Item Response Theory - Online Course
A 3-Day Livestream Seminar Taught by
Tenko Raykov10:00am-12:30pm (convert to your local time) Thursday-Saturday
1:30pm-4:00pm Thursday, 1:30pm-3:30pm Friday & Saturday
Behavioral, social, educational, biomedical, business, and marketing scientists are frequently involved in the evaluation, development, and revision of multiple-component measuring instruments, such as tests, scales, inventories, questionnaires, surveys, self-reports, testlets, subscales, etc. Scores obtained from them are often employed in various analyses addressing substantive research questions.
The quality of these instruments and resulting individual parameter estimates determine the extent to which the subsequent analyses and modeling efforts can be trusted. To ensure high quality of the measuring instruments, researchers must carefully study their psychometric properties and engage in possibly multiple revisions of them.
This seminar provides a thorough introduction to Item Response Theory (IRT, Item Response Modeling, IRM). It covers many topics at the introductory to intermediate levels, as well as several more advanced topics. Throughout the course, numerous empirical examples are utilized from the educational, behavioral, and social sciences.
Starting September 8, we are offering this seminar as a 3-day synchronous*, livestream workshop held via the free video-conferencing software Zoom. Each day will consist of two lecture sessions which include hands-on exercises, separated by a 1-hour break. You are encouraged to join the lecture live, but will have the opportunity to view the recorded session later in the day if you are unable to attend at the scheduled time.
*We understand that finding time to participate in livestream courses can be difficult. If you prefer, you may take all or part of the course asynchronously. The video recordings will be made available within 24 hours of each session and will be accessible for four weeks after the seminar, meaning that you will get all of the class content and discussions even if you cannot participate synchronously.
Closed captioning is available for all live and recorded sessions.
More details about the course content
The seminar draws substantially from (and goes well beyond) Professor Raykov’s recently published book with Professor G. A. Marcoulides: A Course in Item Response Theory and Modeling with Stata. The popular packages Stata and Mplus are used in the examples, along with a detailed discussion of the needed command syntax and interpretation of the resulting output.
References to the increasingly popular software flexMIRT are made on several occasions as well as to IRTPRO and the package ‘ltm’ of R, and use of them is made in some of the examples. At the end of the seminar, you will also be able to conduct software-based analyses using the modeling methods covered in the course.
You can expect to come away from this seminar with:
-
- A nuanced understanding of the conceptual foundations and basic mathematical and statistical relationships underlying IRT/IRM.
- The ability to understand, interpret and explain the output from Stata and Mplus when used for IRT/IRM, and to evaluate pertinent psychometric properties of given measuring instruments, such as tests, scales, testlets, subscales, inventories, self-reports, surveys or questionnaires.
- An appreciation of the advantages of a thorough study of the underlying latent structure of (tentative versions of) multi-component instruments.
- Practical tools and strategies for constructing an initial version of a test/instrument of interest and its revision aimed at improving its quality, based on item information and test information functions.
- The ability to improve a given measuring instrument, in order to achieve corresponding higher psychometric standards.
- The ability to deal with issues arising in the practice of studying tests, scales, and behavioral or mental measuring instruments using IRT/IRM.
The seminar draws substantially from (and goes well beyond) Professor Raykov’s recently published book with Professor G. A. Marcoulides: A Course in Item Response Theory and Modeling with Stata. The popular packages Stata and Mplus are used in the examples, along with a detailed discussion of the needed command syntax and interpretation of the resulting output.
References to the increasingly popular software flexMIRT are made on several occasions as well as to IRTPRO and the package ‘ltm’ of R, and use of them is made in some of the examples. At the end of the seminar, you will also be able to conduct software-based analyses using the modeling methods covered in the course.
You can expect to come away from this seminar with:
-
- A nuanced understanding of the conceptual foundations and basic mathematical and statistical relationships underlying IRT/IRM.
- The ability to understand, interpret and explain the output from Stata and Mplus when used for IRT/IRM, and to evaluate pertinent psychometric properties of given measuring instruments, such as tests, scales, testlets, subscales, inventories, self-reports, surveys or questionnaires.
- An appreciation of the advantages of a thorough study of the underlying latent structure of (tentative versions of) multi-component instruments.
- Practical tools and strategies for constructing an initial version of a test/instrument of interest and its revision aimed at improving its quality, based on item information and test information functions.
- The ability to improve a given measuring instrument, in order to achieve corresponding higher psychometric standards.
- The ability to deal with issues arising in the practice of studying tests, scales, and behavioral or mental measuring instruments using IRT/IRM.
Computing
To participate in the hands-on exercises, you are strongly encouraged to use a computer with Stata and Mplus installed (Stata 14 or later; the free Mplus demo version will suffice). However, no previous experience with Stata or Mplus is assumed.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Stata basics before the seminar begins, we recommend following along with a “getting started” video like the one here.
Seminar participants who are not yet ready to purchase Stata could take advantage of StataCorp’s free 30-day evaluation offer or their 30-day software return policy.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Mplus basics before the seminar begins, we recommend reading through UCLA’s short guide here.
To participate in the hands-on exercises, you are strongly encouraged to use a computer with Stata and Mplus installed (Stata 14 or later; the free Mplus demo version will suffice). However, no previous experience with Stata or Mplus is assumed.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Stata basics before the seminar begins, we recommend following along with a “getting started” video like the one here.
Seminar participants who are not yet ready to purchase Stata could take advantage of StataCorp’s free 30-day evaluation offer or their 30-day software return policy.
If you’d like to familiarize yourself with Mplus basics before the seminar begins, we recommend reading through UCLA’s short guide here.
Who should register?
To benefit from this seminar, you should have the equivalent of one or more semesters of statistics: a good introductory course with some treatment of probability and random variables. Basic understanding of regression analysis will be helpful. Some knowledge of multivariate statistics would also be helpful, but is not essential.
To benefit from this seminar, you should have the equivalent of one or more semesters of statistics: a good introductory course with some treatment of probability and random variables. Basic understanding of regression analysis will be helpful. Some knowledge of multivariate statistics would also be helpful, but is not essential.
Seminar outline
Day 1:
1. Resources for the course.
2. Introduction, brief history, and a short overview of Item Response Theory
(IRT)/Item Response Modeling (IRM).
3. A start-up example.
4. Popular unidimensional IRT models.
Day 2:
5. Parameter estimation in item response models.
6. Item information and test information functions. Test characteristic
curves.
7. Measuring instrument construction, development, and revision using
IRT/IRM.
8. Differential item functioning and methods for its examination.
Day 3:
9. Polytomous IRT models.
10. Multidimensional IRT/IRM.
11. Extensions and limitations of contemporary IRT/IRM applications.
12. Conclusion and outlook.
Day 1:
1. Resources for the course.
2. Introduction, brief history, and a short overview of Item Response Theory
(IRT)/Item Response Modeling (IRM).
3. A start-up example.
4. Popular unidimensional IRT models.
Day 2:
5. Parameter estimation in item response models.
6. Item information and test information functions. Test characteristic
curves.
7. Measuring instrument construction, development, and revision using
IRT/IRM.
8. Differential item functioning and methods for its examination.
Day 3:
9. Polytomous IRT models.
10. Multidimensional IRT/IRM.
11. Extensions and limitations of contemporary IRT/IRM applications.
12. Conclusion and outlook.
Payment information
The fee of $995 includes all course materials.
PayPal and all major credit cards are accepted.
Our Tax ID number is 26-4576270.
The fee of $995 includes all course materials.
PayPal and all major credit cards are accepted.
Our Tax ID number is 26-4576270.