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Assessment materials must be checked for errors before they are presented to candidates. Any errors have the potential to reduce validity. For example, in the most extreme cases, an error may turn an otherwise well-designed exam question into one that is impossible to answer. In Cambridge University Press & Assessment, assessment materials are checked by multiple assessment specialists across different stages during assessment development. While human checkers are critical to this process, we must acknowledge that there is ample research showing the shortcomings of being human (e.g., we have cognitive biases, and memory and attentional limitations). It is important to provide assessment checkers with tools that help overcome or mitigate these limitations. This article is about one type of checking tool -- checklists. We describe a research-informed, collaborative project to support assessors in performing their checks of exam papers. This project focused on redesigning the instructional, training and task materials provided to assessors. A key part of this was to design checklists for assessors to use when performing their checks. In this article, we focus primarily on the approach that we took for these checklists in order to draw readers' attention to the complexity that is involved in designing them and to provide a practical example of how research can be used strategically to inform key design decisions.

We aimed to investigate differences in patients' anxiety and satisfaction between patients undergoing paper-based patient decision aid (PDA) for shared decision-making (SDM) and those receiving computer-based PDA. We retrospectively collected questionnaires before and after SDM. Basic demographic data as well as anxiety, satisfaction, knowledge acquisition, and participation in SDM were recorded. We divided our population into subgroups according to use of paper-based or computer-based PDA. In addition, Pearson correlation analysis was applied to assess the relationships among variables. In total, 304 patients who visited our Division of Nephrology were included in the final analysis. Overall, over half of the patients felt anxiety (n = 217, 71.4%). Near half of the patients felt a reduction in anxiety after SDM (n = 143, 47.0%) and 281 patients (92.4%) were satisfied with the whole process of SDM. When we divided all the patients based on use of paper-based or computer-based PDA, the reduction of anxiety level was greater in the patients who underwent paper-based PDA when compared with that of those who underwent computer-based PDA. However, there was no significant difference in satisfaction between the two groups. Paper-based PDA was as effective as computer-based PDA. Further studies comparing different types of PDA are warranted to fill the knowledge gaps in the literature., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

It is essential to establish a multi-dimensional postgraduate quality evaluation system for student assessment and training. This study aimed to explore the construction of the multiindex and hierarchical comprehensive evaluation system for postgraduate training in science and engineering based on the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model using Analytic Hierarchy Process. It involved 756 postgraduates in physics and engineering who were randomly selected via the Internet. Data were collected from the questionnaire about postgraduates' basic information. After collection, Factor Analysis was used to verify the rationality of the design of second-level and third-level indicators, and adjust the corresponding weights. On this basis, Cluster Analysis was used to classify the training quality of the postgraduates based on their scores on academic ability, basic quality, and social ability indicators. The results revealed that the index system includes 4 first-level indicators,12 second-level indicators and 36 third-level indicators, and different weights being assigned to the indicators according to their influence on the training quality of postgraduates in science and engineering. This study also provides some reference for the quality of science and engineering postgraduate training in Chinese universities by proposing relevant measures, which could be interesting also for international audience.

In this practice-based pedagogical paper, we, the university faculty of Education, Food and Nutrition, Sociology, and History in the U.S., describe how we started a Reflective Practice Teaching Circle at our institution for interdisciplinary dialogue about the effective use of social media (SM) for teaching and learning. Our discussions led to the design of the Social Media Entry Model that educators can use for decision-making. We begin this paper with a brief synthesis of scholarly literature describing students' SM use and how higher education faculty use SM to support 21st-century skills development. Next, we describe the institutional, individual, and pedagogical barriers that prevent faculty from embracing SM as a teaching and learning tool. Based on our shared vision and praxis, we present the Social Media Entry Model and describe how educators can use it when deciding how to integrate SM into the formal or informal curriculum. Through our narratives, we illustrate how we use a variety of SM platforms and different entry points in the model to enhance students' 21st-century skills. We also discuss the legal and ethical issues that educators must consider to ensure that university students use SM in a socially responsible manner.

