While the demand for increased educational productivity is clear, the methods for achieving it are largely undetermined. Cost effectiveness techniques have proved to be valuable tools for commercial organizations, but the relevance to educational problems is less than clear. Theory suggests that these techniques can be useful for dealing with…

Progress made on the development of a plan for evaluating the cost performance and educational benefits of the TICCIT and PLATO projects is summarized in this annual report. The basic focus of the first section of the report, Cost Analysis, is to provide answers to the fundamental question of how much these two CAI methods cost compared with some…

The report provides additional amplification for the concepts, purposes, techniques, and procedures of economic analysis. It also focuses on and discusses potential difficulties one is likely to encounter in doing an economic analysis. The key elements of the process are discussed in detail: (1) establishing and defining objectives, (2)…

Educators often fail to implement improved teaching systems because they lack a method of choosing among instructional alternatives. The Rand Coporation is developing for the Air Force a means--called Method of Designing Instructional Alternatives (MODIA)--whereby instructors can select a preferred instructional system. Using MODIA, one begins by…

MODIA (Method of Designing Instructional Alternatives) was developed to help the Air Force manage resources for formal training by systematically and explicitly relating quantitative requirements for training resources to the details of course design and course operation during the planning stage. It suggests approaches to course design not…

The methods of operations research (OR) can make many contributions to the solution of the complex problems which beset urban education. OR techniques such as PERT are useful aids to planning school construction, budgets, and research projects. System planning models can be used to represent urban educational systems and to predict the effects of…