Meeting the needs of students who are below their grade level in spelling ability is a continual problem for elementary teachers. Much has been learned over the past 15 years about how children learn to spell in the primary grades. Developmental spelling sequences have gained credibility and developmental spelling theory has provided important…

Instructional designers who are asked to convert existing training materials into computer-based training (CBT) must take special precautions to avoid making the product into a sophisticated page turner. Although conversion may save considerable time on subject research and analysis, courses to be delivered through microcomputers may require…

The dramatic and increasing availabilty of relatively cheap computer power has led people to tout microcomputers as the solution to education and training problems. However, such panaceas for educational problems fail because they do not address the real ingredients for successful instruction or the problems of large-scale implementation.…

This chapter examines the roles of the instructional developer and the media production specialist in the development of instructional projects in the context of a six step development process. These steps include pre-assessment, establishing goals, identifying and specifying objectives, designing strategies, selecting and/or producing resources,…

A persistent problem for instructional designers has been deciding exactly what to do. To be of value in the development process, an instructional design needs to be developed with consideration of the kinds of objectives to be achieved, the specific activities used to teach the objectives, and the order or sequence in which the learning…

The 46 papers is this volume represent some of the most current thinking in educational communications and technology. Individual papers address the following topics: gender differences in the selection of elective computer science courses and in the selection of non-traditional careers; instruction for individuals with different cognitive styles;…

This paper discusses the implications of Lucy Suchman's conclusion that a theory of situated action--i.e., the actual sense that specific users make out of specific Xeroxing events--is truer to the lived experience of Xerox users than a cognitive account of the user's plans--e.g., the hierarchy of subprocedures for how Xerox machines should be…

Arguing that goal knowledge is as important to intelligent machine activity as it is to human activity, and that it also must be well understood and explicitly represented in an instructional system if that system is to be successful in fostering learning, this report presents an architecture for intelligent tutors that explicitly represents…

Arguing that the production system for computer courseware has a strong impact on quality courseware development, this report offers an introduction into the relationships between instructional system design and software engineering, and investigates courseware quality as a means of identifying quality enhancement factors that can make the…

This description of the model used to teach instructional development to teachers at the University of Kentucky includes strategies and approaches used in the course; exercises, projects, and activities used in the class; and copies of forms and handouts used by the class. Alternative teaching materials, primarily textbooks, are also described.…

To contribute to a deeper understanding of distance education and its potential development, this 19-chapter book systematically relates correspondence education to seven teaching models: Skinner's behavior control model, Rothkopf's model for written instruction, Ausubel's advance organizer model, Egan's structural communication model, Bruner's…

Writing considerations specific to instructional television (ITV) situations are discussed in this handbook written for the beginner, but designed to be of use to anyone creating an ITV script. Advice included in the handbook is based on information obtained from ITV wirters, literature reviews, and the author's personal experience. The ITV…

A project identified strategies to improve the design of workshops. Seventeen workshops were offered in 1984 by one training team, Macduff Bunt Associates, a management training company. The workshops were conducted throughout the Pacific Northwest for business and industry, nonprofit volunteer organizations, and government agencies. Workshop…