This paper looks at bugs and errors in the following commonly used statistical packages: SAS, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Biomedical Data Plan (BMDP), and Minitab. A section on using the Internet to keep up to date on these packages covers subscribing to statistical software lists, searching statistical software lists,…

Discusses quality in end-user documentation for computer applications and explains four approaches to improving quality in end-user documents. Highlights include online help, usability testing, technical writing elements, statistical approaches, and concepts relating to software quality that are also applicable to user manuals. (LRW)

Research questions that test the interaction between either categorical variables or multiplicative expressions are commonly found in multiple regression and analysis of variance applications. In contract, research questions posing an interaction between observed variables in a path analytic model are not commonly found in the literature. This is…

This paper identifies three ways that computers are used in educational contexts. The first and most widespread use is as a tutor, i.e., as a delivery system for programmed instruction and drill-and-practice activities. The second use is as a programming environment to teach programming languages such as BASIC, LOGO, or PASCAL. The third use is as…

Classifies types of electronic books: archival, informational, instructional, and interrogational; evaluates five commercially, available examples and two in-house examples; and describes software tools for creating and delivering electronic books. Identifies crucial design considerations: interactive end-user interfaces; use of hypermedia;…

Over the past decade, there have been many changes in the tools used to design, the ways information can be represented and the underpinning theories which drive educational experiences. This paper focuses on several examples of software design that have been pedagogically successful and have demonstrated what is possible in software design and…

The MEDA (Methodologie d'Evaluation des Didacticiels pour les Adultes) tool is a generic instrument to evaluate training courseware. It was developed for software designers to improve products, for instructors to select appropriate courseware, and for distributors and consultants to match software to client needs. Describes software evaluation…

To code and analyze research data on videotape, a methodology is needed that allows the researcher to code directly and then analyze the observed degree of intensity of the observed events. The establishment of such a methodology is the next logical step in the development of the use of video recorded data in research. The Technological…

Education continues to move on-line through the World Wide Web. Classrooms of students and teachers are no longer restricted by time or distance. ClassNet is a tool that manages these virtual classrooms; it automates many of the administrative tasks associated with global Internet classes. Through a simple interface of Web forms, students can…

In the course of a Web development project for the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Vienna, ViEx, a reuse framework supporting authoring and managing hypermedia exhibitions, has been developed. The framework consists of three major components: a relational content database, a corresponding browser based editing interface, and a Web page generator which…

This paper discusses methodological issues and strategies that underlie the development of expert software systems that provide research assistance to school practitioners of action research. The following key issues related to the development of expert systems software are examined: developing a knowledge base that represents research expertise;…

Language, once a cultural asset in Europe, has become an economic commodity. The national language institutes now have the task of providing the means for making knowledge available in the national language and distributing locally produced information worldwide. This includes not only training more translators, but also developing the necessary…

This paper investigates, through a case study, the development of a software architecture that is compatible with a system's high-level requirements. The case study is an example of an extended customer/supplier relationship (post-point of sale support) involved in e-universities and is representative of a class of enterprise without current…

Presents a layered architecture for hypermedia systems that uses the MHEG (Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Expert Group) proposal to provide the desired independence between hypermedia applications' conceptual models and storage strategies for hypermedia objects. An overview of the MHEG standard proposal is provided. (Contains 16…

The concepts of usability and user-centered design (UCD) have grown in popularity over the past 20 years as measured by the number of research and mainstream articles devoted to their discussion. As with all new developments, however, there are always the questions of how things work in practice compared to theory. A survey of 83 software…