Doctoral DissertationPsychometrics of MOOCs: How to Measure Proficiency?Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wim Van den Noortgate,
Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr. Piet Desmet
The dissertation consists of five stand-alone chapters following the intruductory chapter – four empirical and one conceptual. In the four empirical chapters, we have proposed extensions for the most common IRT model, the Rasch model, aimed at solving the following problems. In Chapter 2, we have improved the proficiency measures by modeling the effect of attempts and by involving non-assessment data such as learners’ interaction with video lectures and practical tasks. In Chapter 3, we have modeled individual growth in proficiency through the MOOC as an effect of the cumulative sum of video lectures a learner has watched before responding on a summative assessment item. In Chapter 4, we have established a more nuanced insight on the role of proficiency on the learners’ performance by involving one extra latent effect, the effect of learners’ interest. In Chapter 5, we have proposed a way to measure learners’ activity (e.g., watching videos, reading texts) as influenced by a latent learner characteristic and a latent content characteristic. In the final, reflective and conceptual, chapter (Chapter 6), we have summarized a connection between psychometrics, as a scientific discipline, and MOOCs, as an industry, and have sketched the future development of psychometrics of MOOCs.
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