Dissemination activities for the Decision Support Systems (DSS) for fiscal year (FY) 1985 are reported by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). The main means for disseminating results of the DSS research and development project has been through computer-generated video presentations at meetings of higher education…

Dolphin is a computer-assisted instruction system used to teach and reinforce skills in reading, language arts, and mathematics. An evaluation of this system was conducted to provide information to TSC Division of Houghton Mifflin regarding its effectiveness and possible modifications to the system. The general design of the evaluation was to…

Before an item bank is constructed, several curriculum and testing considerations should be addressed. Such issues include the number of students enrolled in the selected subject area; number of desired objectives and items per objective; method of storing the items; and how and when to train how many teachers in item writing. The following steps…

Seven critical needs require attention if the educational community is to capitalize on current opportunities for educational reform. (1) Literacy must be redefined and recognized as involving more than minimal skills. (2) All children must have access to the tools of learning and the carriers of culture. Library and instructional resources and…

Three issues of the journal for 1985 focus on issues related to special education in New York. The winter issue centers on educating low incidence handicapped children in New York City. Articles address such aspects as special education effectiveness, occupational training centers, centers for multiply handicapped students, hospital schools, early…

Research was conducted to further investigate the results of an earlier 1985 study (Dwyer, et al.) which found that a moderately externally-paced microcomputer-based instructional program was more effective than either a self-paced or a more aggressive externally-paced condition. Instructional programs (heart parts and verbal labels) were…

Although college adult developmental reading does not enjoy the status of mainstream academic fields, it has made substantial progress toward that goal in the past three decades. Characteristics differentiating it from academic fields are its generalist orientation, its isolation from other disciplines, and its emphasis on practitioners as…

Research findings on college instruction and technology and the future are discussed in 15 papers from the first Regional Conference on University Teaching at New Mexico State University. Titles and authors are as follows: "Technology, Teaching, and the Future" (William F. May); "Bauhaus Experience: A Team Method of Teaching Technology" (Euguene…

The introduction of Drexel University's microcomputing program, which provides students access to this technology for coursework, is described, with attention to the groups who played a major role in preparing the university. Faculty helped set the initial direction of the program and have been central to its operation. Other faculty roles…

Prescription Learning is a multi-media diagnostic prescriptive program providing individualized instruction using six instructional strategies. Nine elementary schools and four middle schools in the Portland Public School District used Prescriptive Learning to provide supplemental reading and math instruction to low-performing students. Selected…

Perspectives about evaluating instruction by telecommunications are offered in two related conference presentations, based on the experience of the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Project. The project has two goals: to create high-quality college-level materials using telecommunications, and to demonstrate the application of…

Techniques for teaching marketing to students of business Spanish are discussed, including an examination and classification of marketing concepts, analysis of the significant and growing United States Hispanic market, and English- and Spanish-language samples of computer-assisted instructional (CAI) materials used in two colleges (Youngstown…

This report provides information concerning the five goals of the Burroughs B20 microcomputer project in the College of Education at the University of Nevada-Reno: (1) to improve the computer literacy of classroom teachers and increase their general awareness of developing computer technology; (2) to enhance student writing across curricula; (3)…

To determine the influence of media on learning, a study explored students' preferences, perceived difficulty, and learning in relation to a variety of activities. A randomly selected panel of 611 students, grades three through ten, was drawn from the nine schools (six elementary, two junior high, and one senior high) that make up an entire public…

An overview of the development of a computerized version of the Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT) is presented. It describes the previously existing printed version of the DAT, design of the computerized adaptive edition, calibration of the test items for use in the computerized version, and two field studies that compared the Adaptive and…