Design, format, validity and reliability of mutiple choice questions for use in nursing research and education

Multiple choice questions are used extensively in nursing research and education and play a fundamental role in the design of research studies or educational programs. Despite their widespread use, there is a lack of evidence-based guidelines relating to design and use of multiple choice questions. Little is written about their format, structure, validity and reliability of in the context of nursing research and/or education and most of the current literature in this area is based on opinion or consensus. Systematic multiple choice question design and use of valid and reliable multiple choice questions are vital if the results of research or educational testing are to be considered valid. Content and face validity schould be established by expert panel review and construct validity should be established using ‘key check’, item discrimination and item difficulty analyses. Reliability measures include internal consistency and equivalence. Internal consistency should be established by determination of internal consistency using reliability coefficients while equivalence should be established using alternate form correlation. This paper reviews literature related to the use of multiple choice questions, current design recommendations and processes to establish reliability and validity, and discusses implications for their use in nursing research and education.

Measuring human well-being in Thailand : a normative social choice approach

Numerous methods exist within the literature to measure human well-being. A limitation of some approaches however is that they fail to explicitly consider society's views, choices and preferences on how human well-being should be defined. It is possible though to explicitly incorporate society's value judgements in defining and measuring human well-being through normative social choice theory. Normative social choice theory reflects the views, opinions and perspectives of societies of differing economic and social circumstances so that measures of human well-being retain their relevance for public policy makers in those countries. This paper reviews two indicators based on this theory for Thailand over the 25 year period, 1975-1999. The first indicator focuses on certain hierarchical needs and the second is a measure of adjusted national income. It is concluded that both measures provide important insights.

Does the choice of estimator matter when forecasting returns?

While the literature concerned with the predictability of stock returns is huge, surprisingly little is known when it comes to role of the choice of estimator of the predictive regression. Ideally, the choice of estimator should be rooted in the salient features of the data. In case of predictive regressions of returns there are at least three such features; (i) returns are heteroskedastic, (ii) predictors are persistent, and (iii) regression errors are correlated with predictor innovations. In this paper we examine if the accounting of these features in the estimation process has any bearing on our ability to forecast future returns. The results suggest that it does.

The high seas (C’s) of music piracy in information systems : cost, convenience and choice

Systems and technologies used for unauthorised file sharing have received little attention in the Information Systems literature. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a critical, qualitative study on the motivations for using unauthorised file sharing systems. Based on 30 interviews with music consumers, musicians, and the music industry, this paper reports on the decision of music consumers to ‘pirate or purchase’. This paper highlights file sharing from multiple perspectives of users, musicians, and representatives from the music recording industry. Three main themes emerged on the cost, convenience and choice as motivators for unauthorised file sharing.

On the choice of test for a unit root when the errors are conditionally heteroskedastic

It is well known that in the context of the classical regression model with heteroskedastic errors, while ordinary least squares (OLS) is not efficient, the weighted least squares (WLS) and quasi-maximum likelihood (QML) estimators that utilize the information contained in the heteroskedasticity are. In the context of unit root testing with conditional heteroskedasticity, while intuition suggests that a similar result should apply, the relative performance of the tests associated with the OLS, WLS and QML estimators is not well understood. In particular, while QML has been shown to be able to generate more powerful tests than OLS, not much is known regarding the relative performance of the WLS-based test. By providing an in-depth comparison of the tests, the current paper fills this gap in the literature.

Audit fees, auditor choice and stakeholder influence: Evidence from a family-firm dominated economy

Despite the dominance of family-owned publicly listed companies in developing economies, prior research has paid relatively little attention to this area and the socio-economic context of these countries has been mostly ignored. This study contributes to the accounting literature by providing empirical evidence of the effects of family control and ownership on audit pricing and auditor choice in a developing economy context. Using 1058 firm-year observations of publicly listed companies in Bangladesh, where family firms are the most dominant form of public companies, we find that in comparison with non-family firms, our sample family firms pay significantly lower audit fees and choose lower quality auditors. However, for export-oriented industries, family firms seem to pay significantly higher audit fees and recruit better quality auditors compared to non-family firms. Collectively, our findings have important implications for audit markets in emerging economies in which the sustainability of family firms is crucial for overall economic development.

