To maintain knowledgeable, well skilled employees and sustain their competitive advantage, Government agencies and the corporate sector adopt online courseware designed for education and training. The instructional design of resulting human-computer interaction (HCI), which occurs during a training session, is left as an afterthought. No attention is given to the emergent socialized work-place where on the job training often involves collaborative partnerships. There are no measurable accounts of the effectiveness of sharing such knowledge and expertise with new employees. To this end, an experimental research study was designed to investigate the interactive effect of instructional strategies augmented with either a digital instructional assistant or a traditional class-room tutor, and participants' preference for training-mode on the acquisition of introductory ethics knowledge. Participants were given the Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ) to establish their cognitive style [1]. The QUEST Interactive Test Analysis System provided the cognitive performance measuring tool [2], to define the learning analytics and to ensure there were no measurement errors in the introductory ethics knowledge testing instruments. Therefore, reliability of the testing tools was secured through the QUEST calibration techniques, thereby safeguarding the predictability of the research design. The methodology embraced by this experimental research links HCI with the disciplines of instructional science, cognitive psychology and objective measurement to authenticate valuable mechanisms for adoption by the education, training and skills development sectors.

Maintaining well skilled and knowledgeable employees is key to sustaining our competitive advantage through smarter information use of digital technologies. By reviewing current government training practice and information technology (IT) governance, this paper describes a funded project that shares valuable insights into differentiating what people do and do not know. An innovative research programme was devised to investigate the interactive effect of instructional strategies and training mode preferences on the acquisition of introductory ethics concepts. Three instructional treatments involved: interactive computer-based (online) Web 2.0 technologies; traditional face-to-face teacher-led classroom; and a blend of face-to-face and the computerised strategies. A preferred training mode instrument was used to establish the participants' favourite training mode, experience with eLearning, and work mode training expectation. The Quest interactive test-item analysis system (Adams & Khoo, 1996) provided the instructional performance measuring tool, which ensured an absence of error measurement in the ethics knowledge testing instrumentation. We show the gains in knowledge of introductory ethics achievement for three training treatment groups; face-to-face, computerised and a blend of both. Having access to our individual virtual learning space is critical; this project places Australia at the centre of training through a pseudo virtual reality environment. Adopting such Web 2.0 technologies in the race to empower the global reach of an individual's access to adaptable eLearning tools may satisfy our unyielding intellectual thirst for creating new learning spaces for the next decade.

Through clever use of digital technologies Government agencies maintain knowledgeable well skilled employees to sustain their competitive advantage. An experimental research study was designed to investigate the interactive effect of instructional strategies augmented with either a digital instructional assistant or a traditional class-room tutor, and participants' preference for training-mode on the acquisition of introductory ethics knowledge. The Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ) was used to establish the participants' cognitive style [1]. The QUEST Interactive Test Analysis System provided the cognitive performance measuring tool [2], to define the learning analytics and to ensure there were no measurement errors in the introductory ethics knowledge testing instruments. Therefore, reliability of the testing tools was secured through the QUEST calibration techniques, thereby safeguarding the predictability of the research design. The methodology embraced by this experimental research links the disciplines of instructional science, cognitive psychology and objective measurement to authenticate valuable mechanisms for adoption by the education, training and development sectors.

The government sector relies on continual employee reskilling. This paper outlines research to facilitate cost effective eLearning using advanced information communications technology (ICT) tools to enhance work-place training with assured predictable outcomes. The most desirable approach is to personalize an employees knowledge development through flexible online learning. Improved information technology (IT) governance will serve to motivate disinterested trainees and energize frustrated management. Multi-disciplined specialists are required to resolve the factional dilemmas of corporate IT resource ownership. The timeliness of our research project will highlight desirable change management issues to improve efficiencies and effectiveness of existing IT training resources.

We present an innovative Web-mediated training system design architecture that encourages novice courseware developers to deliver their own adaptive (user-centered) educational-learning systems (AELS) by utilizing achievable and cost effective online training modules. We propose a seamless Web-mediated training system design architecture that includes a choice of intelligent agents (personal Avatars) to guide the trainee through their knowledge acquisition. We cut through the more usual information systems (IS) development rhetoric. Instead of cloaking the courseware design process in highly technical mystery, we argue that educational technology experts should encourage non-technical developers to believe that the possibility of customizing their own Web-mediated training programs falls within their grasp. The preliminary findings from a pilot study conducted to test our AELS as an in-house courseware development tool indicate that it will be most suitable for corporate and government training courseware creators.

How do we decide whether students have learned? Learning involves changes in knowledge, skills and the sophistication of the strategies employed by the learners. How do we gather the relevant evidence of learning? To measure these changes we need at least two relevant measures, one prior to a particular stage of learning and a later assessment documenting a higher level of achievement. This paper looks at the requirements for using such assessment for teaching and learning and addresses threats to the validity of assessments to evaluate progress.

The government sector relies on continual employee reskilling. This journal paper discusses a three year Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project, which seeks to facilitate cost effective online-learning, using advanced information and communications technology (ICT) tools to enhance workforce training, with assured predictable outcomes.

We present an innovative design architecture for a Web-mediated training system to encourage novice courseware developers to deliver their own user-centred and ‘adaptive educational-learning system’ (AELS); by customizing cost effective online training programmes.

