Instrument Development Workshop

The Educational Studies Program is providing a three-session instrument development workshop in May, led by Professor Matthew Diemer.

Tuesday, May 8th, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 10th, 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 15th, 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Learning the essential elements of reliability and validity provides an introduction to the central tenets of measurement – and are the building blocks of measure construction. The first two meetings of this three-session workshop will balance conceptual understanding with “hands-on” or applied skill interpreting reliability or validity evidence. The third and final session will review the instrument development and validation process, using a recent measure the instructor developed as an example.

Students will learn how to (a) calculate and interpret common ways to estimate reliability, such as Cronbach’s Alpha and inter-item correlations, (b) how to interpret factor analyses, (c) best practices in the stepwise process of instrument construction. These are key competencies to design assessments, evaluate, select, and use commercially or publicly available assessments, and interpret claims about the measurement properties of these assessments. This workshop aims to provide the necessary foundation for practitioners to make more informed decisions about developing, selecting, evaluating, and interpreting assessments in educational and other settings.

EDUCATIONAL STUDIES

The dates for the workshop are Tuesday, May 8th [9:30-12:30], Thursday, May 10th [12:30-3:30], and Tuesday, May 15th [12:30-3:30]. Registration for faculty, staff, and postdocs is $300, and $200 for current graduate students. Fees can be paid with a UM shortcode or a personal credit card.