As the technological demands of a rapidly changing society impact the training needs of the industrial sector, mechanisms for identifying learner strengths as well as weaknesses are needed to optimize the training process. In addition, there is a need for processes for evaluating the effectiveness of programs focused on the developmental needs of learners. Traditional measures, such as norm-referenced paradigms, do not meet the criteria established for developmental assessment. This book will provide the technical details needed to construct instruments as well as evaluate programs using a recently developed technique called item response theory, which meets the criteria for developmental assessment.