This paper presents a midterm review of a 4-year factor analysis project aimed at validating an outcome-based assessment of study-abroad programs attended by Japanese students. This paper outlines how the results from the initial two years captured changes in perceptions and reasons for studying abroad. It found that students have become increasingly focused on how the experience will impact their future careers. This is a shift from those who studied abroad before the COVID-19 pandemic. Those students motivations for studying abroad were primarily internal and experiential, such as wanting to improve their language skills and experience life in another country, or external and passive reasons arising from the circumstances or opinions of family or friends. The research also indicates how awareness of this shift could assist administrators in designing and conducting successful international experiences.

This design case details the design process of a multiple-choice assessment of socio-scientific systems thinking. This assessment is situated within a larger project that aims to understand the ways students use multiple scientific models to understand complex socio-scientific issues. In addition to the research component, this project entails developing curriculum and assessment resources that support science teaching and learning. We begin this paper by framing the needs that motivated the design of this assessment and introducing the design team. We then present a narrative outlining the design process, focusing on key challenges that arose and the ways these challenges influenced our final design. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the compromises that had to be made in the process of designing this instrument.

ICT advancements have enabled more online activities, resulting in several cyberethical behaviours. The literature documents the prevalence of plagiarism and online fraud, among others. While behaviour has been explained by several theories, as scholarship and research advance, frameworks are modified to include more constructs. This paper proposes a developed framework for studying cyberethical behaviour in North Central Nigeria, with a focus on exploring the factors that influence individuals' attitudes, awareness, and perception of cyberethics. The framework is based on a modified reasoned action approach model and incorporates key constructs such as attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and awareness of cyber ethics. An adapted questionnaire was used as an instrument for collecting quantitative data. This study used multistage sampling. A sample size of 989 north-central Nigerian female university postgraduate students was selected from a population of 9,000. Perception and attitude toward cyberethical behaviour were positively correlated. Perception, awareness, and attitude toward cyberethical behaviour correlated. Perception and awareness significantly affected cyberethical behaviour. The study aims to provide insights into the factors that shape individuals' decision-making processes regarding cyberethics and to identify potential areas for intervention and education. The paper also discusses the importance of promoting cyberethics in Nigeria, given the increasing use of technology and the growing threat of cybercrime. The proposed framework offers a valuable tool for researchers and policymakers seeking to understand and address cyberethical behaviour in North Central Nigeria.

In the care of adolescents, health care providers often face situations raising ethical concerns or dilemmas, such as refusal of a treatment or hospitalization, or request of confidentiality while engaging in risky behaviors or facing unplanned pregnancy. This position paper provides concrete avenues as how to assess the adolescent's capacity for autonomous decision making, e.g. the patient's competence in a specific situation, and how to elicit informed choice or consent. To do so, professionals need to be sensitized and trained as how to assess the cognitive and socio-psychological development of the young patient. Another challenge for the health professionals is to balance the needs to support patient's autonomy while offering secure guidance and protection if needed. To optimize such a process, they establish a climate of trust and empathy that will allow the patient to participate freely in the decision. In addition, especially when the decisions have potentially important consequences on the health and life, the professionals include, with the adolescent's permission, parents, caregivers or other significant adults, as well as they may request the opinion of other members of the health care team or expert colleagues such as ethicists.

