A decision theory model for course placement

Wim J. van der Linden

doi:10.3102/10769986023001018

A decision theory model for course placement

Wim J. van der Linden

Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The problem of how to place students in a sequence of hierarchically related courses is addressed from a decision theory point of view. Based on a minimal set of assumptions, it is shown that optimal mastery rules for the courses are always monotone and a nonincreasing function of the scores on the placement test. On the other hand, placement rules are not generally monotone but have a form depending on the specific shape of the probability distributions and utility functions in force. The results are further explored for a class of linear utility functions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	18-34
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal of educational and behavioral statistics
Volume	23
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3102/10769986023001018
Publication status	Published - 1998

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AB - The problem of how to place students in a sequence of hierarchically related courses is addressed from a decision theory point of view. Based on a minimal set of assumptions, it is shown that optimal mastery rules for the courses are always monotone and a nonincreasing function of the scores on the placement test. On the other hand, placement rules are not generally monotone but have a form depending on the specific shape of the probability distributions and utility functions in force. The results are further explored for a class of linear utility functions.

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