The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of a qualified e-learning instructor from e-learners&rsquo / perspectives by submitting a questionnaire to e-learners of &ldquo / CSIT444-Online Web Design&rdquo / course offered through the means of distance learning at the Eastern Mediterranean University. The study explored on-line instructor&rsquo / s administrative support, instructional competency, proficiency in applying the systems used in the course, in other words, technical knowledge and skills and on-line instructor&rsquo / s evaluation criteria of the on-line course. The study used the data obtained from 45 students, the instructor and an assistant of Eastern Mediterranean University. For this research, descriptive study was carried out and qualitative results were given at the end of the study. The results investigated students&rsquo / perceptions about the on-line course they were introduced prior to the application of the questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire demonstrated that the course was found effective, interesting and motivating for students with the animations, free lecture notes, forums, chat rooms, links to e-sources, chance for interaction and immediate feedback that enhance student creativity and self study. The findings included the recommendations for teachers in on-line learning environment. The study also provides the framework of the on-line instructors&rsquo / role by means of on-line learning environment. The results were demonstrated at the end of the study.

This study developed the software named as &ldquo / Physical World&rdquo / which is a virtual laboratory program focusing on Newtonian Physics, which supports two modes called the &ldquo / studying by observation&rdquo / and &ldquo / studying by programming&rdquo / . In &ldquo / studying by observation&rdquo / mode, the motion is calculated due to equations known by the computer. And in &ldquo / studying by programming&rdquo / mode, students write equations of motion and the computer calculates motion due to those equations. A total of six high school second grade students studied force and motion concepts, using Physical World with assistance of one instructor, six hours each. Two of the students studied with &ldquo / studying by observation&rdquo / , two of the students studied with &ldquo / studying by programming&rdquo / , and two of the students studied with use of both of the modes. All students received a test with 10 items chosen from FCI as a pretest and received the same test as a posttest. Students&rsquo / test results were examined to find effects of Physical World&rsquo / s two modes and use of both of the modes over misconceptions about physics. Their actions and responds were examined to find Physical World&rsquo / s effects on scientific thinking for each of the three groups. Four specialists from related fields examined the software and filled evaluation forms and stated feedbacks. From the responds of students during the studies, evidence of positive effect of using the &ldquo / studying by programming&rdquo / mode on scientific thinking was found. And evidence of positive effect of using both modes on misconceptions was found.

The main purpose of this study was developing a three-tier test for assessing 11th grade students&rsquo / misconceptions about geometric optic. The accessible population was all 11th grade science students in Bayrampasa, Istanbul. While developing the test, interviews and open-ended tests were used to collect data to create the three-tier test. An interview questionnaire was developed based on the literature review. 15 11th grade students were interviewed by this questionnaire. Then, an open-ended test was created based on the interview results and also the literature review. It was applied to 114 11th grade science students. The responses of the students for each item were categorized considering the frequencies. Then, these categories were used in the development of the Three-tier Geometric Optic Misconception Test (TTGOMT). The categories were used as the distracters of the items in the TTGOMT. Besides, some of the distracters were extracted from the interview results and the literature review even if they had no frequencies in open-ended test results. The test was applied to the 141 11th grade high school students. A factor analysis was conducted to establish the content validity of the TTGOMT and five categories were found. Also, the proportions of the false positives and false negatives were estimated to establish the content validity and found 28.2 % for the false positives and 3.4 % for false negatives. The construct validity was established by estimating a correlation between the scores of the students for the first two tiers and confidence levels for the third tier. Two reliability analyses were conducted by using Cronbach alpha. One of the reliability analyses was estimated based on the correct answers of the students for all the three tiers together and found 0.55. The other one was estimated based on the misconceptions of the students and found 0.28. Moreover, item analysis was done for each item by using Iteman program.

The purpose of this study is to develop a three-tier test for assessing high school students&rsquo / misconceptions concerning force and motion. The first tier is a traditional multiple choice item, the second tier presents several alternatives addressing the reason for the response for the first tier, and the third tier asks if examinees are confident for their responses to the first two tiers. In the process of test development, Force and Motion Test Requesting Reasoning was developed and utilized to determine the alternatives of Force and Motion Three Tier Test (FMTTT). The test was administered to 207 students, but 19 students were removed from all analyses due to too many missing items. For checking validity of the FMTTT, correlation was investigated between confidence levels and student scores on the first two tiers, and also correlation between confidence levels and student misconception scores on the first two tiers was investigated. Factor analyses were conducted using scores and misconception scores / and percentages of false negatives and false positives were estimated. The percentages of false negatives and false positives were found to be 6% and 8%, respectively. The reliability coefficients were estimated for student scores and misconception scores as 0.48 and 0.62, respectively. In conclusion, using the FMTTT as an achievement test may not be as reliable as using it as a misconception test.

