Determined whether or not formative evaluation could facilitate goal attainment in a biochemistry course and produce desired learning outcomes consistently by altering course materials and/or instruction. Formative evaluation procedures included two tests administered to subjects (N=64) over a three-year period. Findings supported the formative…

Data on the intrinsic characteristics of an educational program are essential in pilot testing new programs in order to determine how successfully design components have achieved their intended purpose. At the outset of an evaluation of such data, it is necessary to define the evaluator's role and determine what intrinsic information will be…

This paper summarizes formative evaluation activities during the development of a pilot program by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications for a telecourse on introductory data analysis. These activities included: (1) two major design activities--selection of a statistician host teacher and script development; (2) production phase…

A review of the research literature on systematic instructional design indicates that few empirically supported guidelines exist for testing materials under development and for improving materials on the basis of feedback from potential learners. In an analysis of 17 textbooks on instructional design, eight specific aspects to be considered in…

Instructional materials designed to teach teachers some fundamental skills needed to implement objectives-based instruction are described, as well as the procedures and results of the initial tryout of the materials at Arizona State University with more than 400 preservice and inservice teachers. Participants used self-instructional booklets,…

Steps used in the formative evaluation of a project designed to incorporate self-instructional materials in an introductory zoology course included techniques which: (1) involved colleagues in the material development; (2) assessed relevant student characteristics, expectations, and evaluations; and (3) were used in the examinations. (MBR)

A questionnaire was developed to survey recent graduates of the electrical systems specialization in the Industrial Technology program at the Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) School of Technology. First, the pertinent literature was reviewed and a formative committee consisting of CCSU faculty and staff and the board of trustees of…

Formative evaluation consists of assessing educational programs or other kinds of educational products while they are being developed to help shape them into their final forms. This publication is intended for those whose job it is to develop new programs and products or to evaluate them during development. Topics discussed include: (1) the nature…

The evaluation of distance education courses at the FernUniversitat was an important focus of interest during the initial stages of its development (1974-1980), when courses were being developed for five major departments and the number of students enrolled was increasing rapidly. Since teaching began immediately, a formative evaluation approach…

The 3-year Dean's Grant Project at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale was designed to: (1) create a set of materials and resources, relating to serving the handicapped, to be used in the training of teachers; (2) provide training for faculty on Public Law 94-142 and the implications of the law for training teachers and administrators; (3)…

This paper describes an ongoing research project that uses a set of formative evaluation activities to examine a multimedia production group project in a teacher education course at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta, Canada). The study presents the notion of peer evaluation and target population feedback as tools for scaffolding students'…

Discusses the design of a series of case-based interactive videodiscs used for coaching preservice elementary science teachers to become reflective practitioners. Topics include HyperCard stacks; the formative evaluation process; and design features appropriate for materials developed in other content areas or with other technical platforms.…

Examines the role of students in the formative evaluation of instructional materials and reviews research on criteria for selecting students for the evaluation process. Studies that investigated the following criteria are described: (1) level of verbalization; (2) aptitude; and (3) cognitive styles field-dependent and field-independent. (18…

This paper presents a model for systematic instructional design that includes mental model analysis together with the procedures used in developing computer-based instructional materials in the area of statistical hypothesis testing. The instructional design model is based on the premise that the objective for learning is to achieve expert-like…

The objectives of the SUMIT project was to develop, evaluate, and disseminate 20 course modules (microcomputer programs) for instruction in general biology and ecology. To encourage broad utilization, the programs were designed for the Apple II microcomputer and written in Applesoft Basic with a user-adaptable format. Each package focused on a key…