Psychometric Evaluation of the Cybersecurity Concept Inventory

We present a psychometric evaluation of a revised version of the Cybersecurity Concept Inventory (CCI) , completed by 354 students from 29 colleges and universities. The CCI is a conceptual test of understanding created to enable research on instruction quality in cybersecurity education. This work extends previous expert review and small-scale pilot testing of the CCI. Results show that the CCI aligns with a curriculum many instructors expect from an introductory cybersecurity course, and that it is a valid and reliable tool for assessing what conceptual cybersecurity knowledge students learned.

Identifying Informatively Easy and Informatively Hard Concepts

In this article, we leverage ideas from the theory of coevolutionary computation to analyze interactions of students with problems. We introduce the idea of informatively easy or hard concepts. Our approach is different from more traditional analyses of problem difficulty such as item analysis in the sense that we consider Pareto dominance relationships within the multidimensional structure of student–problem performance data rather than average performance measures. This method allows us to uncover not just the problems on which students are struggling but also the variety of difficulties different students face. Our approach is to apply methods from the Dimension Extraction Coevolutionary Algorithm to analyze problem-solving logs of students generated when they use an online software tutoring suite for introductory computer programming called problets . The results of our analysis not only have implications for how to scale up and improve adaptive tutoring software but also have the promise of contributing to the identification of common misconceptions held by students and thus, eventually, to the construction of a concept inventory for introductory programming.

Student Performance on the BDSI for Basic Data Structures

A Concept Inventory (CI) is an assessment to measure student conceptual understanding of a particular topic. This article presents the results of a CI for basic data structures (BDSI) that has been previously shown to have strong evidence for validity. The goal of this work is to help researchers or instructors who administer the BDSI in their own courses to better understand their results. In support of this goal, we discuss our findings for each question of the CI using data gathered from 1,963 students across seven institutions.

LEARNING STRATEGIES FOR BASIC CONCEPTS OF MECHANICS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEGREE PROGRAMS. MEXICAN EXPERIENCE

У цій статті представлені результати педагогічного дослідження, метою якого було встановлення обсягу концептуальних карт, здійснених за допомогою CMapTools під час вивчення основних понять класичної механіки студентами-металургійними інженерами в Національному політехнічному інституті Мексики та визначення шляху як такі поняття засвоюються. Автор виявив, що студенти, створивши концептуальні карти з основними поняттями механіки за допомогою CMapTools з гарною якістю контенту, оціненого за допомогою рубрики семантичної оцінки, покращили своє розуміння цих понять згідно з опитувальником Force Concept Inventory (FCI) та підвищили свою мотивацію. вивчати ці аспекти механіки. Тому створення концептуальних карт за допомогою CMapTools позитивно впливає на значне вивчення основних понять класичної механіки.

Relevancy of Force Concept Inventory and Mechanics Baseline Test in Excerpting Conceptual Understanding of High-Performing Students

In the topics of mechanics, readily available instruments such as the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and the Mechanics Baseline Test (MBT) have been extensively used to assess students’ conceptual understanding, especially for high school and undergraduate students. In this paper, the relevancy of these two instruments in excerpting conceptual understanding of high-performing students was examined and the results were elaborated. The findings in this paper suggest that the FCI and MBT are indeed effective to show students’ basic conceptual understanding in mechanics but should not be used to assess improvement after learning intervention or to differentiate students’ conceptual understanding in a population of high performers. More advanced assessments, such as those that comprise higher order thinking questions, should be used for such purposes.

A Methodological Analysis for the Development of a Circular-Motion Concept Inventory in a Ugandan Context by Using the Delphi Technique

Concept inventories (CI) constitute a key thread in Physics Educational Research. As such, understanding the methodology and the technique of developing a good CI is essential for all physics teachers. This research aims to develop a circular-motion concept Inventory (CMCI) that is valid in the Ugandan context. To reach a consensus, we used the Delphi technique to collect the data from eleven experts in the physics discipline. These experts were asked to rank each CI item in the inventory, based on the relevant criteria, for assigning a degree of relevance for adoption on a scale ranging from one to four, one being "not relevant" and four being "highly relevant.” Because the technique does not require experts to meet face-to-face, they remained anonymous to one another. These experts are provided with structured questionnaires of CI items from the Rotational-Kinematics Inventory (RKI) and Rolling and Rotational Motion-Concept (RRMC) inventories in the first round, in order to adopt items relevant to circular-motion concepts in the Ugandan context. They agreed to use 31 CI items in the RKI and 14 CI items in the RRMC in the second round. The mean and standard deviation of expert replies were analysed by using descriptive statistics. We used the methodological principles of CI creation, in order to create eight CI items to fill in the missing sub-concepts. Therefore, a total of 53 concept items were created. In order to analyse their qualities in a psychometric analysis, these will be evaluated by using field testing and psychometric analysis. Various physics instructors will access the CMCI, because the field testing aims to gauge the level of educational efficacy in their academic and research initiatives.

Can Peer Discussion Reduce Students’ Mistakes in Conceptual Physics Questions?

In this work, we tried to check whether students can overcome their mistakes in conceptual physics questions by peer discussion. For this purpose, we administered Force Concept Inventory to high school students and university students. Our study showed that high school students and university students could not overcome their mistakes in the conceptual physics questions by peer discussion. We separately found out that males are better than females at conceptual physics questions.