This paper addresses the difficult issues of balancing faculty and university rights and responsibilities regarding courseware and courseware modules developed as both commissioned and non-commissioned works. The ways in which this debate affects those who are engaged in building their own online courses for their universities, courseware…

This report describes a detailed, multi-site evaluation of ConStatS, a curricular software package for helping students conceptualize introductory statistics. ConStatS employs a novel approach for forcing students into an active, experimental style of learning. This evaluation allowed an assessment of the degree to which curricular software helps…

Creating educational software generally requires a great deal of computer expertise, and as a result, educators lacking such knowledge have largely been excluded from the design process. Recently, researchers have been designing tools for automating some aspects of building instructional applications. These tools typically aim for generality,…

This paper addresses the lack of evaluative resources for computer-assisted reading and writing instruction (CARWI). It begins by discussing the benefits, drawbacks, and effectiveness of computer-based instruction. It then describes types of CARWI packages, including: (1) writing process software; (2) electronic handbooks; (3) interactive…

This article is a primer for educators hoping to choose instructional software for their classrooms. The following four basic principles that all quality educational software has in common are discussed: (1) an adherence to learning theory, including behavioral and cognitive theory; (2) employment of gaming features; (3) culturally sensitive…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the pedagogical background and design rationale of ITCOLE (Innovative Technology for Collaborative Learning) software. The ITCOLE software is a highly scalable and easy to use modular environment that supports students' joint efforts to build knowledge together, whether they are primary, secondary, or older…

This paper discusses the development and implementation of a computer-based directed study preservice teacher education course. Specifically, it explains the procedures followed to create the ten multimedia CD-ROMs that comprise the course, and how preservice teachers use the CD-ROMs. Topics to be covered include (1) rationale for course creation;…

Regulatory agencies around the world require that those involved in producing pharmaceutical products be adequately trained. E-learning can accomplish this, providing consistent delivery and learner assessment. However, there are some unique expectations that regulators and the pharmaceutical industry have of e-learning solutions. These include…

This paper describes a domain-specific repository based on the methodology for e-learning systems development. The methodology, which is based on information engineering and object-oriented technology, is used to support navigation for courseware development, designing the curriculum of e-learning components, and e-learning resources management. A…

The aim of this project is to build software development environments for teachers, enabling them to produce their own educational applications for their classrooms as easily as they might produce educational materials using a word processor. As one means of realizing this goal, the authors proposed a componentware methodology, and developed 15…

This study investigated the variation of meaning that may be assigned by students to instructional symbol systems. Toward this end, student interpretations of symbols employed to represent free fall in Boxer, a computational environment designed for innovative instructional activities in math and science, were analyzed. Four classes of…

This paper is a report on the types of online delivery applications used in institutions of higher education (IHEs) to develop and implement World Wide Web-based courses. Many IHEs are grappling with ways to implement and manage online instruction by using local personnel and resources, purchasing some components of management, or outsourcing…

This paper discusses the following pedagogical questions and technological solutions that evolved as three multimedia case studies for preservice teachers were developed: (1) What tools can be garnered to encourage preservice teachers to look beyond superficial aspects of a classroom to observe the complexities of the teaching and learning…

Explains NEEDS (National Engineering Education Delivery System), an infrastructure developed by the Synthesis Engineering Education Coalition to disseminate computer-based multimedia courseware over the Internet for distant independent education. Topics include supporting curricular change, an example of available material, and exploratory…

Presents an evaluation instrument for evaluating instructional multimedia programs. Highlights include the need to evaluate; an illustrated example; and instructions for filling out the instrument that includes compatibility for hardware and software; instructional design issues, including content and audience definition; and interface, including…