Crowdsourcing is an emerging research area that has experienced rapid growth in the past few years. Although crowdsourcing has demonstrated its potential in numerous domains, several key challenges continue to hinder its application. One of the major challenges is quality control. How can crowdsourcing requesters effectively control the quality…

This dissertation is composed of three distinct chapters, each of which addresses issues of estimating treatment effects. The first chapter empirically tests the Value-Added (VA) model using school lotteries. The second chapter, co-authored with Michael Wood, considers properties of inverse probability weighting (IPW) in simple treatment effect…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a reflexive learning treatment utilizing select case studies could enhance the decision-making of pilots who encounter an irreversible emergency. Participants, who consisted of members of the subject university's professional pilot program, were divided into either a control or experimental group and…

The combination of Open Sim and Scratch4OS can be a worthwhile innovation for introductory programming courses, using a Community of Inquiry (CoI) model as a theoretical instructional design framework. This empirical study had a threefold purpose to present: (a) an instructional design framework for the beneficial formalization of a virtual…

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are multiplayer role-playing games that use the real world as their primary platform and incorporate a range of media, including video, audio, email, mobile technologies, websites, live performance, and social networks. This paper describes the development, implementation, and player reception of "The…

The role of computer-assisted instruction in promoting intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among Nigerian secondary school chemistry students was investigated in this study. The study employed two modes of computer-assisted instruction (computer simulation instruction and computer tutorial instructional packages) and two levels of gender (male and…

A new approach to identify item clusters fitting the Rasch model is described and evaluated using simulated and real data. The proposed method is based on hierarchical cluster analysis and constructs clusters of items that show a good fit to the Rasch model. It thus gives an estimate of the number of independent scales satisfying the postulates of…

The generalized binomial test (GBT) and [omega] indices are the most recent methods suggested in the literature to detect answer copying behavior on multiple-choice tests. The [omega] index is one of the most studied indices, but there has not yet been a systematic simulation study for the GBT index. In addition, the effect of the ability levels…

Curriculum-based measurement of reading (CBM-R) is used in research and practice to estimate the level and trend of student achievement. Although there is limited empirical or psychometric support to guide CBM-R progress monitoring practices, derived trend estimates are used to inform a variety of educational decisions including evaluations of…

Many benefits have been claimed for visualizations, a general assumption being that learning is facilitated. However, several researchers argue that little is known about the cognitive value of graphical representations, be they schematic visualizations, such as diagrams or more realistic, such as virtual reality. The study reported in the paper…

The emphasis on scientific inquiry has increased the importance in developing the fundamental abilities to conduct scientific investigations and urged a need for valid assessments of students' inquiry abilities. We took advantage of the advanced technology to develop a simulation-based assessment of inquiry abilities (SAIA) that allowed…

Humans are remarkably sensitive to the statistical structure of language. However, different mechanisms have been proposed to account for such statistical sensitivities. The present study compared adult learning of syntax and the ability of two models of statistical learning to simulate human performance: Simple Recurrent Networks, which learn by…

This paper introduces StoryTech, a smart storytelling toy that features a virtual space, which includes computer-based graphics and characters, and a real space, which includes plush toys, background cards, and a communication interface. When children put real objects on the receiver panel, the computer program shows related backgrounds and…

Funded by the UK JISC Institutional Innovation Programme, the Augustine House Experiment sets out to investigate how the location sensing data collected over students' uses of the iBorrow notebooks can be visualised to reveal aspects of the new learning landscape during a 1-week sensing period. Indoor real-time location sensing technologies are…

In this article, a 2-way multigroup common factor model (MG-CFM) is presented. The MG-CFM can be used to estimate interaction effects between 2 grouping variables on 1 or more hypothesized latent variables. For testing the significance of such interactions, a likelihood ratio test is presented. In a simulation study, the robustness of the…