The most time consuming and expensive step in developing expert systems is knowledge acquisition (KA), and it is important to determine how the limited resources for acquiring knowledge should be allocated across different sources. This paper develops a model that determines how KA resources should be spent and how such a model may be used. (23…

The Educational Quality Indicators initiative, a 3-year collaboration between Alberta Education and 12 school districts, generated 10 action research projects that developed educational indicator systems with a broad range of student outcomes, methods of data collection and interpretation, and outcomes reporting. Field testing of these systems…

This case study describes a project to design a performance support system that incorporated an electronic performance tool, computer-based training, and paper-based deliverables that resulted in lower development costs and improved job performance. Highlights include audience analyses, cost analysis, creative resource allocation, and feedback…

Presents recommendations for contracting elements that should be adopted by state Medicaid agencies and approaches that should be taken by managed care practices interested in providing high-quality care for children with special needs. These recommendations are based on interviews with administrators from 29 states and 22 plans. (SLD)

Compares three system models (closed, open, dissipative) with traditional models for adoption of new technology and library operations. Argues that information-provider organizations (libraries) must be able to adapt to radical changes in their environments in order to remain viable economic entities. (Author/AEF)

Introduces human performance technology (HPT) by answering the following questions related to: what systems does; practical issues and questions to which systems thinking is relevant; research questions and answers with respect to systems thinking; how HPT practitioners can do systems thinking; systems thinking tools; what is and is not known…

Most electrical engineering and computer science undergraduate programs include at least one course on microcontrollers and assembly language programming. Some departments offer legacy courses in C programming, but few include C programming from an embedded systems perspective, where it is still regularly used. Distributed computing and parallel…

Illinois Wesleyan University's Ames Library opened in January 2002. The vision for this library focused on creating a user-centered arrangement of information regardless of format. Much of the library's collection was integrated during the move to the new building; however, several discrete collections remain separate. This article will discuss…

Human Performance Technology (HPT) consists of a few principles and a host of applications. The power of HPT comes from the fact that it is fundamental to an understanding of all forms of purposeful activity, ranging from the actions of an individual to the actions of an international organization. As a practical discipline, HPT began some 40…

Advanced information, communication, computation and collaboration technologies, known as "cyberinfrastructure," have become essential elements for research, education, and innovation in the 21st century. A major challenge confronting the United States today is how to ensure that all colleges and universities, including those that have…

Community psychologists have a long-standing interest in promoting systems change to improve the lives of individuals and communities. To more fully illuminate a multilevel model of those factors involved in the promotion of systems change, the current study examined individual- and organizational-level characteristics related to health care…

Purpose: Many researchers require access to computer facilities beyond those offered by desktop workstations. Traditionally, these are offered either through partnerships, to share the cost of supercomputing facilities, or through purpose-built cluster facilities. However, funds are not always available to satisfy either of these options, and…

The purpose of the meeting summarized in this report was to provide participants an opportunity to share information on their school-community collaboratives, discuss successful strategies and ways they have overcome barriers, and address significant other issues related to interagency collaboration. Fifteen school and agency…

A workshop focused on major research issues in networking and communications. This report defines the context for research priorities and initiatives and deals with issues in networking and communications. Fifteen major research priorities and four research specific initiatives were identified by participants as areas that should be pursued over…

The PRODIGY/EBL system [Minton88] was one of the first works to directly attack the problem of strategy utility. The problem of finding effective strategies was reduced to the problem of finding effective rules. However, this paper illustrates limitations of the approach. There are two basic difficulties. The first arises from the fact that the…