Single comments or average ratings: which elements of RateMyProfessors.com™ shape university students’ judgments and course choice intentions?

The use and abuse of course and lecturer rating websites such as RateMyProfessors.com? is a highly relevant topic for universities’ evaluation and assessment policies and practice. However, only a few studies have paid attention to the actual influence of teaching evaluation websites on the students themselves—that is, their perceptions of a certain course and their course choice intention at university. Findings point to the fact that positive comments on the website about professors improve students’ evaluations. However, professor evaluation websites contain two types of information: single student comments and average ratings. Research on exemplification effects has shown that single cases often have a stronger influence on recipients than more valid base rate information. We test this assumption in an experiment (n?=?126) using a professor evaluation website stimulus. Results show that single comments strongly influence opinions and course choice intentions but that they are moderated by the valence of the average rating.     

Retest effects in matrix test performance: Differential impact of predictors at different hierarchy levels in an educational setting

If tests of cognitive ability are repeatedly taken, test scores rise. Such retest effects have been observed for a long time and for a variety of tasks. This study investigates retest effects on figural matrix items in an educational context. A short term effect is assumed for the direct retest administration in the same test session, and a long term effect is assumed for a retest interval of six months. Using multilevel modeling, we analyze if the magnitude of these effects is not only influenced by individual variation, but also by the cluster structure of students grouped within classrooms. We also investigate if the use of identical versus parallel tests has an impact on the size of the retest effects. Our main results show a negligible short term retest effect, but a large long term retest effect. Using parallel tests does not contribute to understanding individual differences in retest effects. The variation in retest effects is larger between classrooms than between students. Reasoning ability, as measured with a different test, and school grades significantly influences retest effects at the individual level, but at the classroom level, only reasoning ability is a significant predictor.     

The fit of planning methods for the part manufacturing industry,a case study

This paper investigates the specific planning environment of an automotive part manufacturer and characterizes this environment based on variables regarding the product,its demand and the manufacturing process.The fit of different planning methods,namely material requirements planning,reorder point,cyclic planning,kanban,and heijunka to this specific planning environment is analyzed and evaluated by exploratory research.The results show that different product characteristics make it hard to apply a single planning method.None of the investigated methods show the ability to cover the complex requirements of a combined planning environment of two partly divergent product types with a deep value chain.     

The Submaximal Lateral Shuffle Test: A reliability and sensitivity analysis

ABSTRACT

Lateral ankle stability and how it changes in different footwear has been investigated for years. Research, however, has shown a lack of reliability or sensitivity of available methodologies. This study aimed to evaluate the test-retest reliability and sensitivity of a novel lateral stability protocol, the Submaximal Lateral Shuffle Test (SLST). We recruited 11 and 40 participants to assess reliability and sensitivity of the SLST, respectively. Participants performed the SLST in footwear that differed in collar height and upper stiffness. ICC values showed good to excellent reliability in peak ankle angles and moments, ground reaction forces, impulses, stance time, and performance time. Significantly lower peak inversion and adduction angles and lower medio-lateral push off peak forces were found in the high cut shoes compared to the low cut shoes. The medio-lateral landing peak force showed lower forces in the high cut shoes. The smallest worthwhile change indicated meaningful differences in 70.0–82.5% of participants for inversion, adduction, medio-lateral landing peak, and push off peak forces. These results, however, were not systematic such that there was not a consistent direction of the difference for all participants. In conclusion, the SLST is a promising protocol to further investigate lateral stability in footwear.     

Expression of a taste aversion conditioned with an odor-taste compound: Overshadowing is relatively weak in weanlings and decreases over a retention interval in adults

Adult rats were injected with lithium chloride (LiCl) after consumption of a novel flavor (chocolate milk) that either was or was not presented together with a novel ambient odor (banana) as a compound conditioned stimulus (CS). In Experiment 1, the adults’ consumption of the flavor 24 h after conditioning was compared with that of weanling rats given the same conditioning treatment on Postnatal Day 21. The results confirmed previous indications that the reduction in aversion observed for adults conditioned with the compound CS (overshadowing) was weak or nonexistent in weanlings. After a longer retention interval (21 days), there was no evidence of overshadowing in adults despite maintained retention of the basic conditioned aversion. In Experiment 2 this decrease in overshadowing after a long retention interval was replicated with adult animals and extended to a different method of testing. The form of the effect was the same as in Experiment 1: The decrease in overshadowing occurred over the retention interval without loss in retention of the basic taste aversion; the decrease in overshadowing was a consequence of anincrease in the flavor aversion displayed by animals conditioned with the compound CS. The impaired flavor aversion (i.e., the overshadowing) observed shortly after conditioning apparently was due to factors associated with memory retrieval, rather than to reduced attentional or associative strength.