Active learning: the importance of developing a comprehensive measure

This article reports on an investigation into the validity of a widely used scale for measuring the extent to which higher education students employ active learning strategies. The scale is the active learning scale in the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. This scale is based on the Active and Collaborative Learning scale of the National Survey of Student Engagement. The particular focus of the study was to investigate effects resulting from the addition of a small number of items to the active learning scale designed to capture some highly engaging, mostly online, activities. The items were developed in response to concerns that students studying in distance mode often report lower average scores on active learning scales than their on-campus counterparts. The additional items relate to activities such as working online with other students and faculty. The findings show that average scores on the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement/National Survey of Student Engagement scale increase significantly when the new items are included and that some differences between on-campus and distance education students narrow significantly. These findings have implications for the development of more robust and comprehensive instruments to measure active learning.

AssetDivider : a new mediation tool in Australian family law

This article describes research in a new theory of decision support in negotiation in family law mediation. AssetDivider was based on the principles of Family_Winner. As a Negotiation Decision Support System Family_Winner takes ratings assigned to items by the parties involved and develops a list of allocations to each party; based on trade-offs inherently present in the dispute. Given advice provided from our industry partners Relationships Australia (Queensland) - RAQ, AssetDivider uses an ideal “percentage split” to guide the development of an allocation list for parties. The system has been tested informally by our contacts at RAQ, and we now look forward to extensive testing and evaluation by mediators at RAQ in the near future. We hope to report on a comprehensive evaluation which will report on the effectiveness of this program in practice.

New Zealanders' attitudes to milk : implications for public health

Objective: To identify consumer attitudes and beliefs about (liquid) milk that may be barriers to consumption.

Design: Two random-quota telephone surveys conducted in Auckland one year apart. Respondents were questioned about their usual milk intake and their attitudes to milk. The questionnaire included attitude items that reflected the main themes of consumer interest in milk.

Setting: New Zealand.

Subjects: Seven hundred and thirteen respondents in the baseline survey and a separate sample of 719 respondents in the follow-up survey.

Results: At least one-third of the respondents consumed less than a glass (250ml) of milk a day. Non-consumption was highest in young women (15%). People's concerns about milk related to what was important in their lives; what threatens them physically and emotionally. Women held more positive attitudes but they were concerned about the fat content of milk. Men were less aware of milk's nutritional benefits and as a result were less appreciative of its value.

Conclusions: There is an opportunity to develop public health initiatives to address the barriers to drinking milk. Industry–health alliances may be an effective means to provide positive nutrition messages about milk and to engage the support of health professionals.

Nursing care practices following a percutaneous coronary intervention : results of a survey of Australian and New Zealand cardiovascular nurses

Background: Although there is high-level evidence to guide optimal medical care for percutaneous coronary interventions, there are less explicit guidelines to support nurses in providing care. Aim: This study describes the practice standards and priorities of care of cardiovascular nurses in Australia and New Zealand. Method: Item generation for the survey was informed by an integrative literature review and existing clinical guidelines. A 116-item Web-based survey was administered to cardiovascular nurses, via electronic mail lists of professional cardiovascular nursing organizations, using a secure online data collection system. Results: Data were collected from March 2008 to March 2009. A total of 148 respondents attempted the survey, with 110 (74.3%) completing all items. All respondents were registered nurses with an average of 12.3 (SD, 7.61) years of clinical experience in the cardiovascular setting. A range of practice patterns was evident in ambulation time after percutaneous coronary intervention, methods of sheath removal, pain relief, and patient positioning. Respondents consistently rated psychosocial care a lower priority than other tasks and also identified a knowledge deficit in this area. Conclusion: This survey identified diversity of practice patterns and a range of educational needs. Increasing evidence to support evidence-based practice and guideline development is necessary to promote high-quality care and improved patient outcomes.

