scholarly journals Combining Assessment Tools for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Computational Thinking Interventions

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcos Román-González ◽  
Jesús Moreno-León ◽  
Gregorio Robles
Keyword(s):  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Assessment Tools

Examining Young Children's Computational Artifacts

2021 ◽  
pp. 265-294
Author(s):  
Apittha Unahalekhaka ◽  
Madhu Govind
Keyword(s):  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Project Portfolio ◽  
Creative Coding ◽  
Insight Into

Computational thinking (CT), in line with the constructionist perspective, is often best displayed when children have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills by producing creative coding artifacts. Performance-based or project portfolio assessments of young children's coding artifacts are a rich and useful approach to explore how children develop and apply CT abilities. In this chapter, the authors examine various rubrics and assessment tools used to measure the levels of programming competency, creativity, and purposefulness displayed in students' coding artifacts. The authors then discuss the development of ScratchJr and KIBO project rubrics for researchers and educators, including examples to illustrate how these highly diverse projects provide insight into children's CT abilities. Finally, the authors conclude with implications and practical strategies for using rubrics in both educational and research settings.

scholarly journals The Number Symbol Coding Task: A brief measure of executive function to detect dementia and cognitive impairment

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0242233 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Galvin ◽  
Magdalena I. Tolea ◽  
Claudia Moore ◽  
Stephanie Chrisphonte
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Executive Dysfunction ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Clinical Dementia Rating

Introduction Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) affect over 5.7 million Americans and over 35 million people worldwide. Detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early ADRD is a challenge to clinicians and researchers. Brief assessment tools frequently emphasize memory impairment, however executive dysfunction may be one of the earliest signs of impairment. To address the need for a brief, easy-to-score, open-access test of executive function for use in clinical practice and research, we created the Number Symbol Coding Task (NSCT). Methods This study analyzed 320 consecutive patient-caregiver dyads who underwent a comprehensive evaluation including the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), patient and caregiver versions of the Quick Dementia Rating System (QDRS), caregiver ratings of behavior and function, and neuropsychological testing, with a subset undergoing volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Estimates of cognitive reserve were calculated using education, combined indices of education and occupation, and verbal IQ. Psychometric properties of the NSCT including data quality, data distribution, floor and ceiling effects, construct and known-groups validity, discriminability, and clinical profiles were determined. Results The patients had a mean age of 75.3±9.2 years (range 38-98y) with a mean education of 15.7±2.8 years (range 6-26y) of education. The patients had a mean CDR-SB of 4.8±4.7 (range 0–18) and a mean MoCA score of 18.6±7.1 (range 1–30). The mean NSCT score was 30.1±13.8 and followed a normal distribution. All healthy controls and MCI cases were able to complete the NSCT. The NSCT showed moderate-to-strong correlations with clinical and neuropsychological measures with the strongest association (all p’s < .001) for measures with executive components (e.g., Judgement and Problem Solving box of the CDR, Decision Making and Problem Solving domain of the QDRS, Trailmaking B, and Cognigram Attention and Executive Composite Scores). Women slightly outperformed men, and individuals with lower educational attainment and lower education-occupation indices had lower NSCT scores. Decreasing NSCT scores corresponded to older age, worse cognitive scores, higher CDR sum of boxes scores, worse caregiver ratings of function and behavior, worse patient and informant QDRS ratings, and smaller hippocampal volumes and hippocampal occupancy scores. The NSCT provided excellent discrimination (AUC: .866; 95% CI: .82-.91) with a cut-off score of 36 providing the best combination of sensitivity (0.880) and specificity (0.759). Combining the NSCT with patient QDRS and caregiver QDRS ratings improved discrimination (AUC: .908; 95% CI: .87-.94). Discussion The NSCT is a brief, 90-second executive task that incorporates attention, planning and set-switching that can be completed by individuals into the moderate-to-severe stages of dementia. The NSCT may be a useful tool for dementia screening, case-ascertainment in epidemiological or community-based ADRD studies, and in busy primary care settings where time is limited. Combining the NSCT with a brief structured interview tool such as the QDRS may provide excellent power to detect cognitive impairment. The NSCT performed well in comparison to standardized scales of a comprehensive cognitive neurology evaluation across a wide array of sociodemographic variables in a brief fashion that could facilitate its use in clinical care and research.

