How can video-based assignments integrate practical and conceptual knowledge in summative assessment? Student experiences from a longitudinal experiment

This article focuses on how video assignments presenting clinical situations can be implemented in digital summative assessment to enhance the integration of practical and conceptual knowledge. The underlying perspective is that sustainable assessment should comprise evaluative practices that equip students for the challenges they will face in their future professional lives. Drawing on the literature and on empirical results of a qualitative longitudinal research study at a Norwegian university, the integrative potential and challenges of video assignments are examined. The study confirms that video-based assignments are well suited for assessing integrated competencies. However, the complexities of videos’ visual displays have clear consequences that indicate how these resources should be produced. To optimise the potential of video use in enhancing sustainable summative assessment, we must strike a balance between technical accommodation, task clarity and integrative potential.     

Competency Pay for Professionals and Managers in Business: A Review and Implications for Teachers

This article describes the use of a form of pay for knowledge and skills used for professional workers in the private sector known as competency-based pay. The definition of competencies, their assessment, and their link to pay are discussed, along with the relation of competencies to organizational performance and human resource management strategy. The relatively small amount of existing empirical research is reviewed, and two case studies of the use of competency-based pay are presented. The article concludes by summarizing lessons for education from private-sector experience, which include the need to link the competencies paid for to the capabilities the organization needs to fulfill its mission, the importance of measuring competencies in behavioral and observable terms, and the need to integrate competencies into all phases of the human resources management process, including staffing and development as well as compensation.     

The Research Challenge Faced by the New Universities in the UK

The 1991 Government White Paper which abolished the binary divide in British universities brought the former polytechnics (new universities) into direct competition with the traditional (old) universities for research funds from the Funding Councils based on periodic Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs). The outcome of the 1992 RAE showed a predictable gap in research performance between the two groups of institutions. The challenge facing the new universities will be for some, at least, to narrow the gap and/or develop a small number of centres of research excellence and thus challenge the long standing research hegemony enjoyed by the old universities. This will almost certainly involve intense selectivity in the allocation of available research resources and will be influenced by the'missions'of the institutions involved, the extent of underlying support for such developments and the management structures and style employed.     

Difficulties in interpreting course evaluations: Some Bayesian insights

An investigation is undertaken of the nature of some of the difficulties encountered in interpreting accurately student evaluations of courses of instruction. Intuitive assessment of the results can be quite erroneous, especially if it is accompanied by a lack of awareness of Bayes' Theorem and the role of prior probabilities, as well as the record of the predictor, in obtaining an accurate interpretation of the results.