Geo-identity, urban school choice and education campaigns for public schools

Educational campaigning has received little attention in the literature. This study investigates long-term and organised urban campaigns that are collectively lobbying the Victorian State Government in Australia, for a new public high school to be constructed in their suburb. A public high school is also known as a state school, government school, or an ordinary comprehensive school. It receives the majority of its funding from the State and Federal Australian Government, and is generally regarded as ‘free’ education, in comparison to a private school. Whilst the campaigners frame their requests as for a ‘public school’, their primary appeal is for a local school in their community. This study questions how collective campaigning for a locale-specific public school is influenced by geography, class and identity. In order to explore these campaigns, I draw on formative studies of middle-class school choice from an Australian and United Kingdom perspective (Campbell, Proctor, & Sherington, 2009; Reay, Crozier, & James, 2011). To think about the role of geography and space in these processes of choice, I look to apply Harvey’s (1973) theory of absolute, relational and relative space. I use Bourdieu (1999b) as a sociological lens that is attentive to “site effects” and it is through this lens that I think about class as a “collection of properties” (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 106), actualised via mechanisms of identity and representation (Hall, 1996; Rose, 1996a, 1996b). This study redresses three distinct gaps in the literature: first, I focus attention on a contemporary middle-class choice strategy—that is, collective campaigning for a public school. Research within this field is significantly under-developed, despite this choice strategy being on the rise. Second, previous research argues that certain middle-class choosers regard the local public school as “inferior” in some way (Reay, et al., 2011, p. 111), merely acting as a “safety net” (Campbell, et al., 2009, p. 5) and connected to the working-class chooser (Reay & Ball, 1997). The campaigners are characteristic of the middle-class school chooser, but they are purposefully and strategically seeking out the local public school. Therefore, this study looks to build on work by Reay, et al. (2011) in thinking about “against-the-grain school choice”, specifically within the Australian context. Third, this study uses visual and graphic methods in order to examine the influence of geography in the education market (Taylor, 2001). I see the visualisation of space and schooling that I offer in this dissertation as a key theoretical contribution of this study. I draw on a number of data sets, both qualitative and quantitative, to explore the research questions. I interviewed campaigners and attended campaign meetings as participant observer; I collected statistical data from fifteen different suburbs and schools, and conducted comparative analyses of each. These analyses are displayed by using visual graphs. This study uses maps created by a professional graphic designer and photographs by a professional photographer; I draw on publications by the campaigners themselves, such as surveys, reports and social media; but also, interviews with campaigners that are published in local or state newspapers. The multiple data sets enable an immersive and rich graphic ethnography. This study contributes by building on understandings of how particular sociological cohorts of choosers are engaging with, and choosing, the urban public school in Australia. It is relevant for policy making, in that it comes at a time of increasing privatisation and a move toward independent public schools. This study identifies cohorts of choosers that are employing individual and collective political strategies to obtain a specific school, and it identifies this cohort via explicit class-based characteristics and their school choice behaviours. I look to use fresh theoretical and methodological approaches that emphasise space and geography, theorising geo-identity and the pseudo-private school

Transaction cost economics and industry maturity in it outsourcing: a meta-analysis of contract type choice

Recent reviews of the information technology outsourcing (ITO) literature report high variance in research results when Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) is used as the analytical framework. Informed by ITO market developments, including increasing commoditisation, market consolidation, and market transparency, we develop an explanation for these mixed results contingent on ITO industry maturity. We adopt meta-analysis to show that ITO industry maturity significantly explains variance in the choice of contract type (time and materials vs. fixed price) in ITO projects. Our results suggest that TCE is relevant to explain the choice of contract type in the emerging phase of the ITO industry, but not in its current mature phase. We conclude that a TCE-based analytical framework is not well suited for the study of ITO in the current mature industry phase. Instead, we propose that an "endogenous" ITO theory should be developed that focuses on differences in client behaviour rather than vendor behaviour.

Explainer: Are Bob Dylan's Songs 'Literature'?

Bob Dylan has won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. The media has reported on this surprising choice by asking musicians, poets, and writers if Dylan’s songs are indeed “literature”. Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting (1993), made it clear on Twitter that he didn’t think they were: If you’re a ‘music’ fan, look it up in the dictionary. Then ‘literature’. Then compare and contrast. So are song lyrics a type of literature or, more specifically, poetry? The English poet Glyn Maxwell thinks not. In On Poetry (2011), he writes that “Songs are strung upon sounds, poems upon silence”. Inhabiting silence makes poetry the harder and more important art form. Music, Maxwell writes, makes lyrics seem better than when they appear on the whiteness of the page.

Literature review for senior syllabus revisions: English

The review began with a survey of recent issues of nine key English education journals widely recognised as influential within the field, and reflective of current practice and debates about future directions in Australia and internationally.Common areas of focus and concern were identified within this literature scan, including:• definitions of ‘English’ in current times, and their implications• the nature of literacy — which literacies?• English for students from multiple linguistic backgrounds, and how this might best beconceived and organised• text selection and related issues — canonicity, choice, genre, prescription, analytic frameworks etc.• digital texts and technologies• English as a vehicle for the discussion of themes, issues and social concerns• assessment — policies, practices and effects.This research formed a background against which subjects in the Queensland English subject group were examined.A close reading of the Queensland syllabuses under review, and the construction of an overview of the teaching, learning and assessment focuses followed the literature scan.English literature reviewSenior syllabus redevelopmentQueensland Curriculum & Assessment AuthorityPage 1 of 25February 2016The four syllabuses were mapped against each other for similarities and differences. Connections between these syllabuses and the Australian Curriculum, and Queensland F–10 curriculum were identified.Then, after gathering documentation, a close reading of similar syllabuses from Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, New York State, the International Baccalaureate (IB), and England’s A-levels was undertaken, and an overview of the teaching, learning and assessment focuses, the scope of learning, and how learning is organised and described within these syllabuses developed. In the course of this process, reflections on the relevance of these syllabuses from other jurisdictions for the Queensland syllabuses were noted.Finally, the Queensland English senior syllabuses were reviewed against six areas identified by the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) as 21st century skills reflecting current educational trends.