Questionnaires were mailed to 138 students in 55 communities in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon, who had enrolled from their homes in an introductory psychology distance education course; 92 responses were received. In addition to an integrated, open learning course package in print form, students could also watch a weekly one-hour live…

The meaning of instructional design is explored as it relates to four ideological aims of education: The Cultural Transmission; The Romantic; The Progressive; and The Critical. Definitions of "instructional design" and "ideology" are first presented, and the four ideologies are briefly described. A heuristic (in matrix format)…

Noting that formative research on educational computer software has traditionally focused on comprehensibility, appeal, and usefulness, this report argues that these three elements tell us very little about the actual role that the formative researcher plays in the instructional design process. This paper outlines the complexity of the tasks and…

This manual for secondary school teachers offers sample lesson plans that may be used to guide and stimulate experimentation and development of creative instructional units. Lesson plan components are defined, and various types of lessons and their significant characteristics are identified. These characteristic types of lessons are illustrated,…

Guidelines for understanding computer-assisted instruction (CAI) pedagogical designs and evaluating CAI software for its relevance to specific teaching and learning objectives are presented in this paper. Topics discussed include applications, drawbacks, and examples of the five types of CAI software--drill and practice, tutorial, simulation,…

This document describes an instructional analysis technique believed to be an expedient and effective alternative to the Gagne-Briggs model because, among other reasons, it is easier to teach to novice trainers. The technique is in use in the U.S. Marine Corps. The document consists of the following: an overview of the different kinds of analysis…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, describe, and compare three individual models for designing computer assisted instruction: the Instructional System Development Model (by Alessi and Trollip); Lessonware (by Grossley and Green); and Liflander's Model (by Liflander). The comparison between these models involves criteria such as: (1) At…

Guidelines for the preparation of a distance learning program plan for submission to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) are presented in this document in outline format. Each of the eight topics to be addressed in the plan is described: (1) funding; (2) the operator or agency responsible for program administration; (3) quality factors in content and…

This paper presents a theory of instructional text design that takes into account the process of reading comprehension and the variables in both the reader and the text which can affect that process. Three areas of design concern--legibility and readability, visual illustration, and structure and organization--are discussed. Each area design…

This paper describes a design model presented in workbook form which is intended to facilitate computer-assisted instruction (CAI) software design by teachers who do not have programming experience. Presentation of the model is preceded by a number of assumptions that underlie the instructional content and methods of the textbook. It is argued…

Designed to complement the manual, "Evaluation of Educational Software: A Guide to Guides," which provides an overview of 10 different models of microcomputer courseware evaluation instruments, this 5-section workshop guide outlines an approach to using the evaluation materials in a hands-on workshop setting. Session notes, reproducible…

Outline graphics provide concurrent access to both visual and verbal elements. Their logic is primarily but not exclusively verbal. They rely upon the visual aspects of layout design and symbology to compress the several ideas of a conceptual cluster into a single comprehensible holistic display. This paper introduces new terminology and lists and…

Arguing that the failure of instructional materials is frequently due to misconceptions held by their developers concerning the nature of comprehension, this chapter examines the factors involved in comprehension and relates them to the design of instructional materials. Three types of errors in comprehension are discussed, and ways to avoid them…

This article reports the development of a mathematics course using the mastery learning model and a study of the relationship between learning rate and verbal and quantitative aptitudes. (Author)