Publications by authors named "James W Altschuld"

Not a great deal is known about what study skills are essential for success in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics' disciplines, particularly in information technology (IT) and computer science (CS) programs in the technical and vocational education (TVE) in Taiwanese higher education. Since TVE accounts for more than half of the post-secondary enrolments in the country, and with the increasing demand for IT and CS talents, we studied perceptions of the importance and competency of such skills to identify the students' needs and demographic factors influencing them. A survey was administered to 1398 students in IT and CS programs in Taiwanese TVE universities.

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A list of evaluator competencies (Stevahn, King, Ghere, & Minnema, 2005) was adapted to fit the Taiwanese context by Lee, Altschuld, & Lee (2012). It was studied as to how it generalized to a large sample in Taiwan. Likert and Fuzzy surveys with needs assessment formats (importance and competence) were mailed via random assignment to two groups of participants.

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Needs assessment (NA) is conducted to identify discrepancies that guide the development and improvement of services. In this article we focus on methodological issues in a secondary analysis of a multi-site, national needs assessment. Understanding challenges in such a context is important for needs assessors.

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Training is critical for the growth of the evaluation profession as more qualified and competent individuals will be required to meet the increased demand for evaluation. This paper deals with the training needs of professionals and is based on a part of a study on the status and challenges of educational program evaluation in the Asia-Pacific region. A web-based Delphi was used with a needs assessment framework for examining the current nature of training, what should be done, and discrepancies (gaps) between the two.

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Essential evaluator competencies as identified by Stevahn, King, Ghere, and Minnema (2005) were studied in regard to how well they generalize to an Asian (Taiwan) context. A fuzzy Delphi survey with two iterations was used to collect data from 12 experts. While most competencies fit Taiwan, there were a number of unique ones.

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In needs assessment (N/A), the calculation of discrepancies is based on the assumption the "what should be" condition is a reasonable representation of respondent perceptions. That assumption may be erroneous and requires a closer inspection. This paper examines the use of importance scores in NA and some of the problems that can arise when they are used as a proxy to measure the "what should be" condition.

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While educational program evaluation has become more important in recent years because of increasing governmental demands for accountability, little is known about the development of and issues in regard to this topic in the Asia-Pacific region. The findings from a Delphi study conducted in a number of relevant countries are provided in this article. Thirty panelists participated in three rounds of iterations to identify current status, challenges, and concerns in the near future.

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The retention rates for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native-Americans in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are lower than those of White or Asian college students. In response, the National Science Foundation formed statewide partnerships of universities to develop programs to address this disparity. The deliberations and experiences in evaluating one such partnership are retrospectively reviewed.

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Although the Delphi is widely used, research on certain methodological issues is somewhat limited. After a brief introduction to the strengths, limitations, and methodological challenges of the technique, we share our experiences (as well as problems encountered) with an electronic Delphi of educational program evaluation (EPE) in the Asia-Pacific region. The study is described followed by a discussion of the difficulties in participant recruitment and selection, sample size, instrumentation, data collection and analysis and attempts to resolve them.

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Needs assessment (NA) is generally based on the discrepancy between two conditions-the desired and present states. To date, there has not been an extensive research regarding a number of subtle problems in discrepancy analysis. One such example is missing data for one or both the two states.

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The participation of diverse groups is advocated for planning and implementing needs assessment (NA) procedures. While the involvement of varied constituencies is important, obtaining it requires more effort from the needs assessor and therefore is less commonly employed [Witkin, B.R.

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