The financial motivation to earn advertising revenue has been widely conjectured to be pivotal for the production of online misinformation 1-4 . Research aimed at mitigating misinformation has so far focused on interventions at the user level 5-8 , with little emphasis on how the supply of misinformation can itself be countered. Here we show how online misinformation is largely financed by advertising, examine how financing misinformation affects the companies involved, and outline interventions for reducing the financing of misinformation. First, we find that advertising on websites that publish misinformation is pervasive for companies across several industries and is amplified by digital advertising platforms that algorithmically distribute advertising across the web. Using an information-provision experiment 9 , we find that companies that advertise on websites that publish misinformation can face substantial backlash from their consumers. To examine why misinformation continues to be monetized despite the potential backlash for the advertisers involved, we survey decision-makers at companies. We find that most decision-makers are unaware that their companies' advertising appears on misinformation websites but have a strong preference to avoid doing so. Moreover, those who are unaware and uncertain about their company's role in financing misinformation increase their demand for a platform-based solution to reduce monetizing misinformation when informed about how platforms amplify advertising placement on misinformation websites. We identify low-cost, scalable information-based interventions to reduce the financial incentive to misinform and counter the supply of misinformation online., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Decision prediction based on neurophysiological signals is of great application value in many real‐life situations, especially in human–AI collaboration or counteraction. Single‐trial analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is a very valuable step in the development of an online decision‐prediction system. However, previous EEG‐based decision‐prediction methods focused mainly on averaged EEG signals of all decision‐making trials to predict an individual's general decision tendency (e.g., risk seeking or aversion) over a period rather than on a specific decision response in a single trial. In the present study, we used a rock–paper–scissors game, which is a common multichoice decision‐making task, to explore how to predict participants' single‐trial choice with EEG signals. Forty participants, comprising 20 females and 20 males, played the game with a computer player for 330 trials. Considering that the decision‐making process of this game involves multiple brain regions and neural networks, we proposed a new algorithm named common spatial pattern‐attractor metagene (CSP‐AM) to extract CSP features from different frequency bands of EEG signals that occurred during decision making. The results showed that a multilayer perceptron classifier achieved an accuracy significantly exceeding the chance level among 88.57% (31 of 35) of participants, verifying the classification ability of CSP features in multichoice decision‐making prediction. We believe that the CSP‐AM algorithm could be used in the development of proactive AI systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic journals rely crucially upon the willingness of academics to review papers and for them to provide high-quality review reports. The purpose of this Editorial is to assist reviewers for Tourism and Hospitality in providing review reports that will be helpful to the journal editors in making decisions about whether to accept, reject or require revisions to papers that are submitted to the journal. It provides reviewers with a 'peep behind the curtain' of what can sometimes seem a rather opaque paper review process, with the aim of clarifying the purpose and format of the review process, and thereby to gain a greater appreciation of what it required of them. Several tips for writing high-quality review reports are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to show the added value of using tools such as eyetracking, galvanic skin response, facial coding and others in the field of market research and user experience research. We will present 3 case studies in which these tools have been used successfully. We will give an overview of the background, the objectives, methods and results and how the neuro-tools provided additional insights into consumer behaviour, which would otherwise not have been possible. In this paper we will specifically show cases from packaging design, advertising research and user experience research thus only covering a small part of possible application areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers in the construction field have explored the utilization of augmented reality (AR) and its impact on the industry. Previous studies have shown potential uses for AR in the construction industry. However, a comprehensive critical review exploring the ways in which AR supports synchronized communication is still missing. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining trends identified in the literature and by analyzing both beneficial and challenging attributes. This work was performed by collecting numerous journal and conference papers, using keywords including "augmented reality", "construction", and "synchronous communication". The papers were then categorized based on the reported attributes that were indicated to be challenges or benefits. Throughout the analysis, several benefits were consistently reported, including training, visualization, instantly sharing information, decision making, and intuitive interaction. Similarly, several challenges were consistently reported, such as difficulty in manipulation, unfriendly interface, device discomfort, and sun brightness. Regarding other attributes, such as field of view, cost, safety hazards, and hands-free mode, researchers provided divergent reports regarding whether they were beneficial or detrimental to AR communication. These findings provide valuable guidance for future researchers and practitioners, enabling them to leverage AR for synchronized communication in ways that consistently offer value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the release of a white paper by the International Federation of Dental Hygienists (IFDH), summarizing findings from 5 global surveys on oral health conducted between 2019 and 2023. Topics discussed include toothpaste and electric toothbrush recommendations, oral-systemic links, sustainable dentistry, and oral hygiene instruction practices, revealing gaps between evidence-based knowledge and clinical decision making among dental hygienists.

