Researchers are often inclined to test agreement or discrepancy hypotheses using difference scores. This commentary explains 2 mathematical-statistical principles underlying associations with difference scores and 2 conceptual-interpretation problems that make difference scores inappropriate for testing such hypotheses. The commentary provides…

The Mathematics and Statistics Support Centre (MSSC) at Central Queensland University (CQU), which is part of the Academic Learning Centre (ALC), has been in operation since 1984 as the first MSSC in Australia. The Mathematics Learning Support (MLS) centres have spread to almost every university in Australia currently. The MSSC at CQU offers free…

Typically, training in Russia for professionals includes school, university, and postgraduate education. People make their choice regarding university or job after school, and they choose jobs after university. These are very sensitive matters. Help in making the right choice is a real asset. The Russian Association of Statisticians (RASt) is an…

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Roy Levy describes Bayesian approaches to psychometric modeling. He discusses how Bayesian inference is a mechanism for reasoning in a probability-modeling framework and is well-suited to core problems in educational measurement: reasoning from student performances on an assessment to make inferences about their…

In this paper, we address the following questions: What misconceptions do high school students exhibit in their first encounter with significance test problems through a repeated sampling approach? Which theory or framework could explain the presence and features of such patterns? With brief prior instruction on the use of Fathom software to…

Many large-scale educational surveys have moved from linear form design to multistage testing (MST) design. One advantage of MST is that it can provide more accurate latent trait [theta] estimates using fewer items than required by linear tests. However, MST generates incomplete response data by design; hence, questions remain as to how to…

Student success efficacy studies are aimed at assessing instructional practices and learning environments by evaluating the success of and characterizing student subgroups that may benefit from such modalities. We develop an ensemble learning approach to perform these analytics tasks with specific focus on estimating individualized treatment…

Data analytics is a rapidly growing field that plays a crucial role in extracting valuable insights from large volumes of data. A data analytics practicum course provides students with hands-on experience in applying data analytics techniques and tools to real-world scenarios. This practicum is intended to serve as a bridge between the student's…

The study compared two survey datasets from higher education students in Germany and Ghana regarding access to digital devices; perceived value of digital media, tools, and services used for learning; gap analysis of the actual and desired use of digital teaching and learning formats; and types of media usage profiles among students. The findings…

Over a sixteen-week term, the study dove into how chess could enhance math skills for eleventh graders at three public schools in Cartagena, Colombia. It assumed that chess would sharpen their minds and problem-solving prowess. Seventy-one pupils took part, trying out a chess-centric way of learning. Researchers used multiple statistical…

The quality of an adult's daily working life comprising the major part of his life, will also increase the quality of his social life. Having a good working life is also associated with having a job that one desires and regards it as suitable for himself. But as will be acknowledged all over the world, the quality of a job that one can have will…

Understanding and characterizing treatment effect variation in randomized experiments has become essential for going beyond the "black box" of the average treatment effect. Nonetheless, traditional statistical approaches often ignore or assume away such variation. In the context of randomized experiments, this paper proposes a framework…

Virtual reality simulation has had a significant impact on training of psychomotor surgical skills, yet there is still a lack of work on its use to teach surgical decision making. This is particularly noteworthy given the recognized importance of decision making in achieving positive surgical outcomes. With the objective of filling this gap, we…

In this naturalistic design-research study, we tracked 172,417 learning journeys of students who were interacting with an online resource, the Indiana University Plagiarism Tutorials and Tests (IPTAT) at https://plagiarism.iu.edu. IPTAT was designed using First Principles of Instruction (FPI; Merrill in Educ Technol Res Dev 50:43-59, 2002,…

In the fall of 2009 and in the spring of 2012, supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we designed a course "Phylogenetic Analysis and Molecular Evolution" (PAME), the first cross-listed course across three different colleges (College of Arts and Sciences,…