Multimedia presentations that combine visual and verbal information are widely used for instructional purposes. While the design of the text-graphic relationship is difficult, several design strategies with the potential to reduce cognitive load have been identified in the literature. The purpose of this study is to examine how split-attention,…

Previous research on the impact of text and formatting changes on test-item performance has produced mixed results. This matter is important because it is generally acknowledged that "any" change to an item requires that it be recalibrated. The present study investigated the effects of seven classes of stylistic changes on item…

In view of the perceived difficulty of organic chemistry unit for high schools students, this study examined the usefulness of concept mapping as a testing device to assess students' difficulty in the select areas. Since many tests used for identifying students misconceptions and difficulties in school subjects are observed to favour one or the…

The aim of this study was to improve the criterion-related test score interpretation of a text-based assessment of scientific reasoning competencies in higher education by evaluating factors which systematically affect item difficulty. To provide evidence about the specific demands which test items of various difficulty make on pre-service…

We have designed, developed, and validated a 17-question Meiosis Concept Inventory (Meiosis CI) to diagnose student misconceptions on meiosis, which is a fundamental concept in genetics. We targeted large introductory biology and genetics courses and used published methodology for question development, which included the validation of questions by…

When missing values are present in item response data, there are a number of ways one might impute a correct or incorrect response to a multiple-choice item. There are significantly fewer methods for imputing the actual response option an examinee may have provided if he or she had not omitted the item either purposely or accidentally. This…

This study investigated the effects of a pedagogical agent that cued relevant information in a story-based instructional animation on the cardiovascular system. Based on cognitive load theory, it was expected that the experimental condition with the pedagogical agent would facilitate students to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant…

As part of an ongoing investigation of students' learning in first semester upper-division quantum mechanics, we needed a high-quality conceptual assessment instrument for comparing outcomes of different curricular approaches. The process of developing such a tool started with converting a preliminary version of a 14-item open-ended quantum…

The study investigated the impact of item position in multiple-choice test on student performance at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) level in Ghana. The sample consisted of 810 Junior Secondary School (JSS) Form 3 students selected from 12 different schools. A quasi-experimental design was used. The instrument for the project…

General chemistry tests from the Examinations Institute of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society have been analyzed to identify factors that may influence how individual test items perform. In this paper, issues of item order (position within a set of items that comprise a test) and answer order (position of correct…

Idiomatic expressions pose substantial learning difficulties for learners across languages and tend to be acquired later in the course of language development both in L1 and L2. A number of factors have been identified as contributing to this difficulty. However, cross-linguistic studies on figurative language acquisition are still rare. The…

Reading and understanding a written text is one of the most important skills in English learning.This study attempts to benchmark Year Five students' reading abilities of fifteen rural schools in a district in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to develop a set of standardised written reading comprehension and a set of indicators to inform…

The present study investigated the effects of providing subtitles and taking enotes on cognitive load and performance. A total of 73 English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) undergraduates learned brain anatomy and cognitive functions through multimedia programs. We used a 2 (subtitle/no) x 2 (taking enotes/no) factorial design to test the following:…

In this article we discuss the findings of our research on students' understanding of vector concepts in problems without physical context. First, we develop a complete taxonomy of the most frequent errors made by university students when learning vector concepts. This study is based on the results of several test administrations of open-ended…

Informed by the cognition hypothesis (Robinson, 2011), recent studies indicate that more cognitively complex tasks can result in better incorporation of feedback during interaction and, as a consequence, more learning. It is not known, however, how task complexity and feedback work together in computerized environments. The present study addressed…