Quantitative studies of student self-assessment in higher education: a critical analysis of findings

Student self-assessment occurs when learners make judgements about aspects of their own performance. This paper focuses on one aspect of quantitative self-assessments: the comparison of student-generated marks with those generated by teachers. Studies including such comparisons in the context of higher education courses are reviewed and the following questions are addressed: (i) do students tend to over- or under-rate themselves vis-á-vis teachers?, (ii) do students of different abilities have the same tendencies?, (iii) do students in different kinds or levels of course tend to under- or over-rate themselves?, (iv) do students improve their ability to rate themselves over time or with practice?, (v) are the same tendencies evident when self-marks are used for formal assessment purposes?, and (vi) are there gender differences in self-rating? The paper also discusses methodological issues in studies of this type and makes recommendations concerning the analysis and presentation of information.

Student self-assessment in higher education: a meta-analysis

Quantitative self-assessment studies that compared self- and teacher marks were subjected to a meta-analysis. Predictions stemming from the results of an earlier critical review of the literature (Boud & Falchikov, 1989) were tested, and salient variables were identified. Factors that seem to be important with regard to the closeness of correspondence between self- and teacher marks were found to include the following: the quality of design of the study (with better designed studies having closer correspondence between student and teacher than poorly designed ones); the level of the course of which the assessment was a part (with students in advanced courses appearing to be more accurate assessors than those in introductory courses); and the broad area of study (with studies within the area of science appearing to produce more accurate self-assessment generally than did those from other areas of study). Results of the analysis are discussed and differences signaled by the results of the three common metrics examined. The distinction between relative and absolute judgment of performance is drawn. It is recommended that researchers give attention to both good design and to adequate reporting of self-assessment studies.

Students with vision impairments in the UAE higher education system

Students with vision impairments are facing significant challenges accessing the physical, educational and social environments in the UAE higher education system. This thesis highlighted this main barriers, and provided useful recommendations to universities in the UAE to improve their support services to individuals with vision impairments.

Measuring organisational capabilities in the higher education sector

Purpose – Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), the purpose of this paper is to develop a framework and instrument to measure the organisational capabilities of university schools/ departments. In doing so, this study provides evidence of the way competitive resources are bundled to generate organisational capabilities that give university schools/departments a sustainable competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire to measure the resources that contribute to the capabilities of university schools/departments was developed. Constructs were determined, and the questionnaire was refined based on an analysis of responses from 166 Heads of schools/departments across all 39 Australian public universities. Findings – Heads conceive of the development of capabilities within their schools/departments along the core operating functions of research, teaching, and networking. Reliability and supplementary analysis confirm these constructs have strong convergent and discriminant validity as well as internal consistency. Research limitations/implications – The findings confirm that effective management and coordination of research, teaching, and networking with important stakeholders are keys to success. The framework and instrument developed in this paper also provides the opportunity to investigate university performance through the perspective of the RBV, which will enhance the understanding of the determinants of universities’ performance. Practical implications – The framework and questionnaire developed in this study can be utilised by Heads as a diagnostic tool to gain an understanding of their department’s/school’s organisational capabilities in the areas of research, teaching, and networking. Originality/value – This paper is the first study to develop a framework and questionnaire to measure organisational capabilities for university academic schools/departments.

To aspire: a systematic reflection on understanding aspirations in higher education

Aspirations for higher education by people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds are now a focus of government policy in many OECD nations. This is part of a global trend emphasizing the perceived benefits of ‘raising’ aspirations among under-represented groups as a social inclusion strategy to widen university participation, but also ultimately as a strategy to increase national competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. Yet despite its importance, aspiration tends to carry simplistic meanings in much higher education policy and practice. This paper attempts to craft a more nuanced account of the term, informed by four concept-clusters derived from sociological and philosophical literatures and research, and with a more mutual relation of public and private interests. It complements this ‘intellectual craftsmanship’ or ‘systematic reflection’ (Mills in The sociological imagination, 1959) with data drawn from a future-focused survey of secondary school students from low and low-mid socioeconomic status backgrounds in regional Australia. Results from the survey provide illustrations that help expand understandings of student aspirations for higher education, from a group presumed to be deficit in aspirations.

