Digitisation of the WA Welcome Wall collection: a case study

This article is focused on the partnership between the WA Museum Maritime History Department and Curtin University’s Information Studies Department on a retrospective digitisation project in 2012. The aim was to digitise the Welcome Wall project’s paper records and link these records to the museum’s online maritime history collection. The paper outlines and discusses the key business process questions that were considered prior and during the embarkation on the digitisation project. The conclusion shares lessons learnt from the project.     

Consistency and development of teachers’ epistemological and ontological world views

We examined epistemological and ontological world views using self-report surveys, brief written reflections, and an extended written action research project for a sample of 16 graduate students enrolled in an education class at a large university on the West coast of the USA. We made two predictions. We anticipated that the majority of students would hold consistent world views across the 13-week semester, and that individuals with inconsistent beliefs would move from a realist (i.e. teacher-centred) to contextualist (i.e. student-centred) world view. Results indicated that approximately 55% of the participants expressed consistent beliefs. In addition, participants who did not self-report consistent beliefs typically moved from a realist to a more contextualist world view by the end of the semester. We discuss the role of active reflection as a component of the learning environment that enhances the development of beliefs.     

The Role of Extended Time on the SAT® for Students with Learning Disabilities and/or Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Accommodation policymaking and practice should be guided by empirical research and informed clinical judgment. Findings from our study can provide information to test users about the validity of inferences that can be made from scores obtained from accommodated test administrations for students with disabilities. The factor structure of the newly revised Scholastic Aptitude Reasoning Test (SAT®, 2005) was examined across two groups of students (students without disabilities tested under standard time conditions, and students with disabilities tested with extended time) to determine whether the test measures the same construct for both groups. Invariance across the two groups was supported for all parameters of interest, suggesting that the scores on the Critical Reading, Math, and Writing sections of the SAT Reasoning Test can be interpreted in the same way when students have an extended‐time administration as opposed to the standard‐time administration.     

The Effects of Relevance Instructions and Verbal Ability on Text Processing

The authors examined whether relevance instructions compensate for differences in verbal ability on measures of reading time, text recall, and sentence recognition. College students (n = 81) with higher and lower verbal ability were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 relevance-instruction conditions before reading a text. They asked participants in each condition to focus on different categories of information within the same text. Relevant information took longer to read and was recalled and recognized better than nonrelevant information. Readers with higher verbal ability read faster and recalled and recognized more information correctly than did those readers with lower verbal ability. Results support the noncompensatory hypothesis, which states that relevance instructions and verbal ability make independent contributions to resource allocation and learning. Readers with lower verbal ability may need additional support even when given prereading relevance instructions.     

The rhetoric of political newscasting

Television has become the major source of news for most Americans. Therefore, it seems important to consider television's rhetorical potential to influence the public's understanding of political affairs. The purpose of this essay is to explore some of the ways television news reporting, documentaries and docu‐dramas may lead us to know and judge political events, political leadership and political institutions.     

Digital Module 17: Data Visualizations: Effective Evidence-Based Practices https://ncme.elevate.commpartners.com

In this digital ITEMS module, Nikole Gregg and Dr. Brian Leventhal discuss strategies to ensure data visualizations achieve graphical excellence. Data visualizations are commonly used by measurement professionals to communicate results to examinees, the public, educators, and other stakeholders. To do so effectively, it is important that these visualizations communicate data efficiently and accurately. These visualizations can achieve graphical excellence when they simultaneously display data effectively, efficiently, and accurately. Unfortunately, measurement and statistical software default graphics typically fail to uphold these standards and are therefore not suitable for publication or presentation to the public. To illustrate best practices, the instructors provide an introduction to the graphical template language in SAS and show how elementary components can be used to make efficient, effective, and accurate graphics for a variety of audiences. The module contains audio-narrated slides, embedded illustrative videos, quiz questions with diagnostic feedback, a glossary, sample SAS code, and other learning resources.     

Core values brand building in sport: Stakeholder attitudes towards intercollegiate athletics and university brand congruency

The purpose of this case study was to investigate stakeholder attitudes toward athletic department behavioral congruency with the stated core values of a major BCS¹ university located in the Southwestern portion of the United States. Research has indicated that positive and negative attitudes toward intercollegiate athletics can contribute to the perceptions of congruency with the established university mission and values. Over time, however, the increase in negative attitudes attributed to athletic department behavior brings into question their congruency with the university core values. Document analysis and personal interviews (N = 13) were conducted with individuals from each of six university internal and external stakeholder groups. Findings revealed four primary themes: (a) Excellence Equals Winning, (b) For Public Relations Purposes Only, (c) Separation and Isolation of the Athletic Department, and (d) Lack of Leadership from the Top-Down. Implications and future research concerning university brand image and core value accountability are discussed.     

Using the sampling margin of error to assess the interpretative validity of student evaluations of teaching

We present an equation, derived from standard statistical theory, that can be used to estimate sampling margin of error for student evaluations of teaching (SETs). We use the equation to examine the effect of sample size, response rates and sample variability on the estimated sampling margin of error, and present results in four tables that allow users to assess the interpretative validity (IV) of a SET score for a specific evaluation context. In this framework, a small margin of error, e.g. 3% of the range, suggests a greater precision, or IV in a score, whereas a large margin of error, e.g. 10% of the range, suggests a lower IV. We review the SET literature and summarise five ways that low response rates may be ameliorated. We also compare our results to previous published studies. Our findings matched, but greatly extended, prior results.