The Inter-Rater and Intra-Rater Reliability of the Actual Aquatic Skills Test (AAST) for Assessing Young Children’s Motor Competence in the Water

As children’s actual aquatic skills are important for the prevention of drowning as well as their engagement in lifelong aquatic physical activity, researchers and practitioners should be able to assess this vital concept accurately and reliably. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the Actual Aquatic Skills Test (AAST), consisting of 17 different test items for the assessment of young children’s motor competence in the water. Six raters received a training and evaluation session on scoring the AAST, after which five of them assessed four test videos (of various children (n = 38) performing the test items) twice, with one to two weeks in between (i.e., test and re-test). Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were determined per test video and for the different AAST test items across videos using Gwet’s Agreement Coefficient 2 (Gwet’s AC2). The Gwet’s AC2 for inter-rater reliability at the test varied from 0.414 to 1.000, indicating a moderate to perfect agreement between raters. For intra-rater reliability, it ranged from 0.628 to 1.000, demonstrating a good to perfect agreement between test and re-test scoring. In conclusion, the AAST is a promising tool to reliably assess young children’s actual aquatic skills in an indoor swimming pool.

Cultivation of Family Medicinal Plants using the Verticulture Method as Efforts to Use Narrow Yard Land in Rawamangun, East Jakarta

The area of RW 01 Rawamangun, Pulogadung District, East Jakarta does not have an allocation of open land, so there is a minimum of green yards. The technology introduced in this community service activity is the cultivation of family medicinal plants in yards using the verticulture method. The purpose of this community service activity is to convey information about the cultivation of family medicinal plants through lectures, discussions, and direct practice of cultivating family medicinal plants in yards using the verticulture method. Evaluation of participants' knowledge improvement was carried out by pre- and post test after counseling and cultivation practices. Skills participants are carried out when evaluating the practice of cultivating medicinal plants in their yards. The results of the activity showed an increase in basic knowledge regarding the types, benefits, and techniques of cultivating family medicinal plants from technology. Family medicinal plant service activity is classified as successful and beneficial, due to increased knowledge more than 60 in average test scoring. The skills evaluation showed that some residents were able to plant and maintain family medicinal plants on a narrow plot of land using the proper verticulture method. The results of the cultivation of these medicinal plants, apart from being one of the real actions of plant greening, can also be in the form of powder products which can then be consumed as a body health measure or sold.

Test Sensitivity for Infection versus Infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2

The most commonly used test for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 is a PCR test that is able to detect very low viral loads and inform on treatment decisions. Medical research has confirmed that many individuals might be infected with SARS-CoV-2 but not infectious. Knowing whether an individual is infectious is the critical piece of information for a decision to isolate an individual or not. This paper examines the value of different tests from an information-theoretic approach and shows that applying treatment-based approval standards for tests for infection will lower the value of those tests and likely causes decisions based on them to have too many false positives (i.e., individuals isolated who are not infectious). It is recommended that test scoring be tailored to the decision being made.

Pre-clinical medical student cardiac point-of-care ultrasound curriculum based on the American Society of Echocardiography recommendations: a pilot and feasibility study

Background Cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) training has been integrated into medical school curricula. However, there is no standardized cardiac POCUS training method for medical students. To address this issue, the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) proposed a framework for medical student cardiac POCUS training. The objective of this pilot study was to develop a medical student cardiac POCUS curriculum with test scoring systems and test the curriculum feasibility for a future definitive study.Methods Based on the ASE-recommended framework, we developed a cardiac POCUS curriculum consisting of a pre-training online module and hands-on training with a hand-held ultrasound (Butterfly iQ). The curriculum learning effects were assessed with a 10-point maximum skill test and a 40-point maximum knowledge test at pre-, immediate post-, and 8-week post-training. To determine the curriculum feasibility, we planned to recruit 6 pre-clinical medical students. We semi-quantitatively evaluated the curriculum feasibility in terms of recruitment rate, follow-up rate 8 weeks after training, instructional design of the curriculum, the effect size (ES) of the test score improvements, and participant satisfaction. Discriminatory ability of the test scoring systems were assessed by comparing the scores of the medical students, medical interns, and experts.Results Six pre-clinical medical students participated in the curriculum. The recruitment rate was 100% (6/6 students) and the follow-up rate 8 weeks after training was 100% (6/6). ESs of skill and knowledge test score differences between pre- and immediate post-, and between pre- and 8-week post-training were large. The students reported high satisfaction with the curriculum. The test scoring systems demonstrated excellent discriminatory ability between the 3 different performance levels.Conclusions This pilot study confirmed the curriculum design as feasible with instructional design modifications including the hands-on training group size, content of the cardiac POCUS lecture, hands-on teaching instructions, and hand-held ultrasound usage. Based on the pilot study findings, we plan to conduct the definitive study with the primary outcome of long-term skill retention 8 weeks after initial training. The definitive study has been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: NCT04083924).

Current state and future directions of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners

The objective of this paper is to describe changes made to chiropractic national board examinations in the United States, including methodologies in test scoring, and to discuss future directions in test development and administration being considered by the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE). Additionally, this paper serves as an introduction to the articles written by the NBCE staff and published in this issue of the journal. Statistical perspective on the properties of a test are presented, and reasons for the NBCE moving to item response theory for test scoring are described. NBCE consideration of on-demand testing and changes implemented in the Part IV practical examination are also discussed.

Scoring Tests With Contaminated Response Vectors

Test scoring models vary in their generality, some even adjust for examinees answering multiple-choice items correctly by accident (guessing), but no models, that we are aware of, automatically adjust an examinee’s score when there is internal evidence of cheating. In this study, we use a combination of jackknife technology with an adaptive robust estimator to reduce the bias in examinee scores due to contamination through events such as having access to some of the test items in advance of the test administration. We illustrate our methodology with a data set of test items we knew to have been divulged to a subset of the examinees.

The Effect of Using Suggestopedia Among Students’ Speaking Ability

Speaking is an important skill to communicate in the globalization era. We cannot deny the failure is caused by many problems. The success of the learning is involved in complex things, especially in the lecturer’s ability in learning and teaching. Such as the interesting material, the using of media, the learning approach and strategy, the classroom management, school environment, completely facilitation, and many other aspects. The objective of this research is to find out the effect of using suggestopedia to the students’ speaking ability. The group had taught by using suggestopedia. It had conducted a pre-testing them first, then gave them treatment using suggestopedia and the last conducted a post-test. The instrument was used oral performance test. The criteria of the performance test scoring were a fluency, accuracy, content, and pronunciation. According to the result of statistical calculation, it is obtained the value of (t-observation) is 8,387 and the value of “tc” (t-critical) from the df (31) on degree of significance of 0,05 % is 1.6955. Based on the finding of this study it can be concluded that using suggestopedia method in increasing students’ speaking ability is effective.