Mechanics Cognitive Diagnostic (MCD)
Purpose
The Mechanics Cognitive Diagnostic (MCD) is a cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive test designed to assess students’ mastery of skills in introductory mechanics. The MCD allows instructors to choose specific skills and content areas to measure and can provide weekly feedback.
Skills and Content Areas in the MCD
The current MCD assesses students across three skills and five content areas:
Skills
- Apply Vectors: Item requires manipulating vectors in more than one dimension or has a change in sign for a 1-D vector quantity.
- Conceptual Relationships: Item requires students to identify a relationship between variables and/or the situations in which those relationships apply.
- Visualizations: Item requires extracting information from or creating formal visualizations such as xy plots, bar plots, or line graphs.
Content Areas
- Kinematics: Items concerning the motion of objects without reference to the forces that cause the motion.
- Forces: Free body diagram, and Newtonian laws.
- Energy: Conservation of energy, work, set up system, and the relationship between force and potential energy.
- Momentum: Conservation of momentum and impulse.
- Mathematics: Items that require mathematics that are not embedded in physics problems with topics include (pre)-calculus.
For Students: The MCD begins with questions of moderate difficulty. Based on the student’s responses, the system dynamically selects subsequent questions, adjusting their difficulty in real-time. This adaptive process continues throughout the testing period, ensuring each student’s personalized assessment experience with the minimum test length.
For Instructors: The MCD can provide instructors with detailed and actionable information about students’ proficiency. This adaptive test can provide reports on students’ skill mastery right after each weekly test, allowing instructors to adjust their teaching methods to meet individual student needs and improve overall learning outcomes.
Population
The MCD is designed for use in introductory college mechanics courses.
Example Question
Research
Le, V., Nissen, J. M., Tang, X., Zhang, Y., Mehrabi, A., Morphew, J. W., … & Van Dusen, B. (2024). Applying Cognitive Diagnostic Models to Mechanics Concept Inventories. arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.00009.
Le, V., Van Dusen, B., Nissen, J., Tang, X., Zhang, Y., Chang, H., & Morphew, J. (2024, July 10-11). Mechanics Cognitive Diagnostic: Mathematics skills tested in introductory physics courses. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2024, Boston, MA. Retrieved September 27, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=16903&DocID=5970
Example LASSO Report
Information coming soon
Similar Instruments
More Information
Relevant papers about the cognitive diagnostic model and computerized adaptive test.
de la Torre, J., & Minchen, N. (2014). Cognitively diagnostic assessments and the cognitive diagnosis model framework. Psicología Educativa, 20(2), 89-97.
Morphew, J. W., Mestre, J. P., Kang, H. A., Chang, H. H., & Fabry, G. (2018). Using computer adaptive testing to assess physics proficiency and improve exam performance in an introductory physics course. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 14(2), 020110.
McGlohen, M., & Chang, H. H. (2008). Combining computer adaptive testing technology with cognitively diagnostic assessment. Behavior research methods, 40, 808-82.
Yu, X., Cheng, Y., & Chang, H. H. (2019). Recent developments in cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT): A comprehensive review. Handbook of diagnostic classification models: Models and model extensions, applications, software packages, 307-331.
The MCD Videos
Information coming soon