Evidence of mathematical modelling skill may be obtained through performance of a number of complete tasks or by identifying the appropriate actions in a number of sub-tasks. Success is often gauged by adding the scores on each performance or sub-task. Students of different levels of modelling skill are assumed to receive different scores and students of the same level are assumed to receive the same scores. This paper reports an application of item response modelling procedures to samples from an item collection to investigate this assumption. The results inform the choice of items to meet technical and practical requirements for better assessments in mathematical modelling.

Research has shown that many students in Years 5 to 9 experience considerable difficulty with rational number, algebra, and the application of multiplication and division to a broader range of problem types. While each of these has been the focus of considerable research, there is little advice about how these ideas are connected and jointly develop over time. This paper describes the genesis of a learning assessment framework for multiplicative thinking based on Rasch analysis of student responses to a range of rich tasks to inform more targeted approaches to teaching mathematics in the middle years.

This study uses Partial Credit Rasch analysis to study a complex data set of student responses to survey items relating to chance and data. The items were administered in the classroom and collected from 1993 to 2003 in the Australian state of Tasmania. Data were collected from a total of 5514 individual students across Grades 3 to 11 over the decade and of these students 896 provided at least one repeated measure. As students completed a core of common items, Rasch analysis could be performed and all students were subsequently placed on the same logit scale for comparison. The purpose of the analysis is to consider average cohort change over time and trends in performance during the first 10 years after the curriculum was introduced in Tasmania. Implications for the education system and curriculum implementation are considered.

This study uses Rasch modelling to link student outcomes over the decade since the introduction of chance and data into the curriculum of an Australian state in 1993. Although improvement is observed over time for intact groups of students, and between grade levels in a given year, improvement across cohorts for given grades over time is not observed. The distribution of the items used in the 2003 survey across the statistical literacy variable supports earlier models of the hierarchical nature of statistical thinking obtained from a larger pool of items.

Data collected from students involved in a project examining change in understanding of statistical variation in relation to the chance and data curriculum after instruction and after two years, are the basis for the analysis reported in this study. Comparisons are made, using partial credit Rasch analysis, between successive grades (3, 5, 7, and 9), within students after instruction, within students after two years, and between students in the four grades after two years depending on whether they were involved in the instructional intervention or not. Results show varying magnitudes of differences among grades, differing improvements after instruction, but little difference between Intervention and Non-Intervention groups after a two year period.

The focus of this study is the provision of enhanced opportunities for returning to study or vocational training for adolescents and young adults (aged from about 15 to 25 years) after experiencing a mental health episode, and the monitoring of their educational progress during rehabilitation. Both the young people and their support workers need to establish current educational / academic performance in order to make sensible choices about future study or employment. But formal assessment techniques are associated with high levels of anxiety: it was vital to devise another way of collecting this information. This project provides an innovative use of information communications technology (ICT) services to assess the educational achievement level of this at-risk learner group. The paper reports on the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the pilot system for assessing young peoples’ potential to participate in appropriate educational programmes.

Curriculum statements describe intentions. Without valid student assessment practices the actual achievements are never compared in a legitimate way with the intentions. Assessment strategies have been devised to gather evidence of growth of competence in mathematical modelling and applications. Problems with teacher-made assessment strategies are explored and data collected to overcome some of these problems. Item response modelling was used to develop scaled score equivalents for raw scores on three tests and examples are provided on their use.

The provision of valid evidence of learning achievement and the need for accountability are two crucial factors in assessment. Projects and investigations, which provide evidence of communication in mathematics are discussed as a means to the direct assessment of the true objectives of the curriculum meeting the criteria of Eisner (1993). Using the methodology of Griffin and Forwood (1991), developed for adult literacy and numeracy scales, research in UK universities addresses the assessment of such tasks in mathematical modelling, pure mathematics and statistics. Analysis from this research, using item response modelling and the techniques of Linacre (1990) and Adams and Khoo (1992), describes student, judge and descriptor behaviour on rating scales which attempt to assess student achievement comprehensively. This paper focuses on the example of oral communication skills as an illustration. Implications of the research are discussed and questions are raised which require further investigation.

Assessment has the function of providing valid evidence of learning achievement to inform students, to facilitate provision of further learning, or to certify that a required level has been reached. Such information is of particular relevance to individual students and their teachers. Teachers are able to develop and improve the educational process if they have identified the strengths of their pupils and know which areas of study require attention.

Learning involves changes in knowledge, skills and the sophistication of the strategies employed by the learners. To measure these changes we need at least two relevant measures. One assessment must document the level of achievement prior to a particular stage of learning and a later assessment must document a higher level of achievement. But improving achievement requires more than good assessment. To use a farming analogy: the farmer's maize will grow better if appropriate nutrients and water are provided in timely fashion. Measuring the height of the maize frequently is not going to improve the yield at all. To provide effective learning opportunities for all pupils we need assessment strategies that will be teacher -friendly (helpful in identifying what has to be taught) and teaching strategies to ensure students learn what they currently do not know. This paper looks at the requirements for using assessment for teaching and learning and addresses threats to the validity of assessments to evaluate progress. These threats include failure to use appropriate samples of tasks in assessments, use of uncalibrated tasks, and inappropriate scoring procedures and methods of interpreting data.