Conducts a scenario-based usability test with 10 data analysts using visual querying (visually analyzing data with interactive graphics). Details a range of difficulties found in visual selection that, at times, gave rise to inaccurate selections, invalid conclusions, and misguided decisions. Argues that support for visual selection must be built…

Libraries subscribe to thousands of electronic journals and they are difficult for end-users to find. Journal and publisher interfaces and functionalities differ considerably. The recent development in e-media calls for central management of the resources. Lund University Libraries' Head Office has developed a service for presentation and…

K-12 school practitioners and schools administrators need reliable results about the effects of instructional technology products as they strive to meet achievement compliance levels in politically accountable local and national contexts in the U.S. This study presents evidence regarding the effects of extensive engagement with computer-based…

Physical activity participation rates in the United States have been in steady decline for the last 25 years, so much so that 60% of youth ages 9-13 years get no physical activity outside of school. This state of inactivity indicates that promoting participation in physical activity at a young age is of importance. For the present study, a…

Children and young people are increasingly performing a variety of writing tasks using computers, with word processing programs thus becoming their natural writing environment. The development of keystroke logging programs enables us to track the process of writing, without changing the writing environment for the writers. In the myMoment schools…

A large sample method for obtaining asymptotic simultaneous confidence bands for a three-parameter logistic response curve is described. Simultaneous confidence bands indicate the sampling variation of item response curves relative to a fitted function. A procedure is given which requires as input maximum likelihood parameter estimates and an…

Since real-life situations of trauma training are practically not available, a proper substitute must take advantage of the most recent advents in multimedia and groupware technologies. Multimedia visualization is of particular importance in trauma training, as the most crucial step of the patient's initial assessment is largely based on a surface…

With the advent of the computer and user-friendly statistical software packages, factor analysis has become accessible to most researchers. However, conventional factor analysis, or R-technique, is only useful for research concerning types or groups of variables. Educational and psychological researchers are often interested in types of people,…

These FORTRAN programs and MATHEMATICA routines were developed in the course of a research project titled "Achievement and Assessment in School Science: Modeling and Mapping Ability and Performance." Their use is described in other publications from that project, including "Latent Traits or Latent States? The Role of Discrete Models…

A high-breakdown estimator is a robust statistic that can withstand a large amount of contaminated data. In linear regression, high-breakdown estimators can detect outliers and distinguish between good and bad leverage points. This paper summarizes the case for high-breakdown regression and emphasizes the least quartile difference estimator (LQD)…

This paper outlines the procedures used to implement and test the CARL version C100 circulation system at the University of Colorado's Boulder Campus. Intended to serve as a guide to other libraries implementing new circulation software, the paper describes a broad approach to testing such software, describes procedures that speed and organize the…

Researchers are developing automated instructional design systems which guide subject matter experts (SMEs) through the complexities of courseware development. Enabling SMEs to perform many of the authoring activities associated with courseware development has two distinct advantages: (1) costs are contained; and (2) SMEs can make optional use of…

This document contains three position papers concerned with copyright, cataloging, and software standards for educational software. In the first paper, "Cataloguing Educational Software: Is There a Problem?" R. N. Tucker advocates the cataloguing of educational software in the same way and in the same place as other materials in a…

A microprocessor constitutes the heart and soul of a personal computer. Indeed, the quality of a personal computer is determined largely by the type of microprocessor that is included within its circuitry. Since the microcomputer revolution began in the late 1970s, these special chips have gone through a series of improvements and modifications.…

This paper describes a computer model that simulates the way children develop the reasoning skills of transitive inference and the construction of ordered sets. The computer model begins from general operations, such as setting and removing goals, storing and retrieving information, comparing elements to find matches, reading premises, and giving…