Co-production occurs when two or more institutions contribute funds and labor to many of the processes of making course components for distance teaching. This paper summarizes reasons for international co-production of multimedia distance teaching courses and provides a lengthy checklist of questions that should be considered before entering upon…

The costly supplemental or alternative programs that combat chronic school failure and continued high dropout rates are not always effective for the following reasons: (1) students do not always find out which programs are available, and (2) if no suitable program is available, there is usually no one responsible for trying to create one. People…

In January 1981, a committee at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) began work to design a system to deliver non-group instruction to homes, businesses, and other off-campus sites. The committee first established criteria for the program to ensure that the Extended Learning System (ELS) would be compatible with and complementary to other…

A study examined the acceptance and effectiveness of a basic public speaking course that uses a modified Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) approach. Based on behavioristic psychology, PSI stresses mastery learning, self-pacing, the written word, student proctors, and lectures that motivate rather than just supply essential information. Five…

Kensington School is an elementary school in Milford (Missouri) School District built in 1966 with open classrooms and designed for team teaching and other innovative practices. A visit 15 years later reveals that the physical plant has deteriorated somewhat, most classrooms are walled off from each other, and innovative structures are not now…

This book describes how the authors and other progressive-minded citizens in Floodwood, Minnesota, started a community school which literally lifted the community "by its bootstraps" from poverty and economic deprivation into one which became economically self-supporting and culturally enriched. A strong case is presented for…

The Personalized System of Instruction (PSI), a system that combines the strengths of basic learning, individual instruction, and personalized relationships, all at low cost, is an attractive alternative for the basic speech communication course. It involves mastery learning, self-pacing, stress on the written word, instructor assistants, and the…

This course, one of 16 sequential courses comprising phase one of a part-time Bachelor of Arts degree program in Australian Studies, illustrates that the concept of work has not been a universal or historically consistent category. Some of the distinctive features of work in the Western world are covered, along with some effects of the Industrial…

MODIA (Method of Designing Instructional Alternatives) was developed to help the Air Force manage resources for formal training by systematically and explicitly relating quantitative requirements for training resources to the details of course design and course operation during the planning stage. This report describes MODCOM (MODIA Cost Model), a…

The purpose of a project was to design and field-