Exploration of "prior art"--the state of a technology's development, as manifested in literature, documentation, and artifacts--has many benefits for engineering students. It expands their understanding of the design problem, reveals a range of possible solutions, and develops research skills important to professional practice. While…

Academic librarians at a mid-size university library developed an online information literacy tutorial that is easy to create, access, edit, and organize even for those with limited time and technological skills. Modular in structure, Project Information Literacy Online Tutorial (PILOT) includes interactive exercises, media, and self-testing as…

As the American higher education paradigm shifts from a traditional classroom instruction model to a distributed learning model, academic libraries must update library instruction methods to allow for more flexible delivery of content. Distance students particularly need instructional content that can be accessed anywhere, at any time. This…

This research examined the impact of formative quizzes on e-learning designed to teach volunteers how to tutor struggling readers. Three research questions were addressed: (1) Do embedded quizzes facilitate learning of e-content? (2) Does the announcement of upcoming quizzes affect learning? (3) Does prior knowledge interact with quizzing and…

The review of four recent studies which examined the effects of instructional design variables in computer assisted instruction (drill and practice, tutorial, and simulation) for mildly handicapped secondary students found statistically significant differences for the experimental treatments in three of the studies indicating the importance of…

Emphasis is placed on the experimental analysis of behavior in this spelling program of computer-assisted instruction (CAI). The spelling program is of special interest because it is based on a good behavioral analysis of the nature of the spelling task, and it offers a chance to review computer instrumentation. Results of the review indicates the…

This report summarizes the year's activities of a project at two adult correctional institutions which utilized computers in their educational programs to supplement the existing GED, basic math, language arts, reading, and vocational skills and awareness curriculums. The computer is used as a supplement to the educational programs by providing…

This report summarizes a series of eight research studies related to the use of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with mildly handicapped students at the junior high or high school level. Through videodisc and CAI the studies isolated the effects of the following design variables: (1) review cycles; (2) size of teaching sets; (3) explicit…

Presents an authoring environment dedicated to the development of curriculum and course material that can be handled by an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The adopted curriculum model is Curriculum Representation and Acquisition Model (CREAM) which represents subject-matter content from the domain, the pedagogical, and the didactic points of…

The current state of computer assisted instruction (CAI) in kindergarten through grade 12 is discussed. Four formats for CAI--drill, practice, tutorial, and simulation--are defined, and a set of criteria for distinguishing between effective and ineffective CAI are described. Comparisons are made between human and computer tutors. In response to…

This paper is a preliminary report of a pilot study done at the University of Northern Colorado in 1984 using PHOENIX, a mainframe computer based education (CBE) system in a teacher education program. The study deals with the instructional tutorial and a computer based test generation system related to those tutorials. Data on the physiological…

The Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) Division of the U.S. Army Signal Center and School (USASCS) at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey evaluated CAI's success in teaching basic electronics. An initial feasibility study, interim assessments, and a summative evaluation assessed the value of the developmental, user-oriented, individualized CAI programs…

The Foreign Language Understanding Engendered by Naturalistic Techniques (Fluent) project is an educational system for beginning foreign language learning. Arguments are made in support of Fluent's scientific and practical potential for a situation-based, two-medium conversational environment that refers to pedagogical and second-language…

The results of five experiments investigating the effects of forced pauses and guided processing in an interactive videodisc instructional system are presented. The results indicate that forced pauses at strategic locations in an interactive videodisc tutorial may improve achievement for some students without interfering in the achievement of…

The development of templates for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is discussed, based on experiences with primarily linear multimedia tutorial programs. Design of templates for multiple-choice questions and interactive tasks in a prototype module is described. Possibilities of enhancing interactivity by introducing problem-oriented…