Reliability and validity Essay Example for Free

Reliability and validity Essay Normally when a survey and research is carried out the results should be tested to prove whether they are valid and reliable. Therefore I have come out with the following responses to judge the following students wrong or right. Student number one has no concrete ideas on what validity and reliability means. In the first place validity is not judgmental but objective. For the response to be valid the results should be seen to be working and practical. Reliability according to student one is a little bit applicable and I can therefore accept it. He/she argues out correctly that comparing the responses of groups’ pools and relating the accuracy of the out comers can achieve reliability. However one thing that has been ignored is that for the response of this student to be reliable then it should be done repeatedly is when comparisons on the accuracy can be done. Student one has not got the exact meaning of validity since a data is only valid when it has been tested and the results or outcome is accepted. This is always done at some levels of confidence interval. One cannot just pass a judgment that given information is valid before testing the results. For the second student reliability is properly defined and explained. For a data to be reliable automatically the test result should be consistent. Student two also has a bright idea on validity. A good test it said to reliable and valid if it is consistent and measures exactly what it tends to measure. I believe that the results that the students will get from the use of the healthy eating index as a tool on the changing quality of nutrient intake for 9th grade female athletes at the love joy high school will be accepted. The third student is a bright statistician as he/she uses a lot of statistics to express his mind. Results of a test will be reliable when they are consistent. Consistency is achieved after several repetitions of the test are done. His/her reaction on validity is also okay. The research measurement tool should only measure what it purports to measure. The different types of validity are also discussed clearly by this student. Student 4 is completely mixed up on differentiating the term validity and reliability. Basically validity is not whether or not the research explains or measures what he/she said he would be measuring. The validity should be based on the fact that the test should measure exactly what it is to measure. Again for results to be reliable they should be consistent after several experiments performed. You can use an instrument that gives accurate results but this doesn’t mean that the results will be reliable. His findings on the course curriculum may be misleading or not trusted in the long run. The fifth student is also wrong on the way he responds to validity and reliability. His argument is subjective in nature. Reliability doe not mean ability to be able to rely on the research instrument but it means the consistency of the results produced by the research instrument. The sixth student is judged right on how he defines the term validity and reliability. However he does not know how validity and reliability is achieved. It is not a matter of relying on the test tool and how it is administered but the tool should be able to test the exact thing it is suppose to test. Therefore relying on the test tool can create results that are not valid and reliable. The seventh student has not properly brought out the exact meaning of the two terms. Reliability has to do with the consistency of the test results. Therefore some measuring tool should be used. Success of any study cannot be generalized unless it is tested and found to be consisted and accurate. This is when we can rely on the results. The eighth student summarizes the discussion on the two terms very smartly. To be simple and to avoid confusion a test is valid if it measures what is says to measure. Then very smartly he defines reliability as the consistency of measurements. All the information collected from the survey he wanted to carry will be reliable if they are consistence. Otherwise I have no objection with his argument when he says that validity reliability assure that tests and results are done and performed in the most accurate manner. Reference: Louis, C. (2003). Research Methods in Education New York: Routledge Publishers.

Software Piracy Essay -- essays research papers fc

Software Piracy - Are We Doing Enough? Introduction Imagine that a person offered to break into a software store, turn off all the alarms, and hold the doors open, and allow you to take whatever you wanted from the store. This situation is faced by most computer owners everyday, not necessarily in this form, but in the form of software piracy. Software piracy is the unauthorised duplication and or distribution of copyrighted programs. There would only be select group who would not be tempted by the prospect of basically free software, most of those who are offered these kind of goods either accept them, or are unaware that they are not legitimate. No matter how this crime is being conducted, it has been estimated that this sort of crime is costing the world approximately 13 billion dollars annually. Beginnings Software piracy became popular through the use of Bulletin Boards, which allowed people to dial into other an â€Å"underground† archive of pirated software. Around this time, 31/2 Inch discs were also a popular medium for pirated software. Popularity The reason behind the widespread popularity of software piracy lies in the cost. Why pay $80 dollars for a piece of software, when you could get it for the price of a blank CD. Software piracy has boomed over recent years, which can most likely be attributed to the drop in price of CD Writers, which allow the user to copy from one CD to another in less than an hour. During the beginnings of software piracy, the floppy disc ...

Online Grade Evaluation System Essay

In the absence of internal processes for evaluating instructors’ teaching abilities, most colleges and universities put the responsibility on students. But is this fair to faculty? After all, a whiff of conflict of interest hangs over the whole proceeding. Students might grade a professor poorly as payback for a bad grade, for example. Conversely, students might give great reviews to instructors who dole out A’s like Halloween candy. Or they might not even bother to respond. Now, with more and more institutions moving their course evaluations online, the question is whether technology will compound these concerns or resolve them. Early research suggests that faculty may actually benefit from the move online. Jessica Wode, an academic research analyst with the Office of Evaluation and Assessment at Columbia College Chicago (IL), performed a review of the academic literature on online course-evaluation assessments last spring. Her conclusion: Worries that students with grudges are the most likely to fill out online forms are unfounded. You actually find the opposite,† explains Wode. â€Å"Either there is no effect or the students who did poorly in the class probably aren’t even going to bother evaluating the course. â€Å" Indeed, there are indications that online evaluation systems may actually suppress participation among poor performers. In her unpublished dissertation at James Madison University (VA) in 2009, researcher Cassandra Jones found that class performance played a role in determining which students filled out an online evaluation: Students who received higher grades in a class were more likely to fill out a survey. As a result, noted Jones in her paper, â€Å"course-evaluation ratings could be artificially inflated because students with lower grades are not participating in the online course-evaluation process. † It would not be difficult to find a host of faculty members who would disagree strongly with these findings. And there is some question about the reliability of statistical analysis of online evaluations, given the low participation rates for many online systems. Indeed, anemic participation levels may be the single biggest issue facing online evaluations. At schools that simply ask their students to fill out online class evaluations, a typical response rate is around 50 percent, according to â€Å"Response Rates in Online Teaching Evaluation Systems,† a 2009 report by James Kulik of the Office of Evaluations and Examinations at the University of Michigan. In contrast, the typical response rate for paper-based evaluations is around 66 percent, and often much higher.

Famine, Affluence and Morality by Pete Singer - 1045 Words

In the article, â€Å"Famine, Affluence, and Morality†, Pete Singer, a Utilitarian, argues that citizens in affluent countries such as the United States have a moral obligation to give up as much as they can for famine relief. Singer’s contention in his article is that the way we morally conduct ourselves ought to be reappraised. (Singer, 230). I Singer’s argument, and in this paper, I will examine the distinction between duty and charity, compare both deontological and consequential theories of ethics, and address Immanuel Kant and Pete Singer’s similarities and their utilitarian resolution to such problems. I will conclude how we have a moral duty to relieve suffering in the world, and why it is wrong if we abstain from our moral obligation. In his article, Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Singer tries to emphasize the importance of helping those in need. He believes that if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything else of moral importance then we have a moral obligation to do it. (Singer, 231). By this, Singer means that each and every one of us has the power to prevent the terrible things that negatively affects the world. For example, if we are in a situation where we have the ability to prevent something morally wrong from happening but we let it pass by, he describes this as not just laziness but moral wrongdoing. Singer argues if you come across a child who is drowning and it is easy to wade in and rescue the child but byShow MoreRelatedWe Should Set Limits On Moral Obligation1398 Words   |  6 PagesIan Parker discusses a personal story of a man named Zell Kravinsky that had given almost his entire fortune and kidney under moral obligation. The â€Å"big questionâ €  that will be evaluated in this paper is there important limits to how much do-gooding morality can ask of us? If so, how much can it ask of us to sacrifice for others? This question had placed great influence on Zell Kravinsky story and it is important we evaluate his arguments for moral obligation can ask of us. In this essay I intend to