The computer center of the University of Iowa is the topic of this informal panel presentation. The present structure of the facility is described in terms of batch and remote terminal services. The job scheduling method used is shown to provide acceptable turn-around times, but usage is unexpectedly low, in spite of the low cost to student users.…

Using A Programing Language (APL), a "computer glass box" was designed to stimulate students to think about selected concepts as well as to elucidate and reveal understanding. This approach is pedagogically suitable for a wide range of educational levels--from elementary school children to university graduate students. Using APL computer…

A self-study manual for students on coping with test-taking anxiety is presented along with a commentary by its author. The manual is designed for use in conjunction with videotapes and practice of anxiety management techniques in a computer-guided practice test-taking session. The manual is part of a program designed to provide a regularly…

Included in this issue of the newsletter are details about the usage of the currently available computer terminals, information about equipment soon to be added to the Computer Aids to Teaching Project, and an announcement describing a workshop and open house held in March of 1973. Some recent publications are cited and a student guide to…

Documentation of the Coursewriter II Function FCALC is provided. The function is designed for use on the IBM 1500 instructional system and has three major applications: 1) comparison of a numeric expression in buffer 5 with a numeric expression in buffer 0; 2) comparison of an algebraic expression in buffer 5 with an algebraic expression in buffer…

A brief description of the Coursewriter II preprocessor is provided. This preprocessor, a program written in FORTRAN IV on the CDC 6600 computer, is designed to reduce the repetition of effort that takes place from the time of the author's conception of a course to the time of its availability for on-line student instruction. The programer deals…

The decision process required for Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI), an adaptive instructional program developed at the University of Pittsburgh, is described. In IPI, short tests are used to determine the level of proficiency of each student in precisely defined learning objectives. The output of these tests is used to guide instructional…

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has not been cost-effective, despite its instructional effectiveness. This financial failure can be attributed to many factors, including: oversell of CAI capabilities, poorly authored content, expensive and unreliable hardware, an educational bureaucracy resistant to innovation, and the decentralized nature of…

A detailed specification of the LOGO programing system is given. The level of description is intended to enable system programers to design LOGO processors of their own. The discussion of storage allocation and garbage collection algorithms is virtually complete. An annotated LOGO system listing for the PDP-10 computer system may be obtained on…

This supplementary text material is meant to suggest ways in which the computer can increase students' intuitive understanding of fields and waves. The first way allows the student to produce a number of examples of the physics discussed in the text. For example, more complicated field and potential maps, or intensity patterns, can be drawn from…

The nonprofit special organization as a developer of computer-administered instruction (CAI) is advocated in this paper. The organization of universities and their mode of operation do not lend themselves to instructional product development. Faculty members engage in such efforts on a part-time basis and in competition with higher priority…

The traditional approach to teaching experimental psychology has emphasized laboratory instruction. But too often this means most time is spent on handling rats or wiring circuits. Students would better learn how psychologists think by designing their own, open-ended problems rather tahan duplicating classical experiments. Since this approach is…

Computer Assisted Synthesizer System (CASS), a portable music synthesizer system which can produce tones from ordinary paper and pencil graphs, was developed and its usefulness for music instruction evaluated in this study. After completion of a pilot study to determine the feasibility of developing CASS and to run a trail test period, 28 fifth…

Several different mathematical methods for optimization of instruction are presented and compared. A way in which one of these methods might be applied to the measurement and avoidance of inequality in educational opportunity and performance is presented. Finally, it is suggested that computer-assisted instruction might provide a particularly…

Over the past 2 decades the usefulness of the computer in science and education has been demonstrated by the rapid growth of applications. Striking advances have been made in data analysis and research through its use; however, in the direct application of computers to the instructional process, obstacles still exist between promise and…