Considers the processes associated with holistic needs assessment and other front end activities such as needs analysis, front-end analysis, and task analysis. The Organizational Elements Model (OEM) is described to clarify how processes relate to levels of organizational planning, and the optimal contexts for use of each process are suggested.…

Discussion of the future of educational technology focuses on an organizational analysis of the scenarios presented in the articles in this issue. Categories of organizational dynamics include the environment; goals, including values and objectives; structures, including authority and finance; methods, or technologies; and personnel issues,…

Examines the implications of cognitive psychology for some of the fundamental components of instructional development. Behaviorism and information processing are compared in their relationships to instructional design, and potential changes for such ideas as objectives, evaluation, instructional taxonomies, content analysis, and instructional…

Summarizes strategies and recommendations included in various prominent instructional theories (behaviorism, Gagne and Briggs' events of instruction, component display theory, cognitive research, and Keller's motivational-design) to provide guidelines for designing the practice component of instruction. (MBR)

Describes functions comprising task analysis process--inventory, description, selection, sequencing, and analysis--and reviews distinctions between the micro/macro level, top-down/bottom-up, and job/learning task analysis processes. These functions and distinctions are combined into a quasi-algorithm suggesting which of 30 task analysis procedures…

Proposes a two-level decision model to evaluate educational programs by types of learners they generate as well as the utility and cost of the program. Decision rules based on the underlying requirement that each learner reach self-sufficiency are described. (Author/BK)

Discusses the use of instructional systems design for setting instructional objectives in public schools. Goals for elementary and secondary schools are reviewed, the ways teachers use instructional materials and develop learning activities are described, and prospects on the national, state, and local levels are discussed. (24 references) (LRW)

Reviews issues highlighted during a meeting of educational technology professors in April 1985: a need for core curriculum content; alternative research methods; role of educational technologists in public education; relationships with business; interinstitutional cooperation. Comments on graduate curriculum, researcher training, and an…