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The main objective of the study was to utilize SERVQUAL for identifying gaps in the chain of services provided by the information technology (IT) resources. SERVQUAL was applied to IT services in higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates.

Because of the many concerns and reservations raised with regard to using perception scores or gap scores, the appropriateness of the SERVQUAL measure to verify the anticipated structure of the instrument was also examined. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the structure of the perception scores (performance‐based model) and the gap scores (performance minus expectation‐based model) were examined.

The evaluation of model‐fit provided mixed results, but, in general, the results favored the perception scores. However, some statistical fit‐tests suggested that both models lacked the features necessary for a good fit. On the other hand, based on their feedback, respondents felt that SERVQUAL is a useful indicator for IT center service quality in institutions of higher education. SERVQUAL identified gaps in service quality for the three institutions. Empirical results of SERVQUAL scores for the IT centers in the three institutions are also presented.

The paper reassesses the structure and validity of the SERVQUAL model given its wide use and criticism, and applies the model to an important set of related, yet distinct service organizations such as information technology centers.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the expectation and perception of the users of a library of reputed special academic institute in India on quality of library services. The paper is an effort to identify a service gap within five SERVQUAL dimensions rated by the library users.

The study was conducted through a survey methodology. The survey was implemented through a questionnaire based on five SERVQUAL dimensions. The data were collected by using 22 attributes of SERVQUAL for user expectations and perceptions of special academic institute library, and the gap score between expectation and perception of users was calculated. Based on the expectation mean score and gap score of each attributes, the researchers have identified the service shortfall in five SERVQUAL dimensions.

The result of the study indicates that there is an overall service quality (SQ) gap in services provided by institute library. However, the library is providing relatively satisfactory services to the faculty, but it needs to enhance up to the expectation level of its services to their registered participants. From the study, the average expectation score is very high and it indicates that users expect more from the institute library, particularly in Reliability and Tangibles dimensions. Out of the total 22 SERVQUAL attributes, the result reflects that 10 SERVQUAL attributes have high expectation and high service gap.

This paper will assist libraries to improve their library services, particularly in special academic training libraries. Determining SQ has been originated from marketing discipline that has progressively shown its value in the discipline of library and information science profession. This study contributes to the emergent body associated with SQ measures in libraries. Expectation-service gap chart and expectation-service gap grid are the major contribution and rarely found in SERVQUAL literature.

Using the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) surveys (2003–2015), this chapter explores the relationship between the gender gap in math test scores and computer (digital devices) gaming, as a potential “swimming upstream” factor in the quest to close that gap. Using a decomposition based on a pooled hybrid specification, we attribute two to three points (from 13% to 29%) of the gender math gap to gender differences in the incidence and returns to intense gaming. The comparison of the negative versus positive girl-specific effects found for collaborative games versus single-player games suggest a potential role for gaming network effects.

California enacted a standards-based accountability regime in 1999, aiming to boost achievement overall and narrow gaps among subgroups. Yet we know little about the efficacy of specific accountability practices and reform tools observed by teachers and principals. The loose-coupling critique of school organizations, positing that local educators steadily buffer interventions mounted by state actors, is challenged by a selective-coupling representation where school-level actors do experience rules and incentives that encourages compliance with state advanced curricular standards, pedagogical practices, and standardized testing. After surveying educators across a band of similar elementary schools, we can account for sizeable shares of the variance in mean Academic Performance Index (API) scores among schools and in the size of achievement gaps within schools. We found that achievement levels are higher when principals report a stronger district focus on a unified curriculum and their teachers share high expectations for learning. Gaps between white and Latino students are smaller when teachers report steady attention to meeting accountability targets. Latino achievement is more sensitive to these accountability practices, compared with the performance of white students. Even after sampling schools with similar student populations, the social-class background of students continued to heavily influence achievement levels, explaining greater shares of the variance than accountability practices.

A key question is whether the instruments developed for consumer services can accurately gauge the service quality perceptions of organisational customers. Reports psychometric testing of the SERVQUAL as a measure of service quality in ocean freight services. Based on a survey of a cross‐sectional sample of 114 business organisations in Singapore, which regularly utilise ocean freight services for their export needs, this study found that the psychometric properties of the SERVQUAL scale are at variance with those found in consumer services settings. Further, the SERVQUAL perceptions scores were found to be a better predictor than the SERVQUAL gap scores. In sum, the service quality measures developed for consumer services can only be applied with caution in business‐to‐business marketing. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

This paper aims to investigate users' individual differences such as gender and status in service quality assessment of Independent University, Bangladesh Library (IUBL), a top‐ranking private university library in Bangladesh.

A survey was conducted among IUBL users using modified version of SERVQUAL instrument. User responses for minimum, expected, and perceived services were calculated by gender and status. The gap scores between perceived and minimum services (adequacy gap) and perceived and expected services (superiority gap) by different groups were computed. Finally, the gap scores of gender and status groups were compared statistically using Mann‐Whitney and Kruskal‐Wallis tests.

The results showed overall IUBL met minimum service expectations of its gender and status groups. However, desired service expectations were not met though they were close to desired service quality. There were significant differences in gap scores by both gender and status groups. The overall and dimensions superiority gaps were significant between male and female users. Similarly, the overall adequacy gap and dimension‐wise gaps were significant across status groups. These findings suggest that SERVQUAL scores differ across library users' gender and status.

The SERVQUAL modification is done carefully as per local settings. Furthermore, this is the first time an attempt has been made to assess individual differences in service quality of a private university library system in Bangladesh.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how gender equality influences difference in cognitive skills between genders. For the closer examination of Guiso et al. (2008), restricting the sample to immigrants allows us to reduce the possibility of reverse causality.

Using PISA 2012 matched with the gender wage gap sourced from World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Index 2011, the author compares the effect of the wage gap among the areas of mathematics, science and reading.

Decreased gender wage gap leads to girls exhibiting a reduced incidence of lateness and skipping school compared with boys, which in turn improves girls’ test scores in mathematics, science and reading. The direct effect of the decreased wage gap on test scores exceeds its indirect effect on performance owing to influencing school attendance.

The findings of this paper provide evidence that higher female wage level relative to male wage level incentivizes female students to attend school, resulting in their achieving higher test scores not only for mathematics, but also for science and reading.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the “selling points” for Open University Malaysia (OUM) to be used in its marketing activities and the “critical points” that OUM should focus on for further improvements in providing its services to its students. These selling and critical points are derived from the analysis of the importance and satisfaction data collected from OUM’s postgraduate students.

This study employs a two-dimensional, i.e., Importance-Satisfaction Survey which consists of 47 items, categorized under eight dimensions. Items are phrased as positive statements and students are asked to indicate how important it is to them using a seven-point Likert scale ranging from not at all important (1) to very important (7). They are then asked to rate their level of satisfaction, using the same scale from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied (7). A total of 709 postgraduate students responses were used in this study. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to explain the relationship between the dependent variable, overall satisfaction and eight independent variables. The “selling points” and “critical points” are determined by combining the quadrant and gap analyses. The “selling point” items are the high-importance-high-satisfaction (HIHS) items with relatively small gap scores while the “critical points” are those in the high-importance-low-satisfaction and HIHS quadrants with relatively large gap scores.

The overall results of the Importance-Satisfaction Survey showed that the postgraduate students are generally satisfied with OUM’s programmes and services. The multiple regression analysis of all dimensions against overall satisfaction as the dependent variable showed that the five dimensions of facilitator, curriculum, faculty, support services and learning centre account for 75.7 per cent of the variation in overall satisfaction. The selling points include: the learning management system (MyVLE), online registration, course contents, modules and facilitators. The critical points include those related to facilitator interaction and feedback, students’ sense of connectedness with the faculty staff, timely responses to enquiries and complaints and accessibility to digital library and learning centre staff.

Importance-Satisfaction Surveys can be used to help an institution to identify the services and facilities that can be marketed and also those that need to be improved in order to better meet its students’ expectations.

While many similar studies had been conducted elsewhere, this study had identified the “selling points” and “critical points” which are unique to OUM. In addition, most previous studies were focused on conventional institutions, carried out in many different countries with differing learning environments and cultures.

To evaluate the service quality and usability of a student health clinic.

A measurement tool, termed SERVUSE, was created by modifying SERVQUAL. The modified survey included all five original dimensions in addition to a usability dimension. The survey was administered to 200 patients at the health clinic.

SERVUSE was found to be a valid tool for measuring service quality in this setting. The health clinic received a gap score of −0.357, showing that customer expectations were not met.

The student health clinic and subject participants are a special population that may display different characteristics from other healthcare providers.

SERVUSE is a tool that can be used to aid in improving a health clinic's service quality. Usability is an important feature for healthcare providers to improve.

This paper provides useful information to healthcare providers, especially in a university setting.

Fair grading produces learning ability levels that are understandable and acceptable to both learners and instructors. Norm-referenced grading can be achieved by several means such as z score, K-means and a heuristic. However, these methods typically deliver the varied degrees of grading fairness depending on input score data.

To attain the fairest grading, this paper proposes a hybrid algorithm that integrates z score, K-means and heuristic methods with a novel fairness objective function as a decision function.

Depending on an experimented data set, each of the algorithm's constituent methods could deliver the fairest grading results with fairness degrees ranging from 0.110 to 0.646. We also pointed out key factors in the fairness improvement of norm-referenced achievement grading.

The main contributions of this paper are four folds: the definition of fair norm-referenced grading requirements, a hybrid algorithm for fair norm-referenced grading, a fairness metric for norm-referenced grading and the fairness performance results of the statistical, heuristic and machine learning methods.