scholarly journals Cardiac Evaluation and Monitoring of Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 117863291668607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arsalan Rafiq ◽  
Eduard Sklyar ◽  
Jonathan N Bella
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Perioperative Period ◽  
Cardiovascular Complications ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk Assessment ◽  
Perioperative Morbidity

Surgical management of disease has a tremendous impact on our health system. Millions of people worldwide undergo surgeries every year. Cardiovascular complications in the perioperative period are one of the most common events leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Although such events are very small in number, they are associated with a high mortality rate making it essential for physicians to understand the importance of perioperative cardiovascular risk assessment and evaluation. Its involves a detailed process of history taking, patient's medical profile, medications being used, functional status of the patient, and knowledge about the surgical procedure and its inherent risks. Different risk assessment tools and calculators have also been developed to aid in this process, each with their own advantages and limitations. After such a comprehensive evaluation, a physician will be able to provide a risk assessment or it may all lead to further testing if it is believed that a change in management after such testing will help to reduce perioperative morbidity and mortality. There is extensive literature on the significance of multiple perioperative testing modalities and how they can change management. The purpose of our review is to provide a concise but comprehensive analysis on all such aspects of perioperative cardiovascular risk assessment for noncardiac surgeries and provide a basic methodology toward such assessment and decision making.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Evaluation of Standardized Assessment Tools in the Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and in the Assessment of Fibromyalgia Severity

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad S. Boomershine
Keyword(s):  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire ◽  
Depression Scale ◽  
Brief Pain Inventory ◽  
Tender Point ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Global Improvement ◽  
American College Of Rheumatology ◽  
Global Impression Of Change

Standard assessments for fibromyalgia (FM) diagnosis and core FM symptom domains are needed for biomarker development and treatment trials. Diagnostic and symptom assessments are reviewed and recommendations are made for standards. Recommendations for existing assessments include the American College of Rheumatology FM classification criteria using the manual tender point Survey for diagnosis, the brief pain inventory average pain visual analogue scale for pain intensity, the function subscale of the revised fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQR) for physical function, the patient global impression of change and FIQR for overall/global improvement, the hospital anxiety and depression scale depression subscale for depression, the multiple ability self-report questionnaire for cognitive dysfunction, the fatigue severity scale for fatigue, the FIQR for multidimensional function/health-related quality of life, the jenkins sleep scale for sleep disturbance, and the fibromyalgia intensity score for tenderness. Forthcoming assessments including the FIQR for diagnosis, NIH PROMIS, and FIBRO Change scales are discussed.

scholarly journals Insight is a useful construct in clinical assessments if used wisely

2020 ◽  
pp. medethics-2020-106128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony David ◽  
Kevin Ariyo
Keyword(s):  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Involuntary Treatment ◽  
Clinical Validity ◽  
Cognitive Measures ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Clinical Assessments ◽  
Decision Making Capacity ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Medical Ethicist

Medical ethicist, Guidry-Grimes has critically reviewed the concept of insight, voicing concerns that it lacks consensus as to its components and that it undermines patient perspectives. We respond by briefly summarising research over the last 30 years that she overlooks which has helped establish the clinical validity of the construct. This includes the adoption of standardised assessment tools—at least in research—and longitudinal and cross-sectional studies quantifying associations with psychopathological, clinical and cognitive measures. We also make the distinction between the current standards for assessing decision-making capacity leading to, where appropriate, involuntary treatment in clinical and medico-legal settings which in most legislations do not include insight assessments, and anecdotal reports of the use and misuse of ‘lack of insight’ as a proxy for more comprehensive evaluation. We conclude by encouraging a broader view of insight akin to self-knowledge.

scholarly journals Out of the office and into the field: Exploring neuropsychological correlates between search behavior and a traditional desktop task in children and adolescents with ADHD

Salud Mental ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 271-277
Author(s):  
Marcos Francisco Rosetti ◽  
◽  
◽  
Rosa Elena Ulloa ◽  
Lino Palacios-Cruz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Assessment Instruments ◽  
Everyday Functioning ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Search Field ◽  
Clinical Environments