Food references and marketing in popular magazines for children and adolescents in New Zealand. A content analysis

Food marketing is recognized as an important factor influencing children's food preferences and consumption. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and extent of unhealthy food marketing and non-branded food references in magazines targeted at and popular among children and adolescents 10–17 years in New Zealand. A content analysis was conducted of all food references (branded and non-branded) found in the five magazines with the highest readership among 10–17 year olds, and the three magazines (of which two were already included among the five most popular magazines) targeted to 10–17 year olds. For each of the six magazines one issue per month (n = 72 issues in total) over a one-year period (December 2012–January 2014) was included. All foods referenced were classified into healthy/unhealthy according to the food-based Ministry of Health classification system. Branded food references (30% of total) were more frequent for unhealthy (43%) compared to healthy (25%) foods. Magazines specifically targeted to children and adolescents contained a significantly higher proportion of unhealthy branded food references (72%, n = 51/71) compared to the most popular magazines among children and adolescents (42%, n = 133/317), of which most were targeted to women. ‘Snack items’ such as chocolates and ice creams were marketed most frequently (n = 104; 36%), while ‘vegetables and fruits’ were marketed the least frequently (n = 9; 3%). Direct advertisements accounted for 27% of branded food references and 25% of those featured health or nutrition claims. Both branded and non-branded food references were common within magazines targeted at and popular among children and adolescents, and skewed toward unhealthy foods. This raises concerns about the effectiveness of self-regulation in marketing and emphasizes that government regulations are needed in order to curb children's current potential high exposures to unhealthy food marketing. In addition, magazine editors could take socially responsible editorial positions in regard to healthy eating.

A new computerized adaptive test advancing the measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children: the Kids-CAT

Purpose: Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) via Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT) provides greater measurement precision coupled with a lower test burden compared to conventional tests. Currently, there are no European pediatric HRQoL CATs available. This manuscript aims at describing the development of a HRQoL CAT for children and adolescents: the Kids-CAT, which was developed based on the established KIDSCREEN-27 HRQoL domain structure. Methods: The Kids-CAT was developed combining classical test theory and item response theory methods and using large archival data of European KIDSCREEN norm studies (n = 10,577–19,580). Methods were applied in line with the US PROMIS project. Item bank development included the investigation of unidimensionality, local independence, exploration of Differential Item Functioning (DIF), evaluation of Item Response Curves (IRCs), estimation and norming of item parameters as well as first CAT simulations. Results: The Kids-CAT was successfully built covering five item banks (with 26–46 items each) to measure physical well-being, psychological well-being, parent relations, social support and peers, and school well-being. The Kids-CAT item banks proved excellent psychometric properties: high content validity, unidimensionality, local independence, low DIF, and model conform IRCs. In CAT simulations, seven items were needed to achieve a measurement precision between.8 and.9 (reliability). It has a child-friendly design, is easy accessible online and gives immediate feedback reports of scores. Conclusions: The Kids-CAT has the potential to advance pediatric HRQoL measurement by making it less burdensome and enhancing the patient–doctor communication.

Erratum to: A new computerized adaptive test advancing the measurement of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children: the Kids-CAT

Abstract
Purpose
Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) via Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT) provides greater measurement precision coupled with a lower test burden compared to conventional tests. Currently, there are no European pediatric HRQoL CATs available. This manuscript aims at describing the development of a HRQoL CAT for children and adolescents: the Kids-CAT, which was developed based on the established KIDSCREEN-27 HRQoL domain structure.
Methods
The Kids-CAT was developed combining classical test theory and item response theory methods and using large archival data of European KIDSCREEN norm studies (n=10,577–19,580). Methods were applied in line with the US PROMIS project. Item bank development included the investigation of unidimensionality, local independence, exploration of Differential Item Functioning (DIF), evaluation of Item Response Curves (IRCs), estimation and norming of item parameters as well as first CAT simulations.
Results
The Kids-CAT was successfully built covering five item banks (with 26–46 items each) to measure physical well-being, psychological well-being, parent relations, social support and peers, and school well-being. The Kids-CAT item banks proved excellent psychometric properties: high content validity, unidimensionality, local independence, low DIF, and model conform IRCs. In CAT simulations, seven items were needed to achieve a measurement precision between .8 and .9 (reliability). It has a child-friendly design, is easy accessible online and gives immediate feedback reports of scores.
Conclusions
The Kids-CAT has the potential to advance pediatric HRQoL measurement by making it less burdensome and enhancing the patient–doctor communication.

