A recent study compared hands-on scientific inquiry assessment to assessments involving lab notebooks, computer simulations, short-answer paper-and-pencil problems, and multiple-choice questions. Creating high quality performance assessments is a costly, time-consuming process requiring considerable scientific and technological know-how. Improved…

Describes the design of "Pharyngitis in Louisiana," a computer-based epidemiologic case study that was created to teach students how to conduct disease outbreak investigations. Topics discussed include realistic content portrayals; graphics; interactive teaching methods; interaction between the instructional designer and the medical…

Describes an interactive video program crafted to instruct beginning television production learners in the basics of directing a dramatic television scene. Topics include the development of the program, techniques used to teach scene analysis, camera staging, script marking, and the direction process.(KRN)

Many assert that the use of animals for dissections in the secondary and undergraduate class is unnecessary. This article describes a study conducted to compare the attitudes and achievement of students who use interactive methods instead of conventional dissection. (ZWH)

Explains goal-based scenario (GBS) learning environments. Topics discussed include defining educational requirements; characteristics of a GBS, including hardware and software; an example of a GBS currently in operation to teach client consulting skills, including user reactions; assessing learning; the use of simulation; and the roles of the…

Several methods for determining a passing score on an examination from individual raters' estimates of minimal pass levels were compared through simulation. The methods used differed in the weighting estimates for each item received in the aggregation process. Reasons why the simplest procedure is most preferred are discussed. (SLD)

Three interactive computer-assisted learning programs are described. The use of tissues from freshly killed frogs is simulated, including the isolated sciatic nerve, the sciatic nerve-gastrocnemius muscle, and the in situ heart. (KR)

Discussion of learner control in computer-assisted instructional simulations focuses on an experiment conducted with undergraduate students that compared three different treatments for instructional control in an aircraft simulator. Topics addressed include performance on immediate and delayed posttests; practice; student attitudes; effects of…

Reviews a HyperCard stack designed for use in schools and at home. Describes the program as primarily a database of information on Iraq, Kuwait, and the Gulf War. Contends that the program is pedagogically weak and of marginal use in the classroom. (CFR)

Describes the use of simulation to introduce the bootstrapping technique of creating confidence intervals for the mean, median, and variance. These bootstrap confidence intervals are compared to the traditional confidence intervals for the purpose of analyzing accuracy of the technique. A Minitab program to produce confidence intervals is…

A small-scale simulation investigated the impact of making essay topics available to test takers before the test. Results with 11 college students reveal little effect of the prepublished topic. Implications for teacher licensure examinations are discussed with reference to the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers being…

Reports on two aspects of the SIMULATE (Simulation Authoring Tools Environment) project: an account of the learning processes that are involved in learning with computer simulations, and an inventory of learner attributes. Topics discussed include ISLEs (intelligent simulation learning environments), prior knowledge, motivation, cognitive style,…

The effects of priors and amount of bias in the Bayesian approach to the estimation problem in item response models are examined using simulation studies. Different specifications of prior information have only modest effects on Bayesian estimates, which are less biased than joint maximum likelihood estimates for small samples. (TJH)

Explains virtual reality as a computer-synthesized three-dimensional environment (cyberspace) in which human participants, appropriately interfaced, appear to be enveloped. Cyberspace in science fiction is discussed; contributions of aerospace and military simulation trainers, digital imaging, and motion picture special effects are described; and…

A detailed investigation is provided of Stout's statistical procedure (the computer program DIMTEST) for testing the hypothesis that an essentially unidimensional latent trait model fits observed binary item response data from a psychological test. Three refinements achieve greater power. The revised approach is validated using real data sets.…