Low-stakes test performance commonly reflects examinee ability and effort. Examinees exhibiting low effort may be identified through rapid guessing behavior throughout an assessment. There has been a plethora of methods proposed to adjust scores once rapid guesses have been identified, but these have been plagued by strong assumptions or the…

This article studied two methods to detect mode effects in two credentialing exams. In Study 1, we used a "modal scale comparison approach," where the same pool of items was calibrated separately, without transformation, within two TC cohorts (TC1 and TC2) and one OP cohort (OP1) matched on their pool-based scale score distributions. The…

Student-generated questions can be an effective study technique to improve active learning, metacognitive skills, and performance on examinations. Students have shown greater success when assessed using peer-made study questions than when studying without questions. In three semesters of a kinesiology research methods course students were taught…

Assessing student mastery is often done by using exams. Inevitably, some students will complete remediation, which may include exam retakes. This method provides students an additional opportunity to take an exam that assesses the same objectives as the original exam, while using different questions. Although this form of remediation increases…

Since its introduction in 2017, NFER has been contracted by Ofqual to develop, deliver and analyse the results of the National Reference Test (NRT) in English and maths. The NRT is administered annually and shows if student performance in English and maths at GCSE level has changed from year-to-year. This year, more than 13,000 Year 11 students…

The main aim of this research was to investigate the impact of reducing the number of components on overall performance in GCSE subjects. In particular, researchers were interested in how the grade achieved by candidates on a reduced number of components compares to their grade on the full qualification. This research mainly looked at GCSEs with…

This paper analyzes the nature and perceived effects of mid-stakes testing (known as the EQAO) in Ontario, Canada. Ontario's mid-stakes tests were meant to ensure accountability and transparency, and assure system-wide improvement, while avoiding the negative effects and perverse incentives of their high-stakes counterparts. The paper provides new…

In the context of high-stakes qualifications, teachers may warn students of the negative consequences of failure as a tactic designed to increase engagement and, ultimately, achievement. Previous studies have shown that these types of messages, namely fear appeals, are indirectly related to engagement and achievement in different ways, depending…

The study of robotics has become a popular course among many educational programs, especially as a technical elective. A significant part of this course involves having the students learn how to program the movement of a robotic arm by controlling the velocity of its individual joint motors, a topic referred to as joint programming. They must…

In educational and psychological research, we are often interested in discrete latent states of individuals responding to an assessment (e.g., proficiency or non-proficiency on educational standards, the presence or absence of a psychological disorder). Diagnostic classification models (DCMs; also called cognitive diagnostic models [CDMs]) are a…

Time management is essential for strong strategic business planning and marketing campaigns. Having sufficient time to complete essential planning is important, as is the punctuality of meeting deadlines. Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) explains the relationship between deciding to perform a task and expected incentives, consequences, and the…

A course with good learning outcomes is one in which most of the enrolled students achieve the mastery specified in the predefined learning objectives. Since the enrolment is invariably a mix of students with heterogeneous capabilities, the class average grade is a poor indicator of how the class is divided into at least two groups, of high- and…

Assessments scored with diagnostic models are increasingly popular because they provide fine-grained information about student achievement. Because of differences in how diagnostic assessments are scored and how results are used, the information teachers must know to interpret and use results may differ from concepts traditionally included in…

On-site teaching at Ulm University was restricted in the summer semester (SS) 2020 due to the Corona pandemic. The biochemistry seminar "From gene to protein" in the 2nd preclinical semester, which had been successfully conducted as an Inverted Classroom (IC), had to be changed to an online concept. The aim of this study was to analyze…

The computer-supported writing assessment (CSWA) has been widely used to reduce instructor workload and provide real-time feedback. Interpretability of CSWA draws extensive attention because it can benefit the validity, transparency, and knowledge-aware feedback of academic writing assessments. This study proposes a novel assessment tool,…