Introduction. Cognitive assessment of patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can help clinicians provide individually tailored treatment and advice, and researchers to identify potential associations between psychopathology and specific cognitive deficits. Assessment instruments, however, have received some criticism regarding their ecological validity, that is, the capacity to extrapolate from the performance on such tasks to aspects of everyday functioning. In order to meet this challenge we developed the Ball Search Field Task (BSFT) that takes place outdoors and uses large, open areas. In the BSFT, the goal is to search for target objects hidden under opaque containers, with experimenters assessing the efficiency of participants’ strategies to collect a maximum of these. Objective. Here we explore how the measures produced by one of the latest versions of this task (the patchy BSFT) match up with a traditional desktop task often used in clinical environments, the Tower of London (ToLo). Method. We applied the BSFT and ToLo to children and adolescents with ADHD and compared the metrics using Spearman correlations. Results. We found significant, moderate correlations between instruments, as exemplified by that of balls collected per cones lifted (BSFT) and number of moves (ToLo) (r = -.44). Discussion and conclusion. Matching correlates between the BSFT and ToLo suggest these tasks may be tapping into similar cognitive processes. The addition of assessment tools with ecological validity may help provide a more comprehensive evaluation and a better understanding of the day-to-day impact of cognitive afflictions underlying psychiatric disorders such as ADHD.

scholarly journals A Large-Scale Experimental Evaluation of High-Performing Multi- and Many-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-656 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo C. T. Bezerra ◽  
Manuel López-Ibáñez ◽  
Thomas Stützle
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Algorithms ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Apparent Contradiction ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Automatic Algorithm Configuration ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Evolutionary Operators

Research on multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) has produced over the past decades a large number of algorithms and a rich literature on performance assessment tools to evaluate and compare them. Yet, newly proposed MOEAs are typically compared against very few, often a decade older MOEAs. One reason for this apparent contradiction is the lack of a common baseline for comparison, with each subsequent study often devising its own experimental scenario, slightly different from other studies. As a result, the state of the art in MOEAs is a disputed topic. This article reports a systematic, comprehensive evaluation of a large number of MOEAs that covers a wide range of experimental scenarios. A novelty of this study is the separation between the higher-level algorithmic components related to multi-objective optimization (MO), which characterize each particular MOEA, and the underlying parameters—such as evolutionary operators, population size, etc.—whose configuration may be tuned for each scenario. Instead of relying on a common or “default” parameter configuration that may be low-performing for particular MOEAs or scenarios and unintentionally biased, we tune the parameters of each MOEA for each scenario using automatic algorithm configuration methods. Our results confirm some of the assumed knowledge in the field, while at the same time they provide new insights on the relative performance of MOEAs for many-objective problems. For example, under certain conditions, indicator-based MOEAs are more competitive for such problems than previously assumed. We also analyze problem-specific features affecting performance, the agreement between performance metrics, and the improvement of tuned configurations over the default configurations used in the literature. Finally, the data produced is made publicly available to motivate further analysis and a baseline for future comparisons.

scholarly journals Indicators for Ex-Post Evaluation of Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse Impacts in the Perspective of the Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4759
Author(s):  
Martina Bosone ◽  
Pasquale De Toro ◽  
Luigi Fusco Girard ◽  
Antonia Gravagnuolo ◽  
Silvia Iodice
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Adaptive Reuse ◽  
Evaluation Framework ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Heritage Conservation ◽  
Investment Projects ◽  
Ex Post

Cultural heritage (CH) is considered a key element of cities and regions’ identity and uniqueness, contributing to peoples’ wellbeing and health, as well as jobs creation, environmental regeneration and place attractiveness. The adaptive reuse of abandoned and underused CH can be a sustainable strategy for heritage conservation, stimulating local development processes. However, heritage conservation needs large investments, while the resources available are scarce, and investment projects are subject to high uncertainties. Therefore, a careful assessment of impacts is needed to orient and direct CH adaptive reuse projects towards sustainability. Recent studies approach the adaptive reuse of abandoned buildings and sites as an effective circular economy strategy, potentially contributing to climate objectives through environmental regeneration and the reduction of natural resources consumption. However, evaluation tools to assess the impacts and orient adaptive reused interventions in the perspective of circularity are lacking. Through the analysis of 76 literature sources on CH impacts, this article explores how indicators are currently used in CH research and practice as impact assessment tools. More than 3500 indicators were retrieved and classified. Finally, this article proposes a comprehensive evaluation framework to assess the impacts of cultural heritage adaptive reuse in the perspective of the circular economy. The results showed that, while some indicators are available, many circularity aspects are not considered in the current studies on CH impacts.

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