Cancer Treatment Survey (CaTS): development and validation of a new instrument to measure patients' preparation for chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Objective: Cancer patients experience high levels of pre-treatment anxiety. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are threatening medical procedures. Preparation for these procedures should include the provision of sensory and procedural information, and addressing fears. The aim of this study was to develop a cancer treatment survey (CaTS) to assess the preparation for chemotherapy and radiotherapy in cancer patients.

Methods: Drawing on evidence for how to prepare patients for threatening procedures, items were generated by psychosocial/clinical experts and pilot tested with cancer patients. The 36-item draft CaTS was administered to 192 cancer patients commencing chemotherapy for lymphoma, breast or colon cancer. Participants also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and basic medical and demographic information was recorded.

Results: A systematic process of item selection removed 11 items. Factor analysis indicated a two-factor solution, with 11 items representing sensory/psychological concerns and 14 items representing procedural concerns. The two subscales demonstrated excellent internal reliability with Cronbach's alpha both over 0.90 and the average inter-item correlation for each scale exceeded 0.30. Divergent validity was established for both CaTS subscales with the HADS-A and-T (all r<0.30). Younger participants (under 65 years of age) had significantly greater procedural concerns (p = 0.001; medium effect).

Conclusions: The CaTS is a two factor, 25-item measure that assesses sensory/psychological concerns and procedural concerns relating to cancer treatment. The instrument provides a reliable and valid outcome measure for interventions to prepare cancer patients for chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Mining allocating patterns in one-sum weighted items

An Association Rule (AR) is a common knowledge model in data mining that describes an implicative cooccurring relationship between two disjoint sets of binary-valued transaction database attributes (items), expressed in the form of an "antecedent⇒ consequent" rule. A variant of the AR is the Weighted Association Rule (WAR). With regard to a marketing context, this paper introduces a new knowledge model in data mining -ALlocating Pattern (ALP). An ALP is a special form of WAR, where each rule item is associated with a weighting score between 0 and 1, and the sum of all rule item scores is 1. It can not only indicate the implicative co-occurring relationship between two (disjoint) sets of items in a weighted setting, but also inform the "allocating" relationship among rule items. ALPs can be demonstrated to be applicable in marketing and possibly a surprising variety of other areas. We further propose an Apriori based algorithm to extract hidden and interesting ALPs from a "one-sum" weighted transaction database. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. © 2008 IEEE.

A new perspective on competency management: Implemented through effective human-computer interaction

Making an informed decision on whether an individual is suited to undertake an educational course or industry training programme can be very frustrating. When dealing with young adults at different cognitive skill levels, it is important to be able to identify and distinguish between their knowledge/competency levels, mostly on the basis of the evidence gathered from test-items. The current absence of appropriate measurement tools to determine skill/competency/knowledge levels remains a practical issue. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the management of this important differentiation in cognitive skill performance. One of the dilemmas surrounding this type of competency evaluation is the time it takes to test an individual. Insisting for instance, that a novice undergoes a long and arduous test, including many difficult testing items, results in lowered self-esteem, reduced motivation for learning something new, may induce stress related disorders. Similarly, expecting a more competent individual to undergo numerous simple test-items can generate the same negative result. A Competency Management System (CMS) is presented to initiate effective human-computer interaction (HCI) for cognitive skills assessment. © 2009 Springer-Verlag US.