Despite the ever-increasing number of higher education institutions offering online courses, there are still a lot of controversial debates and a strong sense of confusion about how well the concept of Web-based distance learning is being implemented. This paper summarizes the 10 primary steps toward the assessment, planning, design,…

Using 170 ninth-grade rural students, the study examined (1) whether modality preferences are a factor in student learning styles; (2) whether male and female students and students at different achievement levels expressed differing learning style preferences; and (3) how learning style characteristics relate to student self-concept and general…

Explores why "learning" and "object" have been combined in the field of instructional technology. Examines why current definitions of these terms are lacking when looked at from a standards and interoperability point of view. Suggests a new definition with a rationale to satisfy needs of technologists for precise, practical…

Describes study that examined text density levels as a design variable in print and computer-based instructional presentations. The six treatment groups are explained, including low density, high density, and learner controlled density; attitude surveys and achievement posttests are described; and implications of the findings for instructional…

Reports results of a research project assessing state-funded community networking (CN) sites in India. Explores the organization of information resources and services provided by 24 Web-based community networks, examines the core design principles that have been most useful in the development of these sites, and assesses strategies currently used…

Describes a tool for building software systems which replace the role of the examiner during a typical Italian academic exam in technical/scientific subjects. Such systems are designed to exploit the advantages of self-adapted testing for reducing effects of anxiety, and of computerized adaptive testing for increasing assessment efficiency.…

A common complaint among those involved in teaching the educational foundations is the reluctance of many trainee teachers to engage in issues of educational theory. This is particularly apparent with those trainees who are more concerned with managing classrooms of children than grappling with what are often abstract and difficult ideas. This…

The proliferation of online courses underscores the need to re-examine the foundations upon which courses are grounded. In particular, an emerging perspective in science education requires designers to account for scientific inquiry in student-centered science learning environments. With a focus on open-ended learning environments and grounded…

This article addresses one of the four questions of the MayDay Group Action Ideal No. 7: "To what extent and how can music education curriculums take broader educational and social concerns into account?" A multifaceted music curriculum model (MMC Model)--one that addresses relevant issues, criteria, and parameters typically involved or…

In a multiple baseline design, a teenager with a mental age of four years was taught two abstractions. One was the oddity principle (selecting the one object in a group which differs from the rest). The other was seriation (aligning objects along a continuum of size, and inserting new objects into their proper places in the alignments). These…

The study reports on changes in beliefs and attitudes toward urban schools evidenced by teacher candidates when engaged in a five week summer tutoring experience in a city school district. Beliefs at pre and post testing are presented descriptively, while changes between the two measures are presented in a matched-case method. Among the most…

This article focuses on the future physical layout of the university in view of the profound social and cultural changes of our time that are affecting the structure of higher education in general and universities in particular. We suggest that the basic architectural prototypes of university design should be re-examined in view of these changes.…

This paper examines aspects of some World Wide Web-based educational telecomputing projects to illustrate 10 different project Web page functions. These include: (1) giving a project overview or introduction to the goals and operational structure for the project; (2) announcing curriculum-based projects, inviting participation, and providing links…

This collection of instruction modules studies the interactions of science, technology, and society (STS) using five activity sets. The introduction module includes activities which show students the STS relationships in their world, develop good organizational skills, develop an understanding of who and what a scientist is, develop graphing…

This paper examines the concept of decalage from two cognitive-change positions (structures of logical thought and attentional and verbal mediators) and proposes an alternative explanation for decalage from a perceptual-change point of view. The term decalage is used to summarize the relation between differences in performance of various age…