High frequency words, which are key to a text, must be mastered to achieve minimum levels of reading proficiency. However, knowledge about the frequency of items in a language is very limited. Given this consideration, WordSift (www.wordsift.org), a word cloud tool based on high frequency and key words can assist English as a Foreign Language…

The Systematic Review Toolbox aims provide a web-based catalogue of tools that support various tasks within the systematic review and wider evidence synthesis process. Identifying publications surrounding specific systematic review tools is currently challenging, leading to a high screening burden for few eligible records. We aimed to develop a…

Best practices in statistics and data science courses include the use of real and relevant data as well as teaching the entire data science cycle starting with importing data. A rich source of real and current data is the web, where data are often presented and stored in a structure that needs some wrangling and transforming before they can be…

As the advertising industry continues to list analytical reasoning as a necessary skill for employment, more universities are including analytics into their advertising curriculum. This article outlines how I teach an analytics-focused course in a top-ranked advertising program. In this article, I briefly summarize each course module and describe…

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…

Open educational resources (OER) can be described in numerous ways (Creative Commons, 2012). In this visualization based context, however, OER can be defined as ...teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by…

Four reading strategies and several web tools that are effective for reading closely and identifying textual evidence are described and explained. As teacher-educators with many years of experience teaching reading and the language arts, we have found these reading strategies and web tools helpful for middle school students as they consider…

Photographs tell a story and illustrate an experience more profoundly than words alone. Real-time, text-based communication is an increasingly normal part of daily life as mobile devices and social networks proliferate. Yet, in the steady stream of tweets, comments, status updates, notifications, and e-mail, the details are easily lost in the…

Case-based instruction (CBI) offers a promising method for promoting problem-solving skills in learners. However, during CBI, the instructor shoulders major responsibility for shaping the learning that takes place. Research indicates that the facilitation techniques used during case discussions influence what gets covered, and to what extent,…

Spatial visualization skills are vital to many careers and in particular to STEM fields. Materials have been developed at Michigan Technological University and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College to assess and develop spatial skills. The EnViSIONS (Enhancing Visualization Skills-Improving Options aNd Success) project is combining these materials…