In the context of decision support systems (DSS) use, four perspectives on evaluating decisions (consensual, political, empirical, and rational) and four models of organizational effectiveness (human relations, open system, internal process, and rational goal) are examined for their implications for DSS implementation and evaluation. (MSE)

The first of three articles on the ways in which people formulate their observations, this paper considers the basic assumptions of both syntactic and paradigmatic models of cognition and their applications in natural (i.e., human) and artificial (i.e., computer) information processing. The analysis begins with background information on the nature…

Describes a study of undergraduate students that was conducted to compare the effectiveness of three computer-assisted career guidance (CACG) systems in terms of their contribution to career decision making and the attitudes of students regarding the helpfulness of CACG. Evaluation standards are discussed, and measurement techniques are explained.…

For a number of years, the California community colleges have used data from annual statewide surveys conducted by the Kern Community College District and the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) for comparative faculty salary information. Both the Kern and CCCT studies rely upon the device of selecting benchmark points (such as the…

This study presents a review of selection factors for the seven major general-purpose programming languages: Ada, BASIC, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, PASCAL, and PL/I. The factors covered include not only the logical operations within each language, but also the advantages and disadvantages stemming from the current computing environment, e.g., software…

Describes a plan that identifies the extent of academic and related service needs of students. Using data on students from 50 elementary schools in Minneapolis (Minnesota), the authors show how their analytical technique helped identify schools with poor performance and what actions needed to be taken to improve them or to sustain efforts where…

Research proposals funded by the National Academic Advising Association are summarized. Topics include adult student retention factors, high-risk students' learning processes, undergraduate engineering performance predictors, traditional and computerized advising in research universities, re-entry women, advisor training through case studies,…