Developing a Performance Measurement System for University Central Administrative Services

Central administrative services have recently received increasing attention from practitioners and academics due to the challenging need to both manage scarce resources and provide high-quality services. In this context, performance measurement systems (PMSs) may assume a central role, although an unresolved debate remains on the claimed benefits of accountability and the difficulties that have emerged in defining and managing proper measures. This paper contributes to this debate by presenting the results of a study in which a PMS for central administrative services has been developed and tested through an action research approach drawing on actor network theory. The experiment was carried out in 15 Italian universities and five areas of services were dealt with: student support, research support, accounting, human resources, and logistics and procurement. The highly participative method resulted in a comparable system with a complete set of cost and quality indicators across the participating universities. These data proved to be useful at managerial and policy level, providing insights on the presence of scale effects and on the relative importance of quality dimensions for users of services. Participating in the project encouraged the university staff to use indicators in decision making.     

Multilevel Modeling of Item Position Effects

In many testing programs it is assumed that the context or position in which an item is administered does not have a differential effect on examinee responses to the item. Violations of this assumption may bias item response theory estimates of item and person parameters. This study examines the potentially biasing effects of item position. A hierarchical generalized linear model is formulated for estimating item‐position effects. The model is demonstrated using data from a pilot administration of the GRE wherein the same items appeared in different positions across the test form. Methods for detecting and assessing position effects are discussed, as are applications of the model in the contexts of test development and item analysis.     

Saving Unobservable Phenomena

In this paper I argue—against van Fraassen's constructiveempiricism—that the practice of saving phenomena is muchbroader than usually thought, and includes unobservable phenomenaas well as observable ones. My argument turns on the distinctionbetween data and phenomena: I discuss how unobservable phenomenamanifest themselves in data models and how theoretical modelsable to save them are chosen. I present a paradigmatic casestudy taken from the history of particle physics to illustratemy argument. The first aim of this paper is to draw attentionto the experimental practice of saving unobservable phenomena,which philosophers have overlooked for too long. The secondaim is to explore some far-reaching implications this practicemay have for the debate on scientific realism and constructiveempiricism.

1 Introduction

2 Unobservable Phenomena

2.1 Dataand phenomena

2.2 What isa data model?

2.3 Data modelsand unobservable phenomena

3 Saving Unobservable Phenomena:An Exemplar

4 The October Revolution of 1974: From the J/to Charmonium

4.1 A new unobservable phenomenon at 3.1 Ge V

4.2 How thecharmonium model saved the new unobservable phenomenon

4.2.1The J/ as a baryon–antibaryon bound state

4.2.2TheJ/ as the spin-1 meson of a model with three charmedquarks

4.2.3 The J/ as a charmonium state

5 Concluding Remarks

     

R&D, knowledge spillovers and company productivity performance

Using company accounts data for 5 countries (US, UK, Japan, France and Germany) we analyse the relationship between intangible assets and productivity. We integrate the company data with industry information on tangible and intangible investments and skill composition of the labour force. The industry data are summarised in two different taxonomies, factor and skill intensive groups, which account for differences in the knowledge intensity and innovative activities within sectors. The results provide evidence of higher productivity in R&D and skill intensive industries. This can be interpreted as evidence in favour of the presence of spillover effects.     

Classifying web genres in context: A case study documenting the web genres used by a software engineer

This case study analyzes the Internet-based resources that a software engineer uses in his daily work. Methodologically, we studied the web browser history of the participant, classifying all the web pages he had seen over a period of 12 days into web genres. We interviewed him before and after the analysis of the web browser history. In the first interview, he spoke about his general information behavior; in the second, he commented on each web genre, explaining why and how he used them. As a result, three approaches allow us to describe the set of 23 web genres obtained: (a) the purposes they serve for the participant; (b) the role they play in the various work and search phases; (c) and the way they are used in combination with each other. Further observations concern the way the participant assesses quality of web-based resources, and his information behavior as a software engineer.     

Considering the Use of General and Modified Assessment Items in Computerized Adaptive Testing

This article used several data sets from a large-scale state testing program to examine the feasibility of combining general and modified assessment items in computerized adaptive testing (CAT) for different groups of students. Results suggested that several of the assumptions made when employing this type of mixed-item CAT may not be met for students with disabilities that have typically taken alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS). A simulation study indicated that the abilities of AA-MAS students can be underestimated or overestimated by the mixed-item CAT, depending on students’ location on the underlying ability scale. These findings held across grade levels and test lengths. The mixed-item CAT appeared to function well for non-AA-MAS students.