Download or read book Developing and Using Tests Effectively written by Lucy Cheser Jacobs and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 1992-11-05 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is estimated that up to 20 percent of a professor's time is spent evaluating the impact of instruction. Yet most faculty receive little formal training in classroom testing or other means of determining which students have attained course objectives and which have not. Developing and Using Tests Effectively offers practical guidelines that faculty members can use to improve their skills in the development, administration, and grading of classroom tests. This book offers specific how-to advice on every stage of the testing process, including planning the test and classifying objectives to be measured, ensuring the validity and reliability of the test, and grading to arrive at fair grades based on relevant data. Lucy Jacobs and Clinton Chase examine the strengths and weaknesses of many types of tests, including both traditional (multiple-choice, true-false, matching, completion, and essays) and alternative (take-home, open-book, and oral) assessment procedures. For every testing procedure, they show how faculty members can write tests that are fairer and more valid and that do a better job of measuring what students learn - thereby improving faculty members' ability to assess learning outcomes. The authors reveal, for example, how essay tests may often measure only the skill of the grader in assessing what the writer has said - and offer suggestions for improving the instructor's skill in reading essays and scoring them reliably. They discuss the problem of cheating and suggest ways to deal with it. They examine the advantages and limitations of using computers for classroom testing. And they describe such alternative assessment procedures as portfolios, journals, and peer testing.

Download or read book Working Effectively with Legacy Code written by Michael Feathers and published by Prentice Hall Professional. This book was released on 2004-09-22 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get more out of your legacy systems: more performance, functionality, reliability, and manageability Is your code easy to change? Can you get nearly instantaneous feedback when you do change it? Do you understand it? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you have legacy code, and it is draining time and money away from your development efforts. In this book, Michael Feathers offers start-to-finish strategies for working more effectively with large, untested legacy code bases. This book draws on material Michael created for his renowned Object Mentor seminars: techniques Michael has used in mentoring to help hundreds of developers, technical managers, and testers bring their legacy systems under control. The topics covered include Understanding the mechanics of software change: adding features, fixing bugs, improving design, optimizing performance Getting legacy code into a test harness Writing tests that protect you against introducing new problems Techniques that can be used with any language or platform—with examples in Java, C++, C, and C# Accurately identifying where code changes need to be made Coping with legacy systems that aren't object-oriented Handling applications that don't seem to have any structure This book also includes a catalog of twenty-four dependency-breaking techniques that help you work with program elements in isolation and make safer changes.

Download or read book Handbook of Test Development written by Suzanne Lane and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 676 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of the Handbook of Test Development provides graduate students and professionals with an up-to-date, research-oriented guide to the latest developments in the field. Including thirty-two chapters by well-known scholars and practitioners, it is divided into five sections, covering the foundations of test development, content definition, item development, test design and form assembly, and the processes of test administration, documentation, and evaluation. Keenly aware of developments in the field since the publication of the first edition, including changes in technology, the evolution of psychometric theory, and the increased demands for effective tests via educational policy, the editors of this edition include new chapters on assessing noncognitive skills, measuring growth and learning progressions, automated item generation and test assembly, and computerized scoring of constructed responses. The volume also includes expanded coverage of performance testing, validity, fairness, and numerous other topics. Edited by Suzanne Lane, Mark R. Raymond, and Thomas M. Haladyna, The Handbook of Test Development, 2nd edition, is based on the revised Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and is appropriate for graduate courses and seminars that deal with test development and usage, professional testing services and credentialing agencies, state and local boards of education, and academic libraries serving these groups.

Download or read book Effective Testing with RSpec 3 written by Myron Marston and published by Pragmatic Bookshelf. This book was released on 2017-08-30 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Our tests are broken again!" "Why does the suite take so long to run?" "What value are we getting from these tests anyway?" Solve your testing problems by building and maintaining quality software with RSpec - the popular BDD-flavored Ruby testing framework. This definitive guide from RSpec's lead developer shows you how to use RSpec to drive more maintainable designs, specify and document expected behavior, and prevent regressions during refactoring. Build a project using RSpec to design, describe, and test the behavior of your code. Whether you're new to automated tests or have been using them for years, this book will help you write more effective tests. RSpec has been downloaded more than 100 million times and has inspired countless test frameworks in other languages. Use this influential Ruby testing framework to iteratively develop a project with the confidence that comes from well-tested code. This book guides you through creating a Ruby project with RSpec, and explores the individual components in detail. Start by learning the basics of installing and using RSpec. Then build a real-world JSON API, using RSpec throughout the process to drive a BDD-style outside-in workflow. Apply an effective test strategy to write fast, robust tests that support evolutionary design through refactoring. The rest of the book provides the definitive guide to RSpec's components. Use rspec-core's metadata to slice and dice your spec suite. Dig into rspec-expectations' matchers: compose them in flexible ways, specify expected outcomes with precision, and diagnose problems quickly with the help of good failure messages. Write fast, isolated tests with rspec-mocks' test doubles while pushing your code toward simpler interfaces. The authors, with a combined 20 years of automated testing experience, share testing wisdom that will lead to a fun, productive testing experience. What You Need: To follow along with the book, you'll need Ruby 2.2+. The book will guide you through installing RSpec 3 and setting up a new project to use it.

