Rigour in moderation processes is more important than the choice of method

Processes for moderating assessments are much debated in higher education. The myriad approaches to the task vary in their demands on staff time and expertise, and also in how valid, reliable and fair to students they appear. Medical education, with its diverse range of assessments and assessors across clinical and academic domains presents additional challenges to moderation. The current review focuses on medical education, considering double-marking and benchmarking as two broad classes of moderation procedure, and argues that it is the process more than the type of procedure which is crucial for successful moderation. The advantages and disadvantages of each class of procedure are discussed in the light of our medical school’s current practices, and with respect to the limited empirical evidence within medical education assessment. Consideration of implementation is central to ensuring valid and reliable moderation. The reliability of assessor judgements depends more on the consistency of assessment formats and the application of clear and agreed assessment criteria than on the moderation process itself. This article considers these factors in relation to their impact on the reliability of moderation, and aims to help assessors and students appreciate the diversity of these factors by facilitating their consideration in the assessment process.     

Within-Document Retrieval: A User-Centred Evaluation of Relevance Profiling

We present a user-centred, task-oriented, comparative evaluation of two within-document retrieval tools. ProfileSkim computes a relevance profile for a document with respect to a query, and presents the profile as an interactive bar graph. FindSkim provides similar functionality to the web browser “Find” command. A novel simulated work task was devised, where participants are asked to identify (index) relevant pages of an electronic book, given topics from the existing book index. The original book index provides the ground truth, against which the indexing results of the participants can be compared. We confirmed a major hypothesis, namely ProfileSkim proved significantly more efficient than Find-Skim, as measured by time for task. The study indicates that ProfileSkim was as least as effective as FindSkim in identifying relevant pages, as measured by traditional information retrieval measures, and there is some evidence that ProfileSkim is a precision-enhancing tool. Based on qualitative data from questionnaires, we also provide strong evidence to support our conjecture that the participants would be more satisfied when using ProfileSkim than FindSkim. The experimental study confirmed the potential of relevance profiling for improving within-document retrieval. Relevance profiling should prove highly beneficial for users trying to identify relevant information within long documents.     

Differences in technique between sprinters and distance runners at equal and maximal speeds

In the finishing kick of a distance race, maximizing speed becomes the focus even if economy may be sacrificed. If distance runners knew how to alter their technique to become more sprint-like, this process could be more successful. In this study, we compared the differences in technique between sprinters and distance runners while running at equal and maximal speeds. Athletes consisted of 10 Division I distance runners, 10 Division I sprinters, and 10 healthy non-runners. They performed two tests, each consisting of a 60-m run on the track: Test 1 at a set pace of 5.81 m/s, while Test 2 was maximal speed. Video was collected at 180 Hz. Significant differences (P < 0.05) between the sprint and distance groups at maximal speeds were found in the following areas: speed, minimum hip angle, knee extension at toe-off, stride length, contact time, and recovery knee at touchdown. In Test 1, sprinters and distance runners displayed many of the same significant differences. The control group was similar to the distance group in both trials. As distance runners attempt to sprint, the desired adjustments do not necessarily occur. Distance runners may benefit from biomechanical interventions to improve running speed near the end of a race.