The present state of curriculum and instructional design skills in Pennsylvania preservice teacher education programs was examined. Data were collected from self-studies conducted by 14 public and private teacher education institutions in Pennsylvania. The types and levels of curriculum and instructional design skills taught in each program were…

A mortgage services company conducted a cost benefit analysis of a computer-based training program for its payment application process. A test group showed a 21% increase in speed of making payments, an 81% increase in accuracy, a reduction of average training time by nearly 65%, and improved morale. Program design, development, authoring, and…

This study reports on the pedagogic rationale, didactic design and implications of an AHRC-funded doctoral training scheme in collaborative and digital multimedia in the humanities. In the second part of this article we discuss three areas of provision that were identified as particularly significant and/or controversial. These include (1) desktop…

First-year seminars have become common at liberal arts and other colleges across the United States. An accumulating body of research appears to demonstrate that this curricular element is associated with increased retention of students and is positively correlated with graduation rates, student adjustment and involvement, student satisfaction,…

This article presents a descriptive study designed to determine the national status of secondary technology education curriculum content and assessment practices as they relate to engineering design. The results of this study were divided into a three-part article series. Although this study focused on the larger construct of the national status…

This article features Dallas Baptist University (DBU), a private, Christian, liberal arts institution located in the DFW Metroplex. With just over 5,200 students, DBU provides both traditional undergraduate, adult and graduate degrees with the enrollment almost equally divided between the three student groups. Today, DBU offers 34 degree programs…

A study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of 2 years of single parent and homemaker projects in Indiana. Methodology involved on-site visitation to each of the 14 projects and interviews with 48 project staff and 75 participants. Major findings of the study were as follows: (1) services and activities provided by all the projects have…

Reviewed are empirical studies of relationships among school feeding programs (SFPs), school attendance, enrollment, cognitive development, and academic performance. Recommendations for SFP design are specified. An agenda for a systematic operations research project on the influence of SFPs on these variables and on nutritional status is…

This report describes the Orleans Parish Allied Health Profession Counseling Program, a three-year project developed to evaluate the effectiveness of providing health career information in a structured classroom setting. The materials for this program, which was designed specifically to provide high school students with detailed information…

This article describes a typical audio-active-record student control panel and operational requirements, which, due to inefficiently designed controls, may have a negative influence on student attitudes and performance. A model panel, developed at the University of Hawaii, incorporating student needs illustrates improvements in technical design.…

This article reports the evaluation of a walk-in student advising system designed to meet students' needs for accessibility, advising, and close interaction with advisors. The walk-in advising system is reported to be well-used, and to address the need for both information and good student-advisor relationships. (TE)

It is often claimed that techniques such as "multimedia" and the use of blended learning environments can be used to achieve powerful interactive pedagogies. Indeed, the advent of easy-to-use multimedia technologies has meant that a plethora of digital learning products is now becoming available. Despite the relative ease-of-use of these new…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and public pressure to prepare students for the twenty-first century has put increasing demands on schools to improve student performance. This action research study examined the efforts of an elementary school principal and her third and fourth grade teachers to improve students' performance in math. The…

In fall 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a three-year project (IB Access Project) with International Baccalaureate (IB) to increase participation of minority students and students in poverty in the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP). The IB Access Project seeks to do four things: (1) Improve teacher practice…

Over the last decade, more and more public and private stakeholders, in developed and developing countries, have been supporting 1:1 initiatives in education (i.e. every child receives her/his own personal computing device). These 1:1 initiatives represent a qualitative move forward from previous educational experiences with ICT, inasmuch as every…