regard to the number of items in the bank and the number of items for each position in a test. Further, a procedure is proposed to calculate the relative difficulty for individual tests and to correct the obtained score for each student based on the mean difficulty for all students and the particular test of a student. Also, two procedures are proposed for the problem to calculate the reliability of tests with randomly drawn items. The procedures use specific interpretations of regularly used methods to calculate Cronbach’s alpha and KR20 and the Spearman-Brown prediction formula. A simulation with R is presented to illustrate the accuracy of the calculation procedures and the effects on pass-fail decisions

De middeleeuwse schilderingen in de NH Kerk te Britsum

Between March 1998 and December 1999 decorative and figurative mural and vaultal paintings were exposed and restored in the Dutch Reformed church at Britsum. The decorative paintings were applied on the ribs of the vault, the transverse arches and around the figurative representations. They are geometric patterns and some ‘candelabra’. Parallels are to be found in churches in Westphalia painted under Westphalian influence at the end of the twelfth and in the first half of the thirteenth century. So far the figurative paintings only emerged in the zone directly below the vaults, mainly in the choir. The only vaultal painting is to be found on the most eastern panel of the vault of the nave and represents Mary with her son in her lap in a mandorla. The scenes in the choir were applied in pairs on an arch panel. They represent a passion cycle: Christ's Prayer on the Mount of Olives, the Betrayal of Judas, the Crowning with thorns and the Whipping. More is preserved of the Old-Testament figures in the spandrels of the arch panels: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mozes, Aaron, Salomo with a viola, David with his harp. Jonathan, Absalom with a vielle and Saul. The iconographic special quality of the musical instruments seems to point to the influence of English Psalter illustrations, notably the Tree of Jesse, where from the late twelfth century onwards the ancestors of Christ are sometimes represented while playing music. The Old-Testament figures are probably typologically connected with the passion scenes; particularly the twelfth-century typological writing ‘Dialogus de laudibus sanctae crucis’ gives rise to such an assumption. Stylistic parallels tor the figures are to be found in the moderate ‘Zackenstil’, current in Lower Saxony and the environs of Cologne around the forties of the thirteenth century. Unique is the fact that the Crowning with thorns and the Whipping on the eastern wall of the choir form the focus of the cycle. Partly due to the prominent presence of Jews as enemies of the faith, the paintings at Britsum may be a reflection of the Frisian crusaders' enthusiasm in the mid-thirteenth century

De middeleeuwse schilderingen in de NH Kerk te Britsum

Between March 1998 and December 1999 decorative and figurative mural and vaultal paintings were exposed and restored in the Dutch Reformed church at Britsum. The decorative paintings were applied on the ribs of the vault, the transverse arches and around the figurative representations. They are geometric patterns and some ‘candelabra’. Parallels are to be found in churches in Westphalia painted under Westphalian influence at the end of the twelfth and in the first half of the thirteenth century. So far the figurative paintings only emerged in the zone directly below the vaults, mainly in the choir. The only vaultal painting is to be found on the most eastern panel of the vault of the nave and represents Mary with her son in her lap in a mandorla. The scenes in the choir were applied in pairs on an arch panel. They represent a passion cycle: Christ's Prayer on the Mount of Olives, the Betrayal of Judas, the Crowning with thorns and the Whipping. More is preserved of the Old-Testament figures in the spandrels of the arch panels: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mozes, Aaron, Salomo with a viola, David with his harp. Jonathan, Absalom with a vielle and Saul. The iconographic special quality of the musical instruments seems to point to the influence of English Psalter illustrations, notably the Tree of Jesse, where from the late twelfth century onwards the ancestors of Christ are sometimes represented while playing music. The Old-Testament figures are probably typologically connected with the passion scenes; particularly the twelfth-century typological writing ‘Dialogus de laudibus sanctae crucis’ gives rise to such an assumption. Stylistic parallels tor the figures are to be found in the moderate ‘Zackenstil’, current in Lower Saxony and the environs of Cologne around the forties of the thirteenth century. Unique is the fact that the Crowning with thorns and the Whipping on the eastern wall of the choir form the focus of the cycle. Partly due to the prominent presence of Jews as enemies of the faith, the paintings at Britsum may be a reflection of the Frisian crusaders' enthusiasm in the mid-thirteenth century

De middeleeuwse schilderingen in de NH Kerk te Britsum

Between March 1998 and December 1999 decorative and figurative mural and vaultal paintings were exposed and restored in the Dutch Reformed church at Britsum. The decorative paintings were applied on the ribs of the vault, the transverse arches and around the figurative representations. They are geometric patterns and some ‘candelabra’. Parallels are to be found in churches in Westphalia painted under Westphalian influence at the end of the twelfth and in the first half of the thirteenth century. So far the figurative paintings only emerged in the zone directly below the vaults, mainly in the choir. The only vaultal painting is to be found on the most eastern panel of the vault of the nave and represents Mary with her son in her lap in a mandorla. The scenes in the choir were applied in pairs on an arch panel. They represent a passion cycle: Christ's Prayer on the Mount of Olives, the Betrayal of Judas, the Crowning with thorns and the Whipping. More is preserved of the Old-Testament figures in the spandrels of the arch panels: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mozes, Aaron, Salomo with a viola, David with his harp. Jonathan, Absalom with a vielle and Saul. The iconographic special quality of the musical instruments seems to point to the influence of English Psalter illustrations, notably the Tree of Jesse, where from the late twelfth century onwards the ancestors of Christ are sometimes represented while playing music. The Old-Testament figures are probably typologically connected with the passion scenes; particularly the twelfth-century typological writing ‘Dialogus de laudibus sanctae crucis’ gives rise to such an assumption. Stylistic parallels tor the figures are to be found in the moderate ‘Zackenstil’, current in Lower Saxony and the environs of Cologne around the forties of the thirteenth century. Unique is the fact that the Crowning with thorns and the Whipping on the eastern wall of the choir form the focus of the cycle. Partly due to the prominent presence of Jews as enemies of the faith, the paintings at Britsum may be a reflection of the Frisian crusaders' enthusiasm in the mid-thirteenth century

Automated Adaptation and Assessment in Serious Games: A Portable Tool for Supporting Learning

We introduce the Adaptation and Assessment (TwoA) component, an open-source tool for serious games, capable of adjusting game difficulty to player skill level. Technically, TwoA is compliant with the RAGE (Horizon 2020) game component architecture, which offers seamless portability to a variety of popular game development platforms. Conceptually, TwoA uses a modified version of the Computer Adaptive Practice algorithm. Our version offers two improvements over the original algorithm. First, the TwoA improves balancing of player's motivation and game challenge. Second, TwoA reduces the selection bias that may arise for items of similar difficulty by adopting a fuzzy selection rule. These improvements are validated using multi-agent simulations.This study is part of the RAGE project. The RAGE project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644187. This publication reflects only the author's view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains