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It is becoming increasingly important for leaders to recognize and develop the skills needed to interact with diverse others (Karim, 2003). To this end, several leadership programs in American colleges and universities offer courses that explore the practice of multicultural leadership (Brungardt, Greenleaf, Brungardt, & Arensdorf, 2006); our institution’s leadership program is no different in its goals of preparing culturally competent leaders. The multicultural leadership course in the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University has two learning outcomes: “Understand the impact of cultural identity (Note that this manuscript uses the terms social identity and cultural identity interchangeably, which is common practice (Wren, 2002), life experiences, and world views on leadership relationships as it relates to privilege and inclusion,” and, “Practice inclusive leadership through advocacy for social change.” Such goals are desirable, but also lofty – how can we know if our course has had any effect on student learning toward these objectives?

Theory-informed assessment of the effects of multicultural leadership courses can meet many pedagogical needs while answering the demands of multiple stakeholders (Fink, 2006; Wholey, Hatry, & Newcomer, 2004). Knowing what changes occur in students’ attitudes or behaviors during a multicultural leadership course would permit faculty, staff, and other practitioners to evaluate whether the experience may be able to meet desired learning goals. Future courses could be recalibrated to address deficiencies or strengthen successes. Assessment data also facilitates the sharing of the course’s effects to administrators, prospective students, parents, or donors in efforts to communicate the value of intentional, curricular student leadership development.

Beyond these larger-scale needs for assessment, we have an interest in knowing to what degree the course contributes to our students’ engagement and leadership development. Assessment can help us to identify what students are learning as a result of the course. Further, we hope that sharing our assessment structure, analysis, and results can help other leadership educators strengthen a culture of assessment in their own programs, particularly concerning multicultural leadership development.

To determine if we are making progress in meeting our learning outcomes, we developed an assessment tool to determine students’ change over the course of the term across two theoretical constructs: diversity attitudes, which encapsulates the first learning goal of recognizing linkages between worldview and leadership (Bennett, 2004; Karim, 2003; Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2006); and changes in leadership behaviors and attitudes, which speaks to the second learning goal of catalyzing social change-based leadership (Komives, Wagner, & Associates, 2009).

We use a pre-test / post-test design to compare students’ reported values at the beginning of the semester to their values upon completion of the class (Fink, 2006). By comparing pre-test and post-test responses to questions from the assessment instrument, we demonstrate in what ways our course might influence student leadership development and multicultural competence, as well as areas we might wish to consider fortifying in future iterations of the course to better meet learning objectives. We then reflect on the effect the results will have on learning outcomes, curricular development, and the instrument itself, illustrating the cyclical relationship between theory, practice, and assessment in multicultural leadership education.

We have two aims here. Our first is to articulate what gains may be made by students who engage in our course to determine what exactly is gained by students who participate in such experiences. We believe such courses have educational value, but needed to find a way to articulate our course’s success in helping students meet our stated learning objectives. Our second aim is to illustrate both the necessity, rewards, and limitations of engaging in critical engagement with the assessment-practice cycle (Maki, 2002). Here, we reflect on what changes we or others could make to our course to better achieve our desired goals, as well as how we might continue to strengthen our assessment efforts. We hope that our analysis here provides some starting points to assess multicultural leadership programs’ efficacy in meeting student learning outcomes.

The study aims to analyze the previous literature on government initiatives to implement health information systems (HISs).

Proknow-C (Knowledge Development Process-Constructivist) was used in the selection of the literature and in the bibliometric and systematic analysis.

The research identified a portfolio composed of 33 articles aligned with the research theme and with scientific recognition, as well as periodicals, authors, papers and keywords that stood out the most. Amongst the government initiatives in the 24 identified countries, England has been the most studied nation, and there is a certain prominence of research arising from developed countries. Electronic health records (EHRs) have been the most explored technology. Efficiency and safety of health care delivery, integration of information and among health organizations, cost reduction and economicity are the most expected benefits from government programs. The difficulties found are related to the broader context in which the system is inserted, to the management of the program, to technology itself and to individuals. The most emphasized difficulties identified in most countries were previous context marked by a lack of standardization/interoperability, acceptance of providers and users and project financing. The findings of the present article provide a theoretical framework for future studies, in addition to yielding a replicable process for future use.

This research may be considered original as it analyzes – through a constructivism-structured process (Proknow-C) – the phenomenon under investigation by gathering bibliometric and systematic review data concomitantly. The countries and technologies reported emerge from the process itself.

In the Netherlands, thesis assessment quality is a growing concern for the national accreditation organization due to increasing student numbers and supervisor workload. However, the accreditation framework lacks guidance on how to meet quality standards. This study aims to address these issues by sharing our experience, identifying problems and proposing guidelines for quality assurance for a thesis assessment system.

This study has two parts. The first part is a narrative literature review conducted to derive guidelines for thesis assessment based on observations made at four Dutch universities. The second part is a case study conducted in one bachelor’s psychology-related program, where the assessment practitioners and the vice program director analyzed the assessment documents based on the guidelines developed from the literature review.

The findings of this study include a list of guidelines based on the four standards. The case study results showed that the program meets most of the guidelines, as it has a comprehensive set of thesis learning outcomes, peer coaching for novice supervisors, clear and complete assessment information and procedures for both examiners and students, and a concise assessment form.

This study is original in that it demonstrates how to holistically ensure the quality of thesis assessments by considering the context of the program and paying more attention to validity (e.g. program curriculum and assessment design), transparency (e.g. integrating assessment into the supervision process) and the assessment expertise of teaching staff.

Worldwide, natural hazards are affecting urban cultural heritage and World Heritage Sites, exacerbating other environmental and human-induced threats deriving from deterioration, uncontrolled urbanization and unsustainable tourism. This paper aims to develop a disaster risk analysis in Italian historic centers because they are complex large-scale systems that are cultural and economic resources for the country, as well as fragile areas.

A heritage-oriented qualitative methodology for risk assessment is proposed based upon the formalization of risk as a function of hazard, vulnerability and exposure, taking into account the values of cultural heritage assets.

This work provides a contribution to the body of knowledge in the Italian context of disaster risk mitigation on World Heritage Sites, opening for further research on the monitoring and maintenance of the tangible heritage assets. The application to the site of San Gimignano proves the effectiveness of the methodology for proposing preventive measures and actions that ensure the preservation of cultural values and a safer built environment.

The application of a value-based simplified approach to risk analysis is a novelty for historic centers that are listed as World Heritage Sites.

Research indicates a significant risk of economic crime associated with post-disaster funding. The purpose of this paper is to assess the characteristics of post-disaster funding that make it susceptible to the risk of economic crime and to analyse how the statutory and regulatory disaster risk management instruments of South Africa aim to manage post-disaster events.

This paper uses secondary sources such as, but not limited to, legislation, institutional reports, textbooks and peer-reviewed academic journal articles.

Post-disaster funding is inherently susceptible to economic crime due to characteristics identified such as time pressure; substantial inflow of money, goods and services; inadequate needs assessment, large-scale reconstruction and the involvement of contractors or suppliers; power imbalance; and the responsibility of governments. The Disaster Management Act and National Disaster Management Framework provide an extensive regulatory framework for mitigating post-disaster funding risks by attempting to find a balance between quick aid distribution and financial controls. This paper finds that even though South Africa is known to have some of the best disaster risk management laws, the pervasive nature of the characteristics could still render post-disaster funding structures susceptible to the risk of economic crime.

There is limited scientific research on this topic. The expected prevalence of future disasters requires the regulatory and legislative disaster risk management instruments to evolve concomitantly. Research on this topic must continue to ensure that risks associated with post-disaster funding and its susceptibility to economic crime can be mitigated as far as possible.

This paper aims to present the “Vulnerability Sourcebook” methodology, a standardised framework for the assessment of climate vulnerability and risk in the context of adaptation planning. The Vulnerability Sourcebook has been developed for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and has been applied in more than twenty countries worldwide.

It is based on a participative development of so-called climate impact chains, which are an analytical concept to better understand, systemise and prioritise the climate factors as well as environmental and socio-economic factors that drive climate related threats, vulnerabilities and risks in a specific system. Impact chains serve as the backbone for an operational climate vulnerability assessment with indicators based on quantitative approaches (data, models) combined with expert assessments. In this paper, the authors present the concept and applications of the original Vulnerability Sourcebook, published in 2015, which was based on the IPCC AR4 concept of climate vulnerability. In Section 6 of this paper, the authors report how this concept has been adapted to the current IPCC AR5 concept of climate risks.

The application of the Sourcebook is demonstrated in three case studies in Bolivia, Pakistan and Burundi. The results indicate that particularly the participative development of impact chains helped with generating a common picture on climate vulnerabilities and commitment for adaptation planning within a region. The mixed methods approach (considering quantitative and qualitative information) allows for a flexible application in different contexts. Challenges are mainly the availability of climate (change) and socio-economic data, as well as the transparency of value-based decisions in the process.

The Vulnerability Sourcebook offers a standardised framework for the assessment of climate vulnerability and risk in the context of adaptation planning.

This paper critically aims to review existing monitoring strategies of Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals and proposes an alternative approach for reporting country progress on relevant Target 4.7 themes. Since this target constitutes one of the most ambitious and transformative education targets there is considerable value in developing a comprehensive reporting and monitoring strategy.

The paper draws on key policy documents to clarify processes leading up to the definition and measurement of a global indicator for Target 4.7. It also discusses limitations associated with the current reporting and measurement strategy.

The paper finds that the current monitoring approach to Target 4.7, based on an existing reporting mechanism for the 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom, is unfit for purpose and needs to be overhauled. The current process for revising the 1974 Recommendation is unlikely to result in a new monitoring strategy that would address existing weaknesses in the current strategy.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a critical review of measurement, reporting and monitoring strategies of Target 4.7 has not been undertaken. Also new in this paper is the proposed global observatory of Target 4.7 policies, practices and initiatives, which, if established, would work to: (1) create a more dynamic and informative monitoring infrastructure; (2) foster peer learning among countries; and (3) identify notable strategies of national, regional and international action in relation to Target 4.7.

This study, a post hoc observational one, attempted to determine if career and technical education (CTE) students in the state of Mississippi would academically benefit from taking multiple formative assessments in an online format prior to completing their summative exams. Most CTE students in the state of Mississippi are required to take an end-of-course exam cataloged as the Mississippi Career and Planning Assessment System (MS-CPAS). Previously, MS-CPAS test score results did not impact school-wide accountability scores, but in recent years, some of the guidelines were changed so that these summative test scores now play a vital role in school accountability and rankings.

This study examines both formative and summative online exam scores for more than 13,000 students who have taken an MS-CPAS assessment in the 2018 and 2019 school years.

The results of this study revealed that there were significant differences in summative exam scores for students who took two online formative practice tests when compared to groups of students who did not take any formative practice tests. This study also illustrated a positive correlation between those students' final online practice test scores and their summative exam scores.

These results would prove very beneficial to both CTE teachers and directors in helping them understand the benefits of introducing formative practice tests into their programs to boost student understanding.

Ensuring quality is one of the most significant challenges in microtask crowdsourcing tasks. Aggregation of the collected data from the crowd is one of the important steps to infer the correct answer, but the existing study seems to be limited to the single-step task. This study aims to look at multiple-step classification tasks and understand aggregation in such cases; hence, it is useful for assessing the classification quality.

The authors present a model to capture the information of the workflow, questions and answers for both single- and multiple-question classification tasks. They propose an adapted approach on top of the classic approach so that the model can handle tasks with several multiple-choice questions in general instead of a specific domain or any specific hierarchical classifications. They evaluate their approach with three representative tasks from existing citizen science projects in which they have the gold standard created by experts.

The results show that the approach can provide significant improvements to the overall classification accuracy. The authors’ analysis also demonstrates that all algorithms can achieve higher accuracy for the volunteer- versus paid-generated data sets for the same task. Furthermore, the authors observed interesting patterns in the relationship between the performance of different algorithms and workflow-specific factors including the number of steps and the number of available options in each step.

Due to the nature of crowdsourcing, aggregating the collected data is an important process to understand the quality of crowdsourcing results. Different inference algorithms have been studied for simple microtasks consisting of single questions with two or more answers. However, as classification tasks typically contain many questions, the proposed method can be applied to a wide range of tasks including both single- and multiple-question classification tasks.

This paper aims to draw on a socio-technical perspective to explore how information and communication technology (ICT) supports the validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) in specific practices and arrangements.

The authors use qualitative content analysis to analyse 43 country reports of the “European inventory on validation” published by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) in 2019.

This study conceptualises ICT supported VNFIL practices and arrangements from a socio-technical perspective. Given this, the paper finds that ICT is used mainly to provide information on validation practices and arrangements, store qualification registers online and identify and document learning outcomes. The use of ICT to assess and certify learning outcomes remains limited.

VNFIL is very rarely seen in a technical context. This paper contributes to a theoretical perspective and highlights the mutual interdependence of social and technical components. Furthermore, this study provides an overview of inasmuch ICT is currently used to support VNFIL practices and arrangements. Based on the results, validation researchers and practitioners can get inspiration on how to develop ICT supported VNFIL practices and arrangements further.