This article describes an in-class exercise that can be used when teaching zoning law to a Real Estate Law or Legal Environment of Business undergraduate course. The exercise requires students to utilize Salt Lake City's zoning code to locate the best site for a restaurant chain given certain locational and operational requirements, and to…

Despite the central role that well organized and structured course content plays in engaging online learners with content, the authors point to the absence of guidelines for organizing content in ways that meet course learning goals. Recognizing the need for a design solution and, perhaps, the need for a new design model, "design…

A grant from the School Leadership Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education during 2008-14 provided the opportunities and resources for SREB to bring together its cutting-edge knowledge base, field experience, and substantial bank of publications and training materials in the closely related fields of school improvement and school…

Prompted by the need for leaders able to turn around chronically low-performing schools, states, universities, education groups, and school districts in the US have initiated a variety of principal development programs. Some programs focus on enhancing the skills of experienced administrators, while others target talented teachers and even…

The use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning depends on effective design, which operates at many levels of granularity from the small to the very large. This reflects the range of educational problems from course design down to the design of activities focused on specific learning objectives. For maximum impact these layers of design need to be…

Sensory overload and split attention result in reduced learning when instructors read slides with bullet points and complex graphs during a lecture. Conversely, slides containing relevant visual elements, when accompanied by instructor narration, use both the visual and verbal channels of a student's working memory, thus improving the chances of…

There is a common predicament faced by educational designers, that is, the lack of learning design tools for nontraditional pedagogies of learning. Because of this lack of alternatives, educational designers often use traditional design tools (such as task analysis) in contexts where nontraditional learning activities (such as collaborative…

Analyzes the requirements for constructing collaborative learning activities in distance computer assisted learning (CAL) systems; shows why an active database can satisfy the requirements with a collaborative homework example; and proposes procedures for using an active database to construct collaborative learning activities in distance CAL…

Description of how an abstract element of information provision--information service and product design--was made concrete to a class of undergraduate students highlights barriers to their understanding and shows how a tutorial activity helped them to overcome some of these and gave their tutors a greater appreciation of the students' strengths…

Discusses building an outdoor obstacle course with found materials to enhance static playground equipment and promote developmentally appropriate play activity for 3- to 8-year olds. Discusses developmental and learning goals of obstacle courses; includes photographs of building equipment and sample layouts. Encourages enlisting children to help…

Scenario refers to specific courses of action/events occurring within computer simulations and attempting to recreate lifelike situations. This article identifies critical features and their elements in designing effective scenarios in computer-based instructional simulations: (1) sequence; (2) operating procedures; (3) characteristics of…

Explores strategies for creating online learning environments on the World Wide Web. Describes a framework that identifies elements needed in the design of online learning: course content, learning activities, and learning supports. Concludes that online courses are more successful when they are not designed as supplements to conventional teaching…

Based on a workshop presented by Charles Wales, a guided design project was developed for a junior mechanical design class at California State University-Chico. This course involves lectures on the design process and an extension of the basic mechanics of materials concepts, particularly as related to design and prevention of failure. The…

Discusses the benefits of Web-based training for organizations, including immediacy, convenience, and consistency, and addresses issues that arise when converting a classroom course. Topics include organizational readiness; time allocation; technical readiness; course appropriateness for the Web; and design strategies, including converting text,…

This personal narrative traces the background of instructional gaming from 1958 to 1995. The advantages and disadvantages of gaming as a disciplined activity are considered. The evolution of professional organizations, related academic activity, the game design process, and the need for consistent use of terms are addressed. Contains 57…