University rankings have a growing impact on how people view the academic excellence of higher education. The complicated relationship between rankings and academic excellence is explored in this essay along with how it may affect higher education policy and practice. The importance of rankings and their influence on institutional decision-making is highlighted in the introduction to the article. After that, it goes into detail about how to understand university rankings, going over their methodology, metrics, and influences. The subsequent sections focus on the link between rankings and academic quality, highlighting how rankings can both reflect and shape perceptions of quality. The limitations and challenges associated with rankings are also explored, including the simplification of academic quality, data accuracy, and interpretation, and the potential for distortions and unintended consequences. Alternative approaches to assessing academic quality beyond rankings are presented, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive evaluation frameworks that encompass diverse dimensions of excellence. This paper goes into more detail about how rankings affect institutions of higher learning, including how they affect institutional priorities and the necessity of mission-driven decision-making. Additionally, discussions of student opinions on rankings and academic standards highlight the significance of including students in the evaluation process. Exploring the difficulties and possibilities for policy and practice while concentrating on themes of equity, data transparency, and public opinion. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for a nuanced understanding of rankings and academic quality and the importance of adopting comprehensive approaches that prioritize student success, diversity, and institutional missions. By recognizing the limitations of rankings and embracing alternative assessment measures, policymakers and institutions can promote a more holistic and accurate assessment of academic quality in higher education.

Contemporary wildlife disease management is complex because managers need to respond to a wide range of stakeholders, multiple uncertainties, and difficult trade-offs that characterize the interconnected challenges of today. Despite general acknowledgment of these complexities, managing wildlife disease tends to be framed as a scientific problem, in which the major challenge is lack of knowledge. The complex and multifactorial process of decision-making is collapsed into a scientific endeavor to reduce uncertainty. As a result, contemporary decision-making may be oversimplified, rely on simple heuristics, and fail to account for the broader legal, social, and economic context in which the decisions are made. Concurrently, scientific research on wildlife disease may be distant from this decision context, resulting in information that may not be directly relevant to the pertinent management questions. We propose reframing wildlife disease management challenges as decision problems and addressing them with decision analytical tools to divide the complex problems into more cognitively manageable elements. In particular, structured decision-making has the potential to improve the quality, rigor, and transparency of decisions about wildlife disease in a variety of systems. Examples of management of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, white-nose syndrome, avian influenza, and chytridiomycosis illustrate the most common impediments to decision-making, including competing objectives, risks, prediction uncertainty, and limited resources., (© ([0‐9]+) Society for Conservation Biology.)

Over the years, the world population has been growing exponentially. This population growth affects the number of waste products due to the increased production, which leads to greater environmental impact and other problems. There are different numbers of product end-of-life (EOL) options to handle waste based on product characteristics. This research is designed to develop a methodology to determine the best EOL option for a paper product using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). AHP is one of the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods employed to select the best option by considering the user’s preferences and output of competing EOL options related to different product criteria. A graphical user interface (GUI) called AHP-based software was developed using Microsoft Excel through the programming function of Visual Basic for Applications as a user facilitating tool when conducting the analysis. The case study technique is applied to five different types of paper products to assess the capability of the proposed AHP-based software. Results from the AHP-based software reveal that recycling is the most suitable EOL technique for most paper products compared to other techniques. However, polluted products with ink or food waste and coating may not be suitable for this method. The research assists the users to identify the most sustainable ways to handle paper product waste based on the product condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the results of a qualitative study focused on the career shifts of professionals who previously worked in non-academic organizations and transitioned into academic careers. It explores the factors that influence the decision of professionals to reinvent themselves as career academics as well as their level of satisfaction with their career shifts. The paper provides the results of a survey that was conducted with 336 survey respondents coming from an online university, an on-ground state university, a community college and a LinkedIn group focused on education. The results of the survey indicate that 90% of the respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their new academic career and the reasons for their career changes are detailed. Gaining an understanding of why professionals decide to transition to academia and their satisfaction with their transition will be useful for talent acquisition and retention in higher education organizations as well as being helpful for those professionals who are considering making the transition to academia.