This study aims to investigate university preparatory class students&rsquo / attitudes towards the assessment system by which they are evaluated and alternative assessment before and after the implementation of the electronic portfolio, their attitudes towards the electronic portfolio before and after keeping it for two months, their suggestions about improving the electronic portfolio and how keeping the electronic portfolio affects their computer literacy. For this purpose, 19 intermediate level EFL students in the Department of Basic English, METU were chosen as subjects. For this study, data were collected by administering two questionnaires before and after the implementation, conducting informal interviews with the students and keeping a diary in order to record teacher reflection. Then, the data collected through these data collection tools have been analysed. Finally, the results are discussed in order to interpret students&rsquo / attitudes towards the current assessment system at DBE, alternative assessment tools and the electronic portfolio. The findings of this study indicated that although the students are not completely dissatisfied with the current assessment used at DBE, their attitude towards alternative assessment tools, portfolio, and electronic portfolio was also positive before the implementation and keeping the electronic portfolio for two months made their attitudes towards these assessment tools even more positive. In addition, some of the students indicated that using both traditional and alternative assessment tools may reflect better assessment of their performance.

This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of conceptual change text oriented instruction accompanied with analogies over traditional instruction on tenth grade students&rsquo / understanding of the acid and base concepts and attitude toward science as a school subject. In addition, effect of the gender difference and science process skills on students&rsquo / understanding of acid and base concepts and effect of gender difference on students&rsquo / attitudes toward chemistry as a school subject were also investigated. Subjects of the study were fifty tenth grade students from the two chemistry classes of the same teacher from a public school at the center of Ankara. There were one experimental group and one control group. Two teaching methods used were randomly assigned to the already formed groups of the teacher. Experimental group received conceptual change oriented instruction by using conceptual change text accompanied with analogies and control group received traditional instruction over a period of four weeks. Acid and Base Conception Test and Attitude Scale Toward Chemistry were given to all groups as a pre-test and post-test. Science Process Skill Test was given to all groups at the beginning of the study to determine students&#039 / level of science process skills. At the end of the study, interviews were hold with randomly selected experimental and control group students from the medium achievement level to get an in-dept idea about the nature of the misconceptions related with the topic. ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to test the hypotheses of the study. The results showed that establishing an analogical thinking during the course of instruction together with a conceptual change text caused a better acquisition of scientific conceptions and elimination of misconceptions related with acid and base concepts as compared to the traditional instruction. Because, the students in the experimental group taking conceptual change oriented instruction performed much better in the post-test than the students in the control group taking the traditional instruction. However, the two modes of the instruction and gender difference did not indicate a significant contribution to students&rsquo / attitude toward chemistry as a school subject. Besides, results showed that science process skills of the students&#039 / could be a strong predictor for their achievement in acid and base concepts whereas there was no significant effect of gender difference on students&rsquo / understanding of acid and base concepts.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-120). / ix, 120 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

This thesis reports on the development of an Australian Government English as a Second Language test for health professionals, the Occupational English Test (OET) , and its validation using Rasch Item Response Theory models. / The test contains sub-tests of the four macroskills, each based on workplace communication tasks. The thesis reports on the creation of test specifications, the trial ling of test materials and the analysis of data from full test sessions. / The main research issues dealt with are as follows: / 1. The nature of the constructs involved in communicative language testing. The term proficiency is analysed, and its relationship to a number of models of communicative competence examined. The difficulty of incorporating into these models factors underlying test performance is identified. / 2. The nature of performance tests. A distinction is introduced between strong and weak senses of the term performance test, and related to the discussion in 1 above. / 3. The content validity of the OET. This is established on the basis of a questionnaire survey, interviews, examination of relevant literature, workplace observation and test data. / 4. The role of classical and Rasch IRT analysis in establishing the qualities of the test. Classical and Rasch IRT analyses are used to establish the basic reliability of the OET sub-tests. The Writing sub-test is shown to be somewhat problematic for raters because of the nature of the writing task involved. Analysis of data from the Reading subtest demonstrates the superiority of the Rasch analysis in the creation of short tests with a specific screening function. / 5. The role of Rasch IRT analysis in investigating the construct and content validity of the test and hence of communicatively-oriented tests in general. Rasch analysis reveals that the sub-tests are satisfactory operationalizations of the constructs 'ESL listening/ speaking/ reading/ writing ability in health professional contexts. For the Speaking and Writing sub-tests, the analysis reveals that responses of raters in categories associated with perceptions of grammatical accuracy have a more important role in the determination of the candidate's total score than was anticipated in the design of the test. This finding has implications for the validity of communicatively oriented tests in general, and illustrates the potential of IRT analysis for the investigation of the construct validity of tests. / 6. The appropriateness of the use of Rasch IRT in the analysis of language tests. The nature of the debate about 'unidimensionality' in Rasch analysis is reviewed. It is argued that the issue has been substantialy misunderstood. Data from the two parts of the Listening sub-test are analysed, and statistical tests are used to confirm the unidimensionality of the data set. It is concluded that Rasch analysis is appropriate for a language test of this type. / 7. The behaviour of raters in the rating of oral and written production in a second language. The findings reported in 5 above suggest that the behaviour of raters is crucial to understanding what is being measured in a communicative test of the productive language skills. / The research demonstrates the value of Rasch IRT analysis in the empirical validation of communicatively oriented language tests, and the potential of large-scale test development projects for theoretical work on language testing.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1982. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--James Madison University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.