MultiTex

Process-based assessment of multiple documents comprehension

Abstract

In order to cope with the demands of their studies and their later profession, university students of all subjects have to be able to familiarize in a self-directed manner with different topics and filter out and integrate task relevant information. Especially in their academic life at universities, they are usually confronted with multiple sources (e.g., as a result of searching a database or the internet), which can be contradicting and which they have to integrate. These demands exceed the comprehension of (single) texts in such as that information from different sources have to be related to each other and, if applicable, the trustworthiness of the information has to be evaluated.

In the project MultiTex, a computer-based instrument to assess the competence of text comprehension with multiple documents (multiple documents literacy, MDL) of university students will be developed and validated. A special methodological focus lies in the usage of additional process-based diagnostics. Accordingly, in this project process-based measures will be used, first, as additional diagnostic information; second, in order to identify strategies of processing multiple documents; and third, to test theories of multiple text comprehension.

Aims and Research Questions

The aims of the present project can be characterized as follows:

1. Development of a theoretically sound computer-based test of multiple documents literacy (MDL)
2. Analysis of processes of multiple text comprehension for advanced diagnostics
3. Construct validation of the MDL text with two cohorts of university students of two subject groups at two locations
4. Empirical test of assumptions of theories of multiple documents comprehension

Project data

Project management:
Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Universität Bamberg
Dr. Cornelia Schoor, Universität Bamberg
Dr. Kathrin Lockl, Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe e.V. Bamberg
Prof. Dr. Hans-Günther Roßbach, Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe e.V. Bamberg
Dr. Ulf Kröhne, DIPF Frankfurt
Prof. Dr. Frank Goldhammer, DIPF Frankfurt

Contact:
Homepage:
http://multitex.bildungsforschung.uni-bamberg.de/
Time frame:
Janaury 2016 – June 2019