Test equating in the presence of DIF items

This paper proposes a multilevel measurement model that controls for DIF effects in test equating. The accuracy and stability of item and ability parameter estimates under the proposed multilevel measurement model were examined using randomly simulated data. Estimates from the proposed model were compared with those resulting from two multiple-group concurrent equating designs, including 1) a design that replaced DIF-items with items with no DIF; and 2) a design that retained DIF items with no attempt to control for DIF. In most of the investigated conditions, the results indicated that the proposed multilevel measurement model performed better than the two comparison models.     

教学区声环境舒适度阈值探讨

目前高校提倡建设生态校园，其教学区声环境质量也逐渐引起广泛关注。以湖北省某高校为例，根据声源选取具有代表性的教学楼，通过实地监测与问卷调查，采用模糊数学法处理调查对象对教室声环境的主观反应信息，计算得出教学区上课期间舒适度阈值为48.2 dB，采用Ridit分析对调查结果进行检验，验证计算所得舒适度域值是合理的。     

A proper estimation of inelastic dynamic increase factor in support-loss experiments

Dynamic increase factor (DIF) is usually approximated as the ratio of maximum to neutral response in dynamic support-loss experiments. However, this neutral-based calculation may underestimate the real DIF for elasto-plastic response. In this study, an analytical formulation is thus proposed to correct the neutral-based DIF based on measured dynamic response. Accuracy of the analytical formulation is verified with the results of a small-scale experiment. An iterative procedure, which is validated by the experimental results, is suggested for practical application of the correction approach. Its application to sudden support-loss tests of prototype buildings is demonstrated with numerical simulation for two model frames. The analysis results indicate that the corrected DIFs may be approximated to the real DIFs in most cases. Due to the coupled vertical oscillation under corner column loss, the correction approach is more favorable for interior column loss situations that are dominated by a single mode. The ductility demand obtained from the iterative procedure may serve as an indication of structural damage under column loss.     

Engineering Curriculum Reform at Aalborg University

Aalborg University in the north Jutland region of Denmark was chartered in 1974 and represents an innovative educational experiment with project-based teaching concepts. The University opened with approximately 900 students and currently enrolls an estimated 10,000. This paper examines how project-based teaching at Aalborg University has led to major engineering curriculum reforms. The Danish education initiatives are also compared to recent National Science Foundation efforts to integrate the teaching of design and economics in the United States.     

Child pedestrian casualties with special reference to casualties on the journey to or from school in Manchester and Salford, England

There are two separate facets of the casualty rates for child pedestrians in Great Britain that require explanation. (1) The casualty rate for child pedestrians aged 11-14 years is higher than the rate for those aged 5-10 years. In Manchester and Salford the casualty rate for the older age group is higher for children on the journey to or from school but at nonschool times the casualty rate is lower for those aged 11-14 years than for those aged 5-10 years. It is suggested that the high casualty rate for older children is connected with the school journey, which is longer to secondary than to primary schools. (2) The casualty rate for the older age group has increased in recent years. Comparing the casualty rates at school and nonschool times in Manchester and Salford in 1969 and 1987 suggests that this increase is due to an increase in accidents on the school journey.     

The Development of Adaptive Expertise in Biomedical Engineering Ethics

This paper is an investigation of the How People Learn (HPL) Legacy Cycle's ability to expand adaptive expertise across the developmental span of high school and college. Participants included high school and college students. Pre‐test data indicated younger students (high school and first‐year college students) were less knowledgeable about the science of stem cells than older students (second‐, third‐, and fourth year college students), and all students were low in adaptiveness. Post‐test data showed that younger students achieved parity with the more advanced students in basic scientific knowledge. The younger students also became highly adaptive by the post‐test, but the older students did not advance beyond their pre‐curriculum levels. We hypothesize that the older students began the intervention with more preconceived notions about stem cells, and thus were less able to think and analyze flexibly within that framework.     