Large-scale performance assessment programs are a longstanding reform tool. However, standard setting can be a challenge for assessment programs that use primarily non-standardized assessments. The purpose of this paper is to extend this field of research by explaining the standard setting methodology applied to one more recent instantiation of a state performance assessment program. The second purpose of this paper is to discuss the data quality control and quality assurance challenges experienced after five years of applying the standard setting method. Recognizing the burgeoning interest again in large-scale performance assessment programs, the goal and intended contribution of this paper is to inform future decisions about selecting appropriate standard setting methods and dealing with unanticipated challenges that may arise during implementation based upon the lessons learned from one program. It is likely that other large-scale performance assessment programs may face similar operational challenges, especially those that do not rely on standardized tests or standardized administration procedures to produce annual determinations of student proficiency or other scores used for accountability purposes. Assessment system designers can use the insights in this paper to consider standard setting methods and how those methods may need to be adapted to promote technical quality.

To ensure that students obtain an effective and appropriate education, quality assurance in higher education is crucial. The primary concepts, structures, and procedures associated with quality assurance in higher education are extensively addressed in this paper. To improve student learning outcomes, institutional reputation, and overall accountability, it examines the changing landscape of higher education and the growing emphasis on quality. The introduction of the paper defines quality assurance in the context of higher education, emphasizing its complexity and the range of stakeholders it involves. It explores the numerous quality dimensions--both academic and non-academic--and their importance in promoting a well-rounded educational experience. The paper then addresses the essential tenets and strategies that support quality assurance. It looks at internal quality control approaches that enable institutions to regularly review and enhance their educational practices, such as faculty development, curriculum design, and self-assessment. To further promote openness, comparability, and accountability across higher education institutions, external quality assurance, including accreditation, benchmarking, and regulatory frameworks, is being investigated as well. The paper also explores international perspectives on quality assurance in higher education, emphasizing regional differences and global initiatives. It looks at how standards-setting organizations, professional groups, and quality control organizations influence policies and encourage institutional cooperation. To improve processes for making decisions and ensure constant enhancement, the paper also examines the role of data analysis, assessment instruments, and quality indicators. The paper also seeks to provide scholars, policymakers, administrators, and practitioners with a firm foundation to comprehend the concepts, theories, and techniques involved in quality assurance in higher education. It is a useful tool for promoting quality in higher education institutions around the world, encouraging discussion, and influencing decision-making processes.

This paper draws from a broad study that explored mathematics teachers' engagement with textbooks within the Lesson Study context. In the current paper, we report on teachers' use of mathematics textbook activities to inform their instructional decisions during collaborative lesson planning of numeric and geometric patterns. The study took place within the Lesson Study (LS) context -- a teacher development practice that emphasises, inter alia, collaborative lesson planning. Data was collected by observing teachers during collaborative lesson planning and through interviews. Data analysis was informed by the Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) framework and Modes of teacher engagement with the textbook. Findings suggest that teachers' instructional decisions are mainly stimulated by the textbooks, teachers use textbook activities with fidelity, and they seldom adapt the activities drawn from the textbooks. However, where adaptation occurs teachers do it superficially. We contend that the capacity to conduct in-depth interrogation of the text is a derivative of mathematics subject matter knowledge (SMK) as well as pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Therefore, the widespread adoption of text without interrogation could be indicative of the lack of requisite content knowledge and pedagogical skills.