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Assessment Activities (assessment + activity)
Selected AbstractsUsing generalized dissimilarity modelling to analyse and predict patterns of beta diversity in regional biodiversity assessmentDIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 3 2007Simon Ferrier ABSTRACT Generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM) is a statistical technique for analysing and predicting spatial patterns of turnover in community composition (beta diversity) across large regions. The approach is an extension of matrix regression, designed specifically to accommodate two types of nonlinearity commonly encountered in large-scaled ecological data sets: (1) the curvilinear relationship between increasing ecological distance, and observed compositional dissimilarity, between sites; and (2) the variation in the rate of compositional turnover at different positions along environmental gradients. GDM can be further adapted to accommodate special types of biological and environmental data including, for example, information on phylogenetic relationships between species and information on barriers to dispersal between geographical locations. The approach can be applied to a wide range of assessment activities including visualization of spatial patterns in community composition, constrained environmental classification, distributional modelling of species or community types, survey gap analysis, conservation assessment, and climate-change impact assessment. [source] Improving clinical assessment: evaluating students' ability to identify and apply clinical criteriaEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DENTAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2010C. Redwood Abstract Aim:, There is ongoing concern by health educators over the inability of professionals to accurately self-assess their clinical behaviour and standards, resulting in doubts over a key expectation of effective self-regulation in the health professions. Participation by students in the assessment process has been shown to increase the understanding of assessment criteria in written assessment tasks. How this might transfer to the clinical setting is the focus of this study. This paper is part of an ongoing investigation of the impact on learning of a series of activities that provides students with opportunities to discuss and apply criteria and standards associated with self-assessment in clinical dentistry. Our aim was to evaluate whether participation in these assessment activities improved the ability of first-year dental students to recognise behaviours demonstrated by ,peers' in videos of clinical scenarios and to relate these to the assessment criteria. Materials and methods:, A series of three workshops in conjunction with weekly clinical assessment activities in Semesters 1 and 2 were use to support first-year students' learning of clinical assessment criteria. The design of the workshops was based on the principles of social constructivist theories of learning and the concept of tacit knowledge. Accordingly workshop activities were planned around videos that were specifically constructed to illustrate procedures and behaviours typical of those observed by staff and tutors in the first year of the dental course at The University of Adelaide, Australia. First-year students viewed the videos prior to and after the workshops and recorded observed behaviours that related to the assessment criteria that were used in their clinical practice course. Student learning outcomes were assessed 10,14 weeks after the initial workshop and again up to 42 weeks later. To check whether learning resulted from repeated viewing of the videos without formal discussion, a reference group of third-year students who did not attend the workshops also viewed the videos two times, separated by 12 weeks, and recorded observations in the same way. Results:, There was no consistent evidence that repeat viewing of the videos in isolation resulted in improved recognition of ,peer' behaviours by third-year dental students. Results for the first-year students indicated that the workshops and clinical assessment activities had a significantly positive effect on the ability of students to identify ,peer' behaviours related to the criteria used for clinical assessment. In particular, students' recognition in others of knowledge and professional behaviours improved significantly. This improvement was retained over the year and students were able to recognise these behaviours in other scenarios relevant to their year level. Conclusions:, This early exposure to the process of clinical assessment, coupled with ongoing self-assessment and tutor feedback throughout first year, improved the ability of first-year students to identify and apply some key assessment criteria to observed ,peer' behaviour, and this ability was retained over time. [source] The rapid spread of invasive Eurasian Collared Doves Streptopelia decaocto in the continental USA follows human-altered habitatsIBIS, Issue 3 2010IKUKO FUJISAKI Understanding factors related to the range expansion trajectory of a successful invasive species may provide insights into environmental variables that favour additional expansion or guide monitoring and survey efforts for this and other invasive species. We examined the relationship of presence and abundance of Eurasian Collared Doves Streptopelia decaocto to environmental factors using recent data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey to understand factors influencing its expansion into the continental USA. A zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model was used to account for excess zero observations because this species was not observed