Improving online communication for students in higher education contexts

The study reported here sought to identify Higher Education students’ preferred modes of online communication whilst studying a wholly online research subject at University. The teacher education student participants from an Australian university were required to collaboratively conduct inquiry research projects in groups whilst relying upon computer-mediated communication. How do students communicate as a collaborative research group whilst only meeting online? The data were collected via the use of online pre-test and post-test surveys conducted ‘prior to’ and ‘post’ involvement in the unit of study and descriptive statistical analysis was applied. The findings revealed that important influences affecting students’ choice of communication mode included their own views on the capacity of online communication, their prior experience and the availability and accessibility of the modes. Furthermore, it was found that when given a choice, students preferred the use of asynchronous forms of digital communication to synchronous forms. Recommendations for improving online teaching, learning and research contexts in Universities are provided and the importance of considering blended mode delivery for wholly online units is argued.

The implications of contractualism for the responsibilisation of higher education

Within the context of heightened perceptions of risk within thehigher education sector worldwide, responsibility for outcomes isincreasingly required not only of universities but, also, ofindividual academics. In turn, contracts have become a key formof governance for institutions in mediating and modulating thisrisk and responsibility. While much writing around the use ofcontracts in higher education has focused on market-based,competitive neoliberal conceptions of contractualism, thisarticle argues that there are, in fact, two largely antagonisticnew modes of contractualism – market contractualism andrelational contractualism – and a third, residual mode, paternalcontractualism. These three modes of contractualism coexistwithin universities, in tension. The article draws on two Australianexemplars to highlight how these tensions play out and tohighlight the potential for contractualism to create spaces forshared goals and projects and shared risks resulting from theways in which responsibility and individual agency are negotiated.

Cultural influence on global assessment of higher education service quality: The case of Central Queensland University, Australia

© 2014 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. This study compares students' cultural influence on global assessment of higher education service quality. In particular, this study surveyed the full-time students (that is at least 24 credit points of study in a semester) studying at the Central Queensland University (CQU), Australia. CQU has ten campuses and is one of the largest universities in Australia, with more than 14,000 students, in which 3,000 students are enrolled as full-time students and 11,000 as part-time students. An online survey was undertaken, and 227 responses from full-time students were returned for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed to determine valid and reliable dimensions of perceived service quality. Tests of differences such as ANOVA and t-test were conducted to examine the differences of perceived service quality in terms of four cultural dimensions; namely, power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity. Findings show that different cultures perceive service quality differently; especially administrative service quality and physical facilities service quality.

Self-regulated learning strategies & academic achievement in online higher education learning environments: a systematic review

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. As enrolments in online courses continue to increase, there is a need to understand how students can best apply self-regulated learning strategies to achieve academic success within the online environment. A search of relevant databases was conducted in December 2014 for studies published from 2004 to Dec 2014 examining SRL strategies as correlates of academic achievement in online higher education settings. From 12 studies, the strategies of time management, metacognition, effort regulation, and critical thinking were positively correlated with academic outcomes, whereas rehearsal, elaboration, and organisation had the least empirical support. Peer learning had a moderate positive effect, however its confidence intervals crossed zero. Although the contributors to achievement in traditional face-to-face settings appear to generalise to on-line context, these effects appear weaker and suggest that (1) they may be less effective, and (2) that other, currently unexplored factors may be more important in on-line contexts.

Lifting the cloak of conceptual confusion: Exploring the meaning of the human right to higher education

The right to education, and specifically higher education, is clearly set out in international law. Higher education is, however, in a state of change as a result of pressures from the increased demand for higher education, globalisation and the impact of new technology (Barber, Donnelly and Rizvi 2013, 1–2). This article asserts that before significant changes to higher education are made, we should reflect on the content of the human rights obligations contained in the international documentation. It seeks to outline the content and scope of the right to higher education in an effort to assist this consideration.