E4: the Drexel curriculum

Drexel University's College of Engineering has undertaken a pioneering project to enhance the educational experience of engineering students. A new curriculum has been designed for the first two years of the undergraduate engineering programme. This new approach aims to bring engineering education into the 21st century by using integrated syllabi, team teaching and inverted curriculum principles and philosophies     

大展弦比机翼随动加载方法与装置研究

大展弦比机翼载荷标定实验中,随着载荷的增加,机翼会发生弯曲变形,导致加载点的法向载荷方向发生变化,对载荷标定实验的准确性产生影响。为解决此问题,设计了一套大展弦比随动加载装置,该装置通过电缸控制加载点竖直方向的位移,通过位移台控制电缸水平方向的位移,利用联动控制系统使载荷标定实验中施加在机翼翼面的作用力与翼面始终保持垂直,保证机翼所受载荷始终沿法向。开展随动加载与砝码垂向加载对比实验,结果表明：随动加载获得的数据相关系数达到0.999,相较砝码垂向加载获得的数据相关系数0.976更优,验证了随动加载装置的有效性。该装置不仅具有体积较小、操作简便的优点,还为推动大展弦比机翼性能研究提供了有力支撑。     

基于创新性构型设计的工程图学教学体系研究

构型设计作为空间想象和创造性思维训练的重要载体对培养学生创新思维能力具有重要作用。论文在探讨国内外工程图学教研情况基础上,构建了以构型设计为主线,突出学生创新思维能力培养的基于创新性构型设计的工程图学新课程体系。并从教学改革目标、教学改革内容和教学实践三方面进行了深入阐述。教学实践表明,该课程体系能很好地培养学生的形体构型设计创新思维能力。     

BikeSafe: Evaluating a bicycle safety program for middle school aged children

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to measure the effectiveness of a bicycle safety education curriculum for middle school age children in order to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities of bicyclists hit by cars in Miami-Dade County.

Methods

The University of Miami BikeSafe^® program includes a four day off-bike middle school curriculum that follows a train-the-trainer model, where a small number of staff trains a larger group of grades 6th–8th physical education teachers from various schools to teach the bike safety curriculum to their students. Subjects in this study included 193 students from 18 classes (3 per school) at 6 selected middle schools. Measures included a knowledge assessment of the curriculum that was administered to students pre- and post-curriculum implementation. Data were collected and analyzed with school and class period examined as predictors of post-score.

Results

A significant difference (p < .001) was found between pre- and post-test conditions across all subjects. In addition, there was no significant difference between testing from class periods (p > .05), suggesting that a standard intervention was applied.

Conclusion

The BikeSafe educational curriculum was found to improve the bike safety knowledge of middle school aged children. Future efforts will focus on sustaining and expanding this program throughout Miami-Dade County and other high risk communities.     

An Assessment of In‐Person and Remotely Operated Laboratories

Increasingly mechanical engineering departments are beginning to incorporate remotely operated laboratories into their laboratory curriculums. Yet very few studies exist detailing the extent to which this new medium for laboratory delivery fulfills the educational goals of traditional in‐person laboratories. This paper describes a comparison of educational outcomes between in‐person and remotely operated laboratories in the mechanical engineering curriculum. The study carried out in the 2001 Fall semester was performed using a remotely operated and an in‐person jet thrust laboratory. The laboratories illustrate the fundamentals of compressible fluid mechanics as part of an undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum. The results from this study indicated no significant difference in the educational outcomes between students who performed the in‐person or the remote experiment.     

Dynamic enhancement of blast-resistant ultra high performance fibre-reinforced concrete under flexural and shear loading

Two independent projects are described in which drop-hammer techniques are used to investigate the dynamic increase factor (DIF) under both flexural and shear high-speed loading of a new ultra high performance fibre reinforced blast-resistant concrete. The results from both studies correlate well. The results show that a DIF of the flexural tensile strength rising from 1.0 at 1 s⁻¹ on a slope of 1/3 on a log (strain rate) versus log (DIF) plot can be used for design purposes. The results also show that no DIF should be used to increase the shear strength at high loading rates.     

Unified Engineering: A Twenty Year Experiment in Sophomore Aerospace Education at MIT

Unified Engineering is the two-semester subject teaching the aerospace sophomore core curriculum at MIT. It contains material from four traditional single semester, single discipline courses. The paper summarizes the history of the course and presents its current structure including the teaching staff involved, textbooks used, and the overall organization. Some of Unified's unique features are the identification of linkages between disciplines, the encouragement of teamwork, emphasis on real-world engineering, and support for the department's implicit curriculum. Students perceive Unified as a course that imposes a high workload, teaches them a very large amount of material, and encourages strong bonds with their classmates in the department. The interaction of senior faculty, junior faculty, graduate teaching fellows, and undergraduate teaching assistants, all in one course, provides educational benefits for the entire teaching staff.     

