A common challenge in higher education is teaching required content for which students traditionally have lower levels of interest. Physical therapist education programs experience this challenge when training entry-level students to document in the medical record. The authors compared learning outcomes among physical therapy students taught…

This paper reviews the literature on comparing online and paper course evaluations in higher education and provides a case study of a very large randomised trial on the topic. It presents a mixed but generally optimistic picture of online course evaluations with respect to response rates, what they indicate, and how to increase them. The paper…

Describes the development of courses at the University of Central Florida that are a mix of traditional classroom instruction and online courses. Discusses course assessment methods to help meet student needs; faculty incentives to participate in the assessment process; administrative support; and accountability. (LRW)

A personalized competency-based instructional strategy was designed and evaluated as an alternative to the traditional teacher-directed method. There was no difference in mean gain scores between the two groups for cognitive objectives, but the experimental strategy was superior in teaching psychomotor competencies. Student responses to the PSI…

Auto-tutorial instruction was compared to traditional lecture instruction in a university entomology course. In seven consecutive terms, undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory entomology course were divided into two groups: Group I received only lecture instruction on insect orders, while Group II was dismissed for three consecutive…

The purpose of the investigation was to develop and test an audio-tutorial program for a course in Basic Reference. The design of the investigation was a posttest-only-control group design with 63 students randomly assigned to either an audio-tutorial or a lecture group. Data were collected and analyzed using a t-test for two groups and four…

Describes a CD-ROM version of a basic course in exercise physiology that was developed in the United Kingdom to overcome problems of staff time, expense, ethical considerations, and large student numbers. Compares it to a traditional course and concludes that adding more active learning approaches to the CD-ROM would enhance student learning. (LRW)

The COMPS course is a basic introductory computer course taken by first year Computer Systems students. Eighteen students took the course with Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), while the rest of the students took the course in the conventional classroom setting. Although there was no difference between the two groups' mean group performance…

Compares online instruction and traditional classroom instruction at Macon State College (Georgia) in terms of both student perceptions and student performance as measured by grade distribution. Considers student gender, age, and employment status and reports the results of course evaluations. (LRW)

Questions related to the instructional design of computer-based educational systems were addressed in a study in which college psychology majors completed a computer-based course in statistics using instructional units developed to teach the desired knowledge within the context of situations to which the knowledge is relevant--a technique called…

Describes study conducted at Moorhead State University (Minnesota) that was designed to compare a variety of distance education delivery methods offered in a teacher training program. Alternative instructional delivery systems are compared to more traditional instruction control groups, and effects on student achievement and course evaluation are…

Describes study that examined the effects of using two-way interactive television in a three-course sequence of teacher education courses. Comparisons are made between distance education and conventionally taught classes, and the variables used are described, including the instructor's teaching effectiveness, feedback related to student progress,…

Discusses strategies for teaching elementary computer programing and describes a study that used two instructional strategies in a computer-based training program designed to teach turtle graphics programing techniques to novice undergraduate students. Learning activities that emphasized either the completion of existing programs or the generation…