In this report, researchers examined whether individualized multimedia-based instruction would influence the development of rifle marksmanship skills in novice shooters with little or no prior rifle marksmanship experience. Forty-eight novice shooters used an M4 rifle training simulator system to shoot at an 8-inch target at a simulated distance…

Multilevel data often exist in educational studies. The focus of this study is to consider differential item functioning (DIF) for dichotomous items from a multilevel perspective. One of the most often used methods for detecting DIF in dichotomously scored items is the Mantel-Haenszel log odds-ratio. However, the Mantel-Haenszel reduces the…

By simulating the dynamics of a bidimensional array of springs and masses, the propagation of conveniently generated waves is visualized. The simulation is exclusively based on Newton's second law and was made to provide insight into the physics of wave propagation. By controlling parameters such as the magnitude of the mass and the elastic…

In this paper, the authors focus their attention on the way magnetic circuits and permanent magnets are usually treated in most textbooks and electrical engineering courses. This paper demonstrates how this important topic is too often presented simplistically. This simplistic treatment does not allow the students to develop a complete…

Test administrators often face the challenge of detecting differential item functioning (DIF) with samples of size smaller than that recommended by experts. A Bayesian approach can incorporate, in the form of a prior distribution, existing information on the inference problem at hand, which yields more stable estimation, especially for small…

Two experiments were conducted to identify the conditions likely to produce resurgence among adult human participants. The preparation was a simulated caregiving context, wherein a recorded infant cry sounded and was terminated contingent upon targeted caregiving responses. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated resurgence with human participants in…

For valid decision making, it is essential to both the person being measured and the person or organization that is having the person measured that the observed scores adequately represent the underlying trait. This study deals with person-fit analysis of polytomous item scores to detect unusual patterns of sum scores on subsets of items. This…

While there is some overlap in the uses and structures of virtual worlds, games, and simulations and the three often look similar, their differences are profound. Clark Aldrich presents a taxonomy of virtual environments that recognizes both the distinctions and the similarities among virtual environments for learning. All three, he suggests, are…

By means of a simple device, made by students themselves, the movements of the Sun and the Moon can be studied at different latitudes. Using this device, it is easy to explain phenomena such as the midnight Sun, zenith pass and why the Moon "smiles". In this article, we show various photos of the Sun's movements, alongside their simulations on the…

After years at the periphery of the social sciences, simulation is now emerging as an important and widely used tool for understanding social phenomena. Through simulation, researchers can identify causal effects, specify critical parameter estimates, and clarify the state of the art with respect to what is understood about how processes evolve…

Several alternatives for item selection algorithms based on item response theory in computerized classification testing (CCT) have been suggested, with no conclusive evidence on the substantial superiority of a single method. It is argued that the lack of sizable effect is because some of the methods actually assess items very similarly through…

Using macroscopic thermodynamics, the general law for adiabatic processes carried out by an ideal gas was studied. It was shown that the process reversibility is characterized by the adiabatic reversibility coefficient r, in the range 0 [less than or equal] r [less than or equal] 1 for expansions and r [greater than or equal] 1 for compressions.…

The paper takes advantage of exceptionally rich longitudinal data on the universe of labor force participants in Slovenia and simulates the working of an income contingent loan scheme that seeks to recover part of schooling costs. The simulations show that under the base variant (where the target cost recovery rate is 20% and the contribution rate…

There has been an increasing interest in employing decision-theoretic framework for learner modeling and provision of pedagogical support in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs). Much of the existing learner modeling research work focuses on identifying appropriate learner properties. Little attention, however, has been given to leverage Dynamic…

This paper reports on "Web3D dance composer" for ballet e-learning. Elementary "petit allegro" ballet steps were enumerated in collaboration with ballet teachers, digitally acquired through 3D motion capture systems, and categorised into families and sub-families. Digital data was manipulated into virtual reality modelling language (VRML) and fit…