Digital Module 04

ITEMS Portal Menu

Digital Modules Home Print Modules

Diagnostic Measurement Checklists

Module Overview

In this digital ITEMS module, Dr. Natacha Carragher, Dr. Jonathan Templin, and colleagues provide a didactic overview of the specification, estimation, evaluation, and interpretation steps for diagnostic measurement / classification models (DCMs), which are a promising psychometric modeling approach. These models can provide detailed skill- or attribute-specific feedback to respondents along multiple latent dimensions and hold theoretical and practical appeal for a variety of fields. They use a current unified modeling framework - the log-linear cognitive diagnosis model (LCDM) – as well as a series of quality-control checklists for data analysts and scientific users to review the foundational concepts, practical steps, and interpretational principles for these models. They demonstrate how the models and checklists can be applied in real-life data-analysis contexts. A library of macros and supporting files for Excel, SAS, and Mplus is provided along with video tutorials for key practices.

Module

View Module

Meet the Instructors

Natacha Carragher, University of New South Wales

Natacha is a Senior Statistician at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) as well as a consultant for the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. She has 10 years of experience in the mental health field and, more recently, three years of experience in higher education assessment and behavioral addictions. Her research interests include the classification and structure of psychopathology, assessment and measurement, comorbidity, and the application of latent variable modelling techniques to public health and educational data. Her work has been published in a range of prestigious peer-reviewed journals, which includes a co-written book chapter on self-report assessment for specific mental disorders published in the Cambridge Handbook of Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis. In 2014, she received the Epidemiology and Public Health Section Young Epidemiologist Prize from the UK Royal Society of Medicine. As an educator, Natacha has provided statistical advice and expertise to postgraduate students and staff at UNSW and colleagues at other universities.

Philip Jones, University of New South Wales

Philip is Professor Emeritus at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) where he was the Associate Dean in Education for UNSW Medicine for 10 years until his retirement in 2016. He was a senior staff specialist in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Prince of Wales Hospital and held a conjoint appointment to the Prince of Wales Clinical School. He was involved with the development of the Medicine program from the inception of its planning in 1998. In 2010, he received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence at UNSW.

Gary Velan, University of New South Wales

Gary is a professor, Associate Dean, Head of the Department of Pathology, Director of Learning and Teaching Development, and Head of the Educational Research and Development Group in the School of Medical Sciences at the University of New South Wales (USNW). His research is based on educational innovations, including web-based assessments, virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials, concept and knowledge maps, and their effect upon learning outcomes in medical education.

Jonathan Templin, University of Iowa

Johnathan is professor and E. F. Lindquist Chair of Educational Measurement and Statistics at the University of Iowa. His research interests are focused on the development of psychometric and general quantitative methods, as applied in the psychological, educational, and social sciences. He teaches courses on advanced quantitative methodology with an emphasis on statistical modelling, model comparisons, and the integration and generalities of popular statistical and psychometric techniques. He is a co-author of the book Diagnostic Measurement: Theory, Methods, and Applications, which won the 2012 American Educational Research Association Division D Award for Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology. He is the winner of the 2015 AERA Cognition and Assessment SIG Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research in Cognition and Assessment and the inaugural 2017 Robert Linn Lecture Award.

Boaz Shulruf, University of New South Wales

Boaz is an Associate Professor who works in the Office of Medical Education at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) who is also an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Auckland. His main research interests are in the area of psycho-educational assessment in higher education, particularly within the context of Medical and Health Sciences Education. He has expertise in quantitative research methodologies and educational assessment and psychometrics. He supervises Independent Learning Project students in medical education and educational measurement.