Investigating the effects of personality traits on pair programming in a higher education setting through a family of experiments

Evidence from our systematic literature review revealed numerous inconsistencies in findings from the Pair Programming (PP) literature regarding the effects of personality on PP's effectiveness as a pedagogical tool. In particular: i) the effect of differing personality traits of pairs on the successful implementation of pair-programming (PP) within a higher education setting is still unclear, and ii) the personality instrument most often used had been Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), despite being an indicator criticized by personality psychologists as unreliable in measuring an individual's personality traits. These issues motivated the research described in this paper. We conducted a series of five formal experiments (one of which was a replicated experiment), between 2009 and 2010, at the University of Auckland, to investigate the effects of personality composition on PP's effectiveness. Each experiment looked at a particular personality trait of the Five-Factor personality framework. This framework comprises five broad traits (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), and our experiments focused on three of these - Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. A total of 594 undergraduate students participated as subjects. Overall, our findings for all five experiments, including the replication, showed that Conscientiousness and Neuroticism did not present a statistically significant effect upon paired students' academic performance. However, Openness played a significant role in differentiating paired students' academic performance. Participants' survey results also indicated that PP not only caused an increase in satisfaction and confidence levels but also brought enjoyment to the tutorial classes and enhanced students' motivation.

Universal Design in Higher Education

While colleges and universities increasingly draw upon the concept of Universal Design to create an ideal learning environment, it can be challenging to apply the concept practically in the classroom. This project explores innovative ways to incorporate Universal Design into campus architecture, classroom technology and curriculum development. Further, this brief describes different approaches used by universities to garner faculty interest and offer effective training in Universal Design.

The Profile of a Manager in Higher Education Institution in Latin America: The Case of the EBAPE

The aim of this study is to analyze the profile of today’s manager, according to the classical management literature, working on internationalized higher education institute. This paper draws together knowledge about the manager’s profile in a corporate environment and how it can be appreciated in a higher education institute all of this taking into consideration the environment that nowadays exists in these institutions. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, with professors of the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, more specific on their Public and Business Administration School (EBAPE), which had active roles on its development, internationalization and during some point in time their management. The findings obtained where analyzed under the perspective brought by the theoretical reference framework, and, based on this approach is represented the manager whom could have a better perspective to administrate a higher education institute.

The effects of accountability on higher education

This paper analyzes the effect of an accountability system in the Brazilian college market. For each discipline, colleges were assigned a grade that depended on the scores of their students on the ENC, an annual mandatory exam. Those grades were then disclosed to the public, giving applicants information about college quality. The system also established rewards and penalties based on the colleges’ grades. I find that the ENC had a substantial effect on different measures of college quality, such as faculty education and the proportion of full-time faculty. The detailed information from this unique dataset and the fact that the ENC started being required for different disciplines in different years allow me to control for time-specific effects, thus minimizing the bias caused by policy endogeneity. Indeed, I find strong evidence on the importance of controlling for time-specific effects: estimates of the impact of the ENC on college quality more than double when I do not take those effects into account. The ENC also affects positively the ratio between applicants and vacancies, and it decreases the faculty and the entering class sizes. The results suggest that its introduction fostered competition and favored colleges entering the market.

Effect of oral hygiene education and motivation on removable partial denture wearers: longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of two different preventive oral hygiene education and motivation programmes on the plaque and gingival index, as well as denture hygiene of patients provided with removable partial denture (RPD) during a 12-month follow-up.A total of 53 partially edentulous patients were recruited for this study. The presence or absence of plaque and gingival bleeding by gentle probing was scored on all tooth surfaces at the preliminary visit. The plaque and gingival indexes were measured using the Loe index. Following treatment, the patients were randomly divided into three groups. In Control Group I, subjects were instructed to continue their personal oral hygiene routine. In Group II, participants were given verbal instructions and a self-educational manual on oral hygiene without illustrations. In Group III, oral hygiene guidance was delivered using a combination of verbal instructions and a self-teaching manual. To evaluate the effect of the different modes of instruction, the presence or absence of plaque and gingival bleeding was scored on all tooth surfaces (day zero examination) and re-examined 7, 15 and 30 days, 3, 6 and 12 months following RPD placement. The state of denture hygiene was evaluated 7, 15 and 30 days and 3, 6 and 12 months following rehabilitation. Parametric statistics was applied to dental plaque and gingival indexes. For accumulation of plaque and calculus on the RPD, non-parametric statistic was applied.The frequency of plaque found during the preliminary visit was higher than that found in the other periods. With regard to gingival index, significant difference was found between the preliminary visit examination and other periods. There was a significant difference in the plaque accumulation on the denture surface between groups I and III.The different methods of oral hygiene instruction used in this study indicate that the type of education was not of significant importance.