The use of PowerPoint (PPT)-based lectures in business classes is prevalent, yet it remains empirically understudied in business education research. The authors investigate whether students in the contemporary business classroom view PPT as a novel stimulus and whether these perceptions of novelty are related to students' self-assessment of…

This study investigated the usefulness of the many-facet Rasch model (MFRM) in evaluating the quality of performance related to PowerPoint presentations in higher education. The Rasch Model utilizes item response theory stating that the probability of a correct response to a test item/task depends largely on a single parameter, the ability of the…

Christine Greenhow, J. D. Walker, Dan Donnelly, and Brad Cohen describe the implementation and evaluation of the University of Minnesota's Fair Use Analysis (FUA) tool, an interactive online application intended to educate users and foster defensible fair use practice in accordance with copyright law by guiding users through a robust,…

Emergency notification has become a critical component of every higher education institution's overall emergency plan, as incidents across the country have galvanized campus safety officials to find more ways to notify their campus populations. Emergency notification systems can help get and keep students, faculty members, and staff out of harm's…

In K-12 classrooms, as well as on the college and university level, the incorporation of digital games has played a vital role in the educational system. While introducing teachers to new fields, these digital games have been designed and implemented for the classroom and have shown positive results at a variety of educational levels. Cases on…

A literature review and survey responses from 194 information technology and aerospace contractors identified methods and outcomes of training delivery. Results were used to develop a framework for evaluating and selecting commercial off-the-shelf systems (COTS) for operations and maintenance training. (Contains 11 references.) (SK)

Discussion of evaluation methodology for computer software focuses on the evaluation of electronic performance support systems. Highlights include problems with evaluation; a usage-oriented methodology, including a theoretical framework, a purpose aspect, and an activities aspect; decision making; and rapid prototypes. (LRW)

Notes that educational software for the language arts should serve as a conduit to foster language development and should be evaluated as such for its instructional claims. Offers guidelines from a language learning perspective as a first cut in the evaluation process. (RS)

Presents criteria teachers can use when evaluating software designed to teach grammar to students of Italian-as-a-Second-Language. The importance of collaboration between programmers and academic experts is stressed in creating software and the need for teachers to choose software as carefully as they select textbooks. (CFM)

Reviews commonly used search engines (AltaVista, Excite, infoseek, Lycos, HotBot, WebCrawler), focusing on existing comparative studies; considers quality dimensions from the customer's point of view based on a SERVQUAL framework; and groups these quality expectations in five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and…

Discussion of effective search aids for legal researchers on the World Wide Web focuses on the design and evaluation of two software systems developed to explore models for browsing and searching across a user-selected set of Web sites. Describes crawler-enhanced search engines, filters, distributed full-text searching, and natural language…

Discussion of online help systems in online public access catalogs (OPACs) focuses on a study that evaluated the online help system for the NOTIS (Northwestern Online Total Integrated System) OPAC. Features of the system reviewed include online functions; training features; general interface features; access points; and message content and display…

Discusses motivation-based tactics and contrasts them with instruction based on student's assumed state of knowledge. Describes an intelligent tutoring system, MORE (MOtivational REactive plan), which combines motivational planning and knowledge domain issues, and a formative evaluation of the tutor teaching Prolog debugging. (Author/JKP)

MicroFACT 2.0, an item factor analysis computer program, was reviewed. Program features were described in detail, as well as the program output. The performance of MicroFACT was evaluated on a Windows 2000, Pentium III platform. MicroFACT was found to be fairly easy to use, and one problem encountered was reported. Program requirements and…

Developing a software environment to enhance 3D geometric proficiency demands the consideration of theoretical views of the learning process. Simultaneously, this effort requires taking into account the range of tools that technology offers, as well as their limitations. In this paper, we report on the design of Virtual Spaces 1.0 software, a…