Equating and item banking with the Rasch model

This article describes Rasch measurement procedures for equating multiple test forms or calibrating an item bank. The procedures entail (a) selecting an appropriate data collection design, (b) estimating parameters, (c) transforming the parameters from multiple forms to a common scale, and (d) evaluating the quality of the linkage between these forms. Data collection designs include (a) anchor tests, (b) single group, (c) single data set, and (d) equivalent groups. Estimation procedures may involve (a) separate or (b) simultaneous calibration of data from multiple forms. Transformation is typically accomplished using (a) estimation scaling, but may involve (b) parameter anchoring or (c) computing equating constants. Link quality is evaluated using four fit indices: (a) item-within-link, (b) item-between-link, (c) link-within-bank, and (d) form-within-bank. These procedures are illustrated using an anchor test design.     

关于人机工程学教学实验的思考

根据人机工程学工程实践性较强的学科特点，强调开设教学实验的必要性，归纳了５种基本实施方案，并根据作者多年的教学经验，提出了系列教学实验的设想。     

包装材料学课程建设的实践

北京印刷学院包装材料学课程建设的实践证明,要培养创新型包装人才,就要加强课程建设。而本课程建设的途径在于,一是要拓展课程专业知识,二是强化实践教学环节,三是重视教材建设,四是加强实训教学,五是突出教学改革与教学研究,六是建立一支合理的教学队伍。     

Comparing concurrent versus fixed parameter equating with common items: using the dichotomous and partial credit models in a mixed-item format test

There has been some discussion among researchers as to the benefits of using one calibration process over the other during equating. Although literature is rife with the pros and cons of the different methods, hardly any research has been done on anchoring (i.e., fixing item parameters to their pre-determined values on an established scale) as a method that is commonly used by psychometricians in large-scale assessments. This simulation research compares the fixed form of calibration with the concurrent method (where calibration of the different forms on the same scale is accomplished by a single run of the calibration process, treating all non-included items on the forms as missing or not reached), using the dichotomous Rasch (Rasch, 1960) and the Rasch partial credit (Masters, 1982) models, and the WINSTEPS (Linacre, 2003) computer program. Contrary to the belief and some researchers' contention that the concurrent run with larger n-counts for the common items would provide greater accuracy in the estimation of item parameters, the results of this paper indicate that the greater accuracy of one method over the other is confounded by the sample-size, the number of common items, etc., and there is no real benefit in using one method over the other in the calibration and equating of parallel tests forms.     

包装工程专业的课程与教学问题探讨

由我国包装工业的现状论及了加快培养高质量包装工程人才的必要性，讨论了包装工程专业学生的培养目标和课程设置，对在包装工程实验设施严重不足的现有条件下运用计算机、多媒体等科学技术提高教学效果，培养高素质的包装工程专业人才问题作了探讨。     

Interactive teaching of adaptive signal processing

Over the last 30 years, adaptive digital signal processing has progressed from being a topic for a strictly graduate-level advanced class in signal processing theory to one that is part of the core curriculum for many undergraduate classes in signal processing. The key reason is the continued advance of communications technology, with its need for echo control and equalisation, and the widespread use of adaptive filters in audio, biomedical, and control applications. This paper reviews the basic theory and applications of adaptive signal processing and also presents information on multimedia teaching methods that are being used on a 24 hour course module on adaptive signal processing. In particular it presents some recent World Wide Web Java programs that were developed for teaching and self-study. Information is provided on how to download and run the Java applet     

How multimedia functions in engineering education

This article examines how interactive multimedia can be used to support and enhance the teaching and learning process in engineering education. It starts by looking at the key features of multimedia (multiple media, delivery control, and interactivity) and describes their benefits and limitations from an educational viewpoint. Criteria for selecting topics to be delivered by interactive multimedia are then discussed with an emphasis on using multimedia to add value. Finally, advice is offered about the integration of interactive multimedia into a curriculum