The evolving role of the librarian in evidence-based medicine.

Librarians' participation in evidence-based medicine (EBM) is rooted in past practices, most notably in clinical medical librarianship. EBM extends the librarians' role beyond identification of the literature to involvement in practicing and teaching quality filtering and critical appraisal of the literature. These activities require librarians to acquire new knowledge and develop new skills. A professional development program for librarians at the Library of the Health Sciences (LHS) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is described. The program's goals are to increase librarians' skills and support the EBM curricular initiative at the UIC College of Medicine (COM). The unique program has been a collaborative effort of the LHS and the COM. The locally developed classes provide librarians with instruction in clinical study designs, statistical concepts, and critical appraisal of the literature. Other interventions such as an EBM round table are also described. The programs' success is measured by librarians' growing involvement in EBM medical curricula, journal clubs, and morning reports. Additionally, librarians gained competence in new skills and professional satisfaction from working collegially with COM students, residents, and faculty.     

陪你一起敲钟

七月，或许不再是黑色了，却转而被换上离别的印记；七月，学校的英雄树又穿上了新的绿裳，那是蕴含希望于生命的色彩；七月，再一次漫步在这熟悉的校道，而我却不再是这里的一员……     

KDU e-Community Network

The democratization of education has brought forth an unprecedented demand for education by the masses, especially at the tertiary level. However, the availability of education is hampered by limited resources to provide pervasive and effective teacher–student interaction, changing lifestyle patterns, changing expectations of the students, and the problems associated with the great urban–rural divide and nonuniform access. The problem of availability of education is compounded by the tide of globalization and the Internet that demands not only high efficiency but also competitive delivery of services and goods in all sectors of our economy, including education. Education is not immune to these current trends. It is imperative that education institutions rise up to the challenge in meeting the demand of a more discerning, discriminating, mobile, and selective student population. It is imperative that education institutions reconsider the necessary ingredients to make learning effective, relevant, and fun for the students. Our company, Kolej Damansara Utama (KDU), has embarked on an education experiment begun almost 3 years ago to implement a student-centered, teacher-facilitated, Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled and knowledge-based initiative. The goal of this experiment has been to create an active learning environment, and to promote learning for our students. The knowledge ecosystem, comprising students, teachers, administrators, parents, partner institutions, employers, and the community at large, forms the KDU e-Community Network (KCN). The KCN enables passive, interactive, collaborative, and constructive learning to take place as long as the stakeholder has a connection to the Internet.     

Factors that contribute to the educational success of Haitian‐American women

The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that contributed to the academic success of Haitian‐American women. This study was also conducted to determine if factors attributed to by academically successful Haitian women are related to selected demographic characteristics. Two hundred and thirteen Haitian women selected from the National Haitian Student Alliance, with at least a Bachelor’s degree, participated. They completed an online survey designed to elicit demographic information and their perception of the factors. Our results indicate that self‐motivation, financial assistance, access to resources, self‐perception and time management are among the most important factors that contributed to their academic success. Less important are community support and knowledge of a second language. Statistically significant relationships were found between a linear combination of the 16 success factors and only the following demographic characteristics: birthplace, years taken to complete college, father’s level of education and participant’s residence region.     

Relationships between cognitive diagnosis, CTT, and IRT indices: an empirical investigation

Cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) continue to generate interest among researchers and practitioners because they can provide diagnostic information relevant to classroom instruction and student learning. However, its modeling component has outpaced its complementary component??test construction. Thus, most applications of cognitive diagnosis modeling involve retrofitting of CDMs to assessments constructed using classical test theory (CTT) or item response theory (IRT). This study explores the relationship between item statistics used in the CTT, IRT, and CDM frameworks using such an assessment, specifically a large-scale mathematics assessment. Furthermore, by highlighting differences between tests with varying levels of diagnosticity using a measure of item discrimination from a CDM approach, this study empirically uncovers some important CTT and IRT item characteristics. These results can be used to formulate practical guidelines in using IRT- or CTT-constructed assessments for cognitive diagnosis purposes.     

Designing instruction for complex learning: 4C/ID in higher education

Objectives‐based instructional design approaches break down tasks into specific learning objectives and prescribe that instructors should choose the optimal instructional method for teaching each respective objective until all objectives have been taught. This approach is appropriate for many tasks where there is little relation between the objectives, but less effective for teaching complex professional tasks that require the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and the coordination of different skills. For the latter, a task‐centred approach that starts designing instruction from whole, real‐life tasks, is more appropriate. This article describes one task‐centred instructional design model, namely the Four‐Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model and illustrates its application by reflecting on three educational programs in higher education designed with 4C/ID. The first case presents a design for a course that focuses on the development of mobile apps at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. The second case illustrates the integration of information problem‐solving skills at Iselinge University of Professional Teacher Education, a teacher training institute in the Netherlands. The third case is an example from general practice education at the KU Leuven, Belgium. Future developments and issues concerning the implementation of task‐centred educational programmes are discussed.     

The Douglas County Model in Western Colorado

ABSTRACT

In 2012 the Marmot Library Network implemented the Douglas County Library Model of ebook collection and circulation. By 2014 Marmot had loaded 838 ebooks purchased direct from publishers and independent authors to an Adobe Content Server, and made them available in an open source discovery layer based on VuFind. In late 2015, after 3 years of disappointing circulation and tedious acquisition processes, Marmot decided to move some of this collection to OverDrive and abandon the local ACS. This article reports lessons learned from that experiment.

Column Editor’s Note This column focuses on formal collaboration and networking among libraries through consortia. It offers in-depth examinations of issues facing modern library consortia including (but not limited to) e-resource licensing, ebooks, next generation integrated library systems, shared print programs, shared digital repositories, governance, cooperative services and other relevant topics. Contributions are accepted for this column and must be submitted to George Machovec (george@coalliance.org). Contact the column editor for suggested topics, deadlines and formatting.     

Evaluating the Wald Test for Item‐Level Comparison of Saturated and Reduced Models in Cognitive Diagnosis

This article used the Wald test to evaluate the item‐level fit of a saturated cognitive diagnosis model (CDM) relative to the fits of the reduced models it subsumes. A simulation study was carried out to examine the Type I error and power of the Wald test in the context of the G‐DINA model. Results show that when the sample size is small and a larger number of attributes are required, the Type I error rate of the Wald test for the DINA and DINO models can be higher than the nominal significance levels, while the Type I error rate of the A‐CDM is closer to the nominal significance levels. However, with larger sample sizes, the Type I error rates for the three models are closer to the nominal significance levels. In addition, the Wald test has excellent statistical power to detect when the true underlying model is none of the reduced models examined even for relatively small sample sizes. The performance of the Wald test was also examined with real data. With an increasing number of CDMs from which to choose, this article provides an important contribution toward advancing the use of CDMs in practical educational settings.     

Recent Developments in Measurement and Possible Applications to the Measurement of Psychomotor Behavior: A Response

Abstract

The possible utilization of item response theory (IRT) and adaptive testing in psychomotor situations leads to a number of interesting suppositions. The question of test validity is crucial and the application of those procedures could help enhance the quality and generalizability of research results.

Examination of the results of several previous studies indicates that adaptive testing may be easily applied in a number of psychomotor problems. The application of IRT will depend upon the type of model chosen. Various models are considered from a heuristic standpoint with the binomial model being the most logically suitable approach. The continuous response model needs to be examined more thoroughly.

The combination of selected IRT models with other approaches such as sequential probability testing and trials-to-criterion testing was discussed. The use of validity generalization was suggested. It was concluded that in order for approaches of this type to be feasible, researchers needed to construct more scientifically rigorous theories.