on the majority of survey routes, despite its large geographical range. Model fit was improved when we included environmental covariates as compared with the null model, which only included distance from the route where this species was first observed. Probability of zero count was positively related to the distance from the first route and road density and was inversely related to minimum temperature and distance to coast. Abundance of the species was positively related to road density and was inversely related to annual precipitation and distance to coast. Random intercept by land-cover type also improved model fit. Model fit was improved with the ZIP model over the standard Poisson model, suggesting that presence and abundance of this species are characterized by different environmental factors. However, overall low accuracy of model-predicted presence/absence and abundance with the independent validation dataset may indicate either that there are other explanatory factors or that there is great uncertainty in the species' colonization process. Our large-scale study provides additional evidence that the range expansion of this species tends to follow human-altered landscapes such as road and agricultural areas as well as responding to general geographical features such as coastlines or thermal clines. Such patterns may hold true for other invasive species and may provide guidelines for monitoring and assessment activities in other invasive taxa. [source] An assessment strategy for identifying legacy system evolution requirements in eBusiness contextJOURNAL OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND EVOLUTION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, Issue 4-5 2004Lerina Aversano Abstract The enactment of e Business processes requires the effective usage of the existing legacy applications in the e Business initiatives. Technical issues are not enough to drive the evolution of the existing legacy applications, but problems concerning the perspectives, strategies, and business of the enterprises have to be considered. In particular, there is a strict relationship between the evolution of the legacy systems and the evolution of the e Business processes. This paper proposes a strategy to extract the requirements for a legacy system evolution from the requirements of the e Business evolution. The proposed strategy aims at characterizing the software system within the whole environment in which its evolution will be performed. It provides a useful set of attributes addressing technical, process, and organizational issues. Moreover, a set of assessment activities is proposed affecting the order in which the attributes are assessed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] More significant and intentional learning in the economics classroomNEW DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHING & LEARNING, Issue 119 2009Laurence Miners By using Fink's taxonomy to shape new learning goals and creating new learning and assessment activities, two teachers succeeded in raising students' awareness of the value of their courses and enabled them to become more reflective learners in the process. [source] Summative Assessment in Medicine: The Promise of Simulation for High-stakes EvaluationACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 11 2008John R. Boulet PhD Abstract Throughout their careers, physicians are exposed to a wide array of assessments, including those aimed at evaluating knowledge, clinical skills, and clinical decision-making. While many of these assessments are used as part of formative evaluation activities, others are employed to establish competence and, as a byproduct, to promote patient safety. In the past 10 years, simulations have been successfully incorporated in a number of high-stakes physician certification and licensure exams. In developing these simulation-based assessments, testing organizations were able to promote novel test administration protocols, build enhanced assessment rubrics, advance sophisticated scoring and equating algorithms, and promote innovative standard-setting methods. Moreover, numerous studies have been conducted to identify potential threats to the validity of test score interpretations. As simulation technology expands and new simulators are invented, this groundbreaking work can serve as a basis for organizations to build or expand their summative assessment activities. Although there will continue to be logistical and psychometric problems, many of which will be specialty- or simulator-specific, past experience with performance-based assessments suggests that most challenges can be addressed through focused research. Simulation, whether it involves standardized patients (SPs), computerized case management scenarios, part-task trainers, electromechanical mannequins, or a combination of these methods, holds great promise for high-stakes assessment. [source] Teaching for the Test: Validity, Fairness, and Moral ActionEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 3 2003Linda Crocker In response to heightened levels of assessment activity at the K-12 level to meet requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, measurement professionals are called to focus greater attention on four fundamental areas of measurement research and practice: (a) improving the research infrastructure for validation methods involving judgments of test content; (b) expanding the psychometric definition of fairness in achievement testing; (c) developing guidelines for validation studies of test use consequences; and (d) preparing teachers for new roles in instruction and assessment practice. Illustrative strategies for accomplishing these goals are outlined. [source] | ||||||||||||||||