This article reminds readers of the benefits that use cases bring to the software development process. Use cases, as featured in the UML (Unified Modeling Language), are contrasted with the much terser "user stories" favoured by agile methods. With their normal and alternative flows, and extending and included behaviours, use cases…

Teams of students in an upper-division undergraduate Usability Engineering course used a collaborative environment to carry out a series of three distributed collaborative homework assignments. Assignments were case-based analyses structured using a jigsaw design; students were provided a collaborative software environment and introduced to a…

Considers whether current definitions of interactivity in educational software are optimal and suggests a new model of interaction based on how learners interact mentally with new schema and on educational psychology. Discusses knowledge acquisition; production, or the creation of new knowledge; collaboration; and applying the learning interaction…

This paper presents a three-phase model of how formative evaluation research can inform the design of educational computer software products. Used as an illustrative case is a program of formative research conducted on "The Talking Clock," a computer assisted instructional software product designed to help children in kindergarten through second…

Arguing that what sets the computer apart from all other teaching devices is its potential for interactivity, this paper examines the concept of interactivity and explores ways in which its power can be harnessed and put to work. A discussion of interactivity in human-to-human communication sets a context within which to view human/computer…

Argues that much software designed for children needing remedial education is inappropriate, and a more relevant approach can be found in cognitive learning theory. These issues are discussed with reference to application of principle derived from cognitive and language development model to software designed for children with severe language…

Discussion of interactive learning focuses on electronic-based interactive media environments. Highlights include changing definitions of knowledge and technology; definitions of interactivity; models of interactivity in computer use; implications for instructional design, including multimedia; and implications for teacher education and inservice…

Defines social and instructional interaction and outlines key elements influencing the design of adaptive computer-mediated learning. Discusses options for the design of interactivity: Web-based, groupware, programming tools, and hybrid course design programs; proposes a graphical model for choosing design tools balancing interactivity and…

Discussion of courseware evaluation for computer-based training (CBT) highlights the CITAR Computer Courseware Evaluation Model (CCEM), which was developed at the Center for Interactive Technology, Applications, and Research (CITAR) at the University of South Florida. Instructional and interactive characteristics of commercially available CBT…

Discussion of educational software focuses on a model of educational software that was derived from a case study of two elementary school teachers participating in a software design process. Considers human-computer interface, interaction, software browsing strategies, and implications for teacher training. (Author/LRW)

Proposes a model for a computer-assisted language learning software design based on interactionist theories of first and second language acquisition. Comparison of the conversational discourse generated by two groups of students working on negotiable- and non-negotiable outcome programs found that the negotiable-outcome software generated…

The ultimate aim of this research is to specify and implement a general authoring framework for content and knowledge engineering for Intelligent Educational Systems (IES). In this context we attempt to develop an authoring tool supporting this framework that is powerful in its functionality, generic in its support of instructional strategies and…

This paper presents aspects of modeling, authoring, and presenting structured documents corresponding to teaching material presented in the World Wide Web. In this context, the importance of providing the formalization of the structure of the documents using Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is discussed. Next, specifications for…

This paper describes a range of computer assisted learning software models--linear, unstructured, and ideal--and discusses issues such as control, interactivity, and ease-of-programming. It also introduces a "compromise model" used for a package currently under development at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which is intended to…

Since 1993, the Critical Thinking Cooperative (TC2) has initiated projects with school districts and universities throughout British Columbia. To date, the main emphasis has been on social studies, with the exception of some recent work in language arts. This paper investigates the application of the TC2 model of critical thinking to computers,…