Design and Analysis of Student ECTS Credit Feedback Surveys using Pairwise Comparisons

Öz

Student ECTS Credit Feedback Surveys are implemented in order to fine tune ECTS credits of courses which are mainly calculated and allocated by the instructors according to the workload components they declared in the course descriptions. However, accumulated experience shows that the current design of surveys requires immense cognitive load on part of the student. At present, survey questions are posed in such a way that it requires the student to undertake a self-appraisal process regarding the workload of learning activities for a particular course. This article discusses an alternative design for adjusting ECTS credits; a holistic perspective based on pairwise comparisons of workloads of courses. Binary relationships are unfolded using Thurstone scaling and then rescaled to ECTS units through a measurement error model. Monte Carlo simulations are used to demonstrate the robustness of the estimators

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ECTS Credit
• Pairwise comparison
• Thurstone Scaling
• Measurement Error Model

İkili Karşılaştırma ile Öğrenci AKTS Kredisi Geribildirim Anketlerinin Tasarımı ve Analizi

Öz

Öğrenci AKTS Kredisi Geri Bildirim Anketleri; derslere ait olan ve öğretim elemanları tarafından ders tanımında bildirilen iş yükü unsurları baz alınarak hesaplanan ve belirlenen AKTS kredileri hakkında geri dönüt elde etmek amacıyla uygulanırlar. Ne var ki, uygulamada, anketlerin mevcut tasarımının öğrenci için yoğun bilişsel yük teşkil ettiği görülmüştür. Mevcut anket soruları, öğrencinin her bir ders için gereken öğrenme aktivitelerinin getirdiği iş yüküne dair bir özdeğerlendirme sürecine girmesini gerektirmektedir. Bu makale AKTS kredilerini ayarlamak için alternatif bir tasarım sunmaktadır; derslere bağlı işyüklerinin ikili karşılaştırmasına dayanan bir bütünsel perspektif. İkili ilişkiler Thurstone ölçeği kullanılarak ortaya çıkarılır ve bir ölçüm hata modeli aracılığıyla AKTS birimleri olarak yeniden ölçeklendirilirler. Monte Carlo simülasyonları ile tahminleyicilerin özellikleri raporlanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• AKTS Kredisi
• İkili Karşılaştırma
• Thurstone Ölçeği
• Ölçüm Hata Modeli

Kaynakça

1. Albayrak, R.S., & Gurkan, B. (2011). Calculation of ECTS Credits: Case of Yaşar University (In Turkish). Hacettepe University Journal of Education, 41, pp.13-23.
2. Bradley, R. A., & Terry, M. E. (1952). Rank analysis of incomplete block designs: I. The method of paired comparisons. Biometrika, 39(3/4), pp.324-345.
3. Brown, T. C., & Peterson, G. L. (2009). An enquiry into the method of paired comparison: reliability, scaling, and Thurstone's Law of Comparative Judgment. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
4. Cheng, C. L., & Van Ness, J. W. (1999). Statistical regression with measurement error (Vol. 6). London: Arnold.
5. Curtis, D. D. (2004). Person Misfit in Attitude Surveys: Influences, Impacts and Implications. International Education Journal, 5(2), pp.125-143.
6. Declaration, B. V. (2010). Budapest-Vienna Declaration on the European Higher Education Area. (reached from web 2010_conference/documents/Budapest-Vienna_Declaration.pdf 04.12.2012)
7. http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/Bologna/
8. EC–European Commission. (2009). ECTS Users’ Guide. Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 60.

9. Fuller, W. A. (1987). Measurement error models. Wiley Series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics. New York: Wiley
10. Gillard, J. W., & Iles, T. C. (2006). Variance covariance matrices for linear regression with errors in both variables. Cardiff University School of Mathematics Technical Report.
11. Karran, T. (2004). Achieving Bologna convergence: is ECTS failing to make the grade?. Higher Education in Europe, 29(3), pp.411-421.
12. Kenneth, E.T. (2003). Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation. Cambridge University Press.
13. Luce, R. D. (1960). Individual choice behavior, a theoretical analysis. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc., 66, pp.166-168.
14. Neter, J., Wasserman, W., & Kutner, M. H. (1996). Applied linear statistical models. Vol. 4. Chicago: Irwin.
15. R Core Team. (2013). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing.
16. Thurstone, L. L. (1927). A law of comparative judgment. Psychological review, 34(4), 273.
17. Torgerson, W.S. (1928). Theory and Models of Scaling. Wiley, Oxford. Tuning Dissemination Conference I, 2008, (reached from web site on 04.12.2012) http://www.unideusto.org/tuningeu/images/stories/presentations/tuning%20disemination%20conference %20I/Conclusions.pdf