Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is the evaluation and assessment of learning gained outside a traditional academic environment for college credit, certification, or advanced standing toward further education or training. The term PLA encompasses a wide spectrum of assessment methods, including, but not limited to, credit by examination, challenge…

Learning analytics is a relatively new field of inquiry and its precise meaning is both contested and fluid (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011; LAK, n.d.). Ferguson (2012) suggests that the best working definition is that offered by the first Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK) conference: "the measurement, collection,…

Various data systems have been long and pervasively used in schools to collect student data. However, very few educators are able to apply their collected data to improve their teaching. The purpose of this article is to investigate how middle school teachers adapt data mining protocols to enhance their teaching and to improve their students'…

Higher education has made impressive progress concerning student learning outcomes assessment practices. Yet--despite the assumption that better assessment would lead to better student learning--few examples of demonstrable student learning improvement exist at the academic degree or university levels. In 2014 Fulcher, Good, Coleman, and Smith…

In this paper, we present an in-depth case study of a single student who failed an online module which formed part of a master's programme in Professional Education and Leadership. We use this case study to examine assessment practices in higher education in the online environment. In taking this approach, we go against the current predilection…

The inclusion of age-appropriate transition assessments is a key component of transition services for students with disabilities. Although these assessments may focus on a variety of areas, their general purpose is to provide guidance in developing individualized postschool goals and design transition services to help students achieve these goals.…

The use of rubrics for grading and feedback in higher education has increased in response to requirements for consistency and transparency across a diverse range of assessment tasks. There is a growing evidence base demonstrating the reliability of rubrics across different markers and instances. The number of studies describing the impact of…

This study investigates the issue of the goodness of fit of different skills assessment models using both synthetic and real data. Synthetic data is generated from the different skills assessment models. The results show wide differences of performances between the skills assessment models over synthetic data sets. The set of relative performances…

Effective mining of data from online submission systems offers the potential to improve educational outcomes by identifying student habits and behaviours and their relationship with levels of achievement. In particular, it may assist in identifying students at risk of performing poorly, allowing for early intervention. In this paper we investigate…

Networked learning provides opportunities for learners to develop their critical thinking, an important 21st century competency, through dialogue with fellow learners to consider other perspectives and negotiate and critique ideas and arguments. However, much extant literature has not examined networked learning environments among younger learners…

AMOEBA is a unique tool to support teachers' orchestration of collaboration among novice programmers in a non-traditional programming environment. The AMOEBA tool was designed and utilized to facilitate collaboration in a classroom setting in real time among novice middle school and high school programmers utilizing the IPRO programming…

Governments, organizations, and companies are generating copious amounts of data and analysis to support education decision-making around the world. While continued investments in data creation and management are necessary, the ultimate value of information is not in its "production," but its "use." Herein lies one of the…

Feedback is known to have a large influence on student learning gains, and the emergence of online tools has greatly enhanced the opportunity for delivering timely, expressive, digital feedback and for investigating its learning impacts. However, to date there have been no large quantitative investigations of the feedback provided by large teams…

This document presents the technical appendices that accompany the full report, "Determining College Readiness in California's Community Colleges: A Survey of Assessment and Placement Policies." The appendices include: (1) Survey Design and Administration; and (2) Survey Instrument. [This report was written with research support from…

Micceri (1989) examined the distributional characteristics of 440 large-sample achievement and psychometric measures. All the distributions were found to be nonnormal at alpha = 0.01. Micceri indicated three factors that might contribute to a non-Gaussian error distribution in the population. The first factor is subpopulations within a target…