Download or read book Developing and Validating Test Items written by Thomas M. Haladyna and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 645 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since test items are the building blocks of any test, learning how to develop and validate test items has always been critical to the teaching-learning process. As they grow in importance and use, testing programs increasingly supplement the use of selected-response (multiple-choice) items with constructed-response formats. This trend is expected to continue. As a result, a new item writing book is needed, one that provides comprehensive coverage of both types of items and of the validity theory underlying them. This book is an outgrowth of the author’s previous book, Developing and Validating Multiple-Choice Test Items, 3e (Haladyna, 2004). That book achieved distinction as the leading source of guidance on creating and validating selected-response test items. Like its predecessor, the content of this new book is based on both an extensive review of the literature and on its author’s long experience in the testing field. It is very timely in this era of burgeoning testing programs, especially when these items are delivered in a computer-based environment. Key features include ... Comprehensive and Flexible – No other book so thoroughly covers the field of test item development and its various applications. Focus on Validity – Validity, the most important consideration in testing, is stressed throughout and is based on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, currently under revision by AERA, APA, and NCME Illustrative Examples – The book presents various selected and constructed response formats and uses many examples to illustrate correct and incorrect ways of writing items. Strategies for training item writers and developing large numbers of items using algorithms and other item-generating methods are also presented. Based on Theory and Research – A comprehensive review and synthesis of existing research runs throughout the book and complements the expertise of its authors.

Download or read book Working Effectively with Unit Tests written by Jay Fields and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-12-09 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book details Jay Fields' strong opinions on the best way to test, while acknowledging alternative styles and various contexts in which tests are written. Whether you prefer Jay Fields' style or not, this book will help you write better Unit Tests. From the Preface: Over a dozen years ago I read Refactoring for the first time; it immediately became my bible. While Refactoring isn't about testing, it explicitly states: If you want to refactor, the essential precondition is having solid tests. At that time, if Refactoring deemed it necessary, I unquestionably complied. That was the beginning of my quest to create productive unit tests. Throughout the 12+ years that followed reading Refactoring I made many mistakes, learned countless lessons, and developed a set of guidelines that I believe make unit testing a productive use of programmer time. This book provides a single place to examine those mistakes, pass on the lessons learned, and provide direction for those that want to test in a way that I've found to be the most productive. The book does touch on some theory and definition, but the main purpose is to show you how to take tests that are causing you pain and turn them into tests that you're happy to work with.

Download or read book Make It Stick written by Peter C. Brown and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-14 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

Download or read book Fit for Developing Software written by Rick Mugridge and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2005-06-29 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fit open source testing framework brings unprecedented agility to the entire development process. Fit for Developing Software shows you how to use Fit to clarify business rules, express them with concrete examples, and organize the examples into test tables that drive testing throughout the software lifecycle. Using a realistic case study, Rick Mugridge and Ward Cunningham--the creator of Fit--introduce each of Fit's underlying concepts and techniques, and explain how you can put Fit to work incrementally, with the lowest possible risk. Highlights include Integrating Fit into your development processes Using Fit to promote effective communication between businesspeople, testers, and developers Expressing business rules that define calculations, decisions, and business processes Connecting Fit tables to the system with "fixtures" that check whether tests are actually satisfied Constructing tests for code evolution, restructuring, and other changes to legacy systems Managing the quality and evolution of tests A companion Web site (http://fit.c2.com/) that offers additional resources and source code

Download or read book Handbook of Usability Testing written by Jeffrey Rubin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-03-10 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether it's software, a cell phone, or a refrigerator, your customer wants - no, expects - your product to be easy to use. This fully revised handbook provides clear, step-by-step guidelines to help you test your product for usability. Completely updated with current industry best practices, it can give you that all-important marketplace advantage: products that perform the way users expect. You'll learn to recognize factors that limit usability, decide where testing should occur, set up a test plan to assess goals for your product's usability, and more.

Download or read book Generative AI for Effective Software Development written by Anh Nguyen-Duc and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book How Learning Works written by Susan A. Ambrose and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-04-16 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for How Learning Works "How Learning Works is the perfect title for this excellent book. Drawing upon new research in psychology, education, and cognitive science, the authors have demystified a complex topic into clear explanations of seven powerful learning principles. Full of great ideas and practical suggestions, all based on solid research evidence, this book is essential reading for instructors at all levels who wish to improve their students' learning." —Barbara Gross Davis, assistant vice chancellor for educational development, University of California, Berkeley, and author, Tools for Teaching "This book is a must-read for every instructor, new or experienced. Although I have been teaching for almost thirty years, as I read this book I found myself resonating with many of its ideas, and I discovered new ways of thinking about teaching." —Eugenia T. Paulus, professor of chemistry, North Hennepin Community College, and 2008 U.S. Community Colleges Professor of the Year from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education "Thank you Carnegie Mellon for making accessible what has previously been inaccessible to those of us who are not learning scientists. Your focus on the essence of learning combined with concrete examples of the daily challenges of teaching and clear tactical strategies for faculty to consider is a welcome work. I will recommend this book to all my colleagues." —Catherine M. Casserly, senior partner, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "As you read about each of the seven basic learning principles in this book, you will find advice that is grounded in learning theory, based on research evidence, relevant to college teaching, and easy to understand. The authors have extensive knowledge and experience in applying the science of learning to college teaching, and they graciously share it with you in this organized and readable book." —From the Foreword by Richard E. Mayer, professor of psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara; coauthor, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction; and author, Multimedia Learning

Download or read book Growing Object Oriented Software Guided by Tests written by Steve Freeman and published by Pearson Education. This book was released on 2009-10-12 with total page 762 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Test-Driven Development (TDD) is now an established technique for delivering better software faster. TDD is based on a simple idea: Write tests for your code before you write the code itself. However, this "simple" idea takes skill and judgment to do well. Now there's a practical guide to TDD that takes you beyond the basic concepts. Drawing on a decade of experience building real-world systems, two TDD pioneers show how to let tests guide your development and “grow” software that is coherent, reliable, and maintainable. Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce describe the processes they use, the design principles they strive to achieve, and some of the tools that help them get the job done. Through an extended worked example, you’ll learn how TDD works at multiple levels, using tests to drive the features and the object-oriented structure of the code, and using Mock Objects to discover and then describe relationships between objects. Along the way, the book systematically addresses challenges that development teams encounter with TDD—from integrating TDD into your processes to testing your most difficult features. Coverage includes Implementing TDD effectively: getting started, and maintaining your momentum throughout the project Creating cleaner, more expressive, more sustainable code Using tests to stay relentlessly focused on sustaining quality Understanding how TDD, Mock Objects, and Object-Oriented Design come together in the context of a real software development project Using Mock Objects to guide object-oriented designs Succeeding where TDD is difficult: managing complex test data, and testing persistence and concurrency

Download or read book Tools for Teaching written by Barbara Gross Davis and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-07-17 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the long-awaited update on the bestselling book that offers a practical, accessible reference manual for faculty in any discipline. This new edition contains up-to-date information on technology as well as expanding on the ideas and strategies presented in the first edition. It includes more than sixty-one chapters designed to improve the teaching of beginning, mid-career, or senior faculty members. The topics cover both traditional tasks of teaching as well as broader concerns, such as diversity and inclusion in the classroom and technology in educational settings.

Download or read book Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards develops an approach to science assessment to meet the vision of science education for the future as it has been elaborated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These documents are brand new and the changes they call for are barely under way, but the new assessments will be needed as soon as states and districts begin the process of implementing the NGSS and changing their approach to science education. The new Framework and the NGSS are designed to guide educators in significantly altering the way K-12 science is taught. The Framework is aimed at making science education more closely resemble the way scientists actually work and think, and making instruction reflect research on learning that demonstrates the importance of building coherent understandings over time. It structures science education around three dimensions - the practices through which scientists and engineers do their work, the key crosscutting concepts that cut across disciplines, and the core ideas of the disciplines - and argues that they should be interwoven in every aspect of science education, building in sophistication as students progress through grades K-12. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards recommends strategies for developing assessments that yield valid measures of student proficiency in science as described in the new Framework. This report reviews recent and current work in science assessment to determine which aspects of the Framework's vision can be assessed with available techniques and what additional research and development will be needed to support an assessment system that fully meets that vision. The report offers a systems approach to science assessment, in which a range of assessment strategies are designed to answer different kinds of questions with appropriate degrees of specificity and provide results that complement one another. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards makes the case that a science assessment system that meets the Framework's vision should consist of assessments designed to support classroom instruction, assessments designed to monitor science learning on a broader scale, and indicators designed to track opportunity to learn. New standards for science education make clear that new modes of assessment designed to measure the integrated learning they promote are essential. The recommendations of this report will be key to making sure that the dramatic changes in curriculum and instruction signaled by Framework and the NGSS reduce inequities in science education and raise the level of science education for all students.

Download or read book Knowing What Students Know written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2001-10-27 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Education is a hot topic. From the stage of presidential debates to tonight's dinner table, it is an issue that most Americans are deeply concerned about. While there are many strategies for improving the educational process, we need a way to find out what works and what doesn't work as well. Educational assessment seeks to determine just how well students are learning and is an integral part of our quest for improved education. The nation is pinning greater expectations on educational assessment than ever before. We look to these assessment tools when documenting whether students and institutions are truly meeting education goals. But we must stop and ask a crucial question: What kind of assessment is most effective? At a time when traditional testing is subject to increasing criticism, research suggests that new, exciting approaches to assessment may be on the horizon. Advances in the sciences of how people learn and how to measure such learning offer the hope of developing new kinds of assessments-assessments that help students succeed in school by making as clear as possible the nature of their accomplishments and the progress of their learning. Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored. With the promise of a productive research-based approach to assessment of student learning, Knowing What Students Know will be important to education administrators, assessment designers, teachers and teacher educators, and education advocates.

Download or read book QA Testing Book written by Kevin Reyes and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2024-07-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Embark on a comprehensive journey from the fundamentals of QA testing to the mastery of advanced quality assurance techniques with "QA Testing Book: From Beginner to Pro: Developing Professional Skills in Quality Testing." This essential guide is meticulously crafted to support aspiring QA professionals in navigating the intricate world of software testing and quality assurance. Whether you are just starting out or looking to deepen your existing knowledge, this book offers a structured pathway to developing professional-level skills in QA testing. With clear, expert guidance, you'll progress from basic concepts and techniques to complex strategies and tools that are crucial in today's dynamic tech environment. What You'll Learn: Foundations of QA Testing: Start with a solid understanding of the basics, including the roles and responsibilities of a QA tester and the fundamental principles of quality assurance. Building Effective Test Cases: Learn how to design and write detailed test cases, manage test data, and understand different types of testing methods to ensure comprehensive coverage. Automation and Tools: Dive into the world of automated testing-explore popular tools and frameworks, and develop the skills to set up, script, and manage automated tests effectively. Risk Management and Optimization: Gain insights into advanced risk assessment techniques and quality metrics to identify potential issues early and optimize the testing process for better outcomes. Career Advancement: Equip yourself with the knowledge of industry best practices, the latest trends in QA, and professional development tips to elevate your career from a beginner to a seasoned pro. Each chapter is filled with detailed explanations, practical examples, and real-life scenarios that not only enhance learning but also prepare you to tackle everyday challenges in the field of QA testing. By the end of this book, you will have gained a robust understanding of QA testing and be ready to apply these skills effectively within any software development team. "QA Testing Book: From Beginner to Pro: Developing Professional Skills in Quality Testing" is your ultimate guide to becoming a proficient QA tester, ready to contribute to high-quality software products and stand out in the tech industry. Whether aiming for certification, a new job, or a promotion, this book will provide the tools and confidence you need to succeed in the ever-evolving world of QA testing.

Download or read book Moderating Usability Tests written by Joseph S. Dumas and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2008-04-09 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moderating Usability Tests provides insight and guidance for usability testing. To a large extent, successful usability testing depends on the skills of the person facilitating the test. However, most usability specialists still learn how to conduct tests through an apprentice system with little formal training. This book is the resource for new and experienced moderators to learn about the rules and practices for interacting. Authors Dumas and Loring draw on their combined 40 years of usability testing experience to develop and present the most effective principles and practices – both practical and ethical – for moderating successful usability tests. The videos are available from the publisher's companion web site. Presents the ten “golden rules that maximize every session’s value Offers targeted advice on how to maintain objectivity Discusses the ethical considerations that apply in all usability testing Explains how to reduce the stress that participants often feel Considers the special requirements of remote usability testing Demonstrates good and bad moderating techniques with laboratory videos accessible from the publisher’s companion web site