An Introduction to Item Response Theory — Professional Development Continuing Education Course
ASA
Item response theory is a class of models that describes the interaction between persons and questions on a test or survey. These models are used to relate behavior to constructs with applications in test development, item banking, equating, computer adaptive testing, and behavioral and psychological measurement. This course will cover the basic tenets and concepts of item response theory with the goal to have attendees develop an understanding of dichotomous models, polytomous models, and be introduced to multidimensional item response theory. The instructor will deliver content using a mix of lecture, discussion, engaging interactive examples, and meta cognition checks with formative and summative feedback. The course assumes knowledge of basic terminology such as parameter vs statistic but will be taught at an introductory level. Some familiarity with concepts of basic calculus, logistic regression, and maximum likelihood estimation may be helpful, but are not required.
Instructor(s): Brian Leventhal, James Madison University
