A Concept Inventory (CI) is an assessment to measure student conceptual understanding of a particular topic. This article presents the results of a CI for basic data structures (BDSI) that has been previously shown to have strong evidence for validity. The goal of this work is to help researchers or instructors who administer the BDSI in their own…

Discussion of the effectiveness of distance learning as a means of delivering higher education programs at classical universities has been ongoing for the past decade. The article presents the findings of a study of changes in academic performance of university students, covering the period from fall 2018 to fall 2023. This period included a rapid…

Curriculum design, teaching methods, assessments and range of academic support need to be inclusive in Open Access Enabling courses. The findings of this study confirm a correlation between student access to online learning materials and a positive impact on grades in science courses. More specifically, students who frequently use the online…

We analyze results from paired pre- and post-instruction administration of the Mechanics Baseline Test to 2238 students in introductory mechanics classes. We investigate pairs of specific wrong answers given with unusual frequency by students on the pretest. We also identify transitions between pre- and post-test answers on the same question which…

In this article, the authors describe a field experiment in the classroom where principles of micro-economics students are randomly assigned into homework-required and not-required groups. The authors find that homework plays an important role in student learning, especially so for students who initially perform poorly in the course. Students in…

This report, based on the 1968 University of Washington testing and placement program for French, Spanish, German, and Latin, describes the test and placement procedures and gives the results for the 3,631 university students involved in the program. For each language, the combination of tests (Modern Language Association, Educational Testing…

A Student Characteristics Module was developed as part of the Needs Assessment Project of the Central Florida Community Colleges' Consortium. Utilizing student admissions applications, a student characteristics survey was made of the personal and socioeconomic characteristics of 2,905 students admitted to Central Florida Community College 1971-73.…

This guide to surveying college students, graduates, and dropouts accompanies The Student Outcomes Questionnaires developed by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Student outcomes are defined as the results or consequences of a student's enrollment in a post secondary educational program. The Student Outcomes…

Empirical Bayes (EB) methods are frequently used on hierarchical linear models in practice. This paper provides an overview of parametric EB methods with special emphasis on their application in data-analytic settings. Eight different models with different levels of complexity are described. Comparisons of performance with other methods are…

Available information, largely for selected years in the 1970s through 1990, on academic performance at the highest levels of achievement is summarized for elementary through graduate school levels. Profiles of students who performed well on particular measures of academic achievement or attained advanced degrees are provided. Data were obtained…

Male and female undergraduates rated their ability, amount of preparation, task difficulty, and their initial confidence (expectation) before they began an important examination. Subsequently they attributed causality for the examination outcome by rating the importance of factors involving ability, preparation, task difficulty, and luck as…

Proposes a text-driven method for the deletion procedure in cloze passages. An appropriate passage for the proficiency level of the subjects was developed, with the standard cloze and eight different versions. Results suggest that this method is superior to the fixed-ratio deletion method on some grounds and that the differences among subjects'…

Groups of college undergraduates read a series of passages with each group consistently receiving a certain type of question after each passage. Reading strategies adopted by the different groups were analyzed. (Editor)

To determine if student placement in community colleges' programs of study and courses could be improved if objective information relating to the reading requirements of each course were related to the student's measured reading ability, an investigation was carried out at Rockland Community College. The Nelson-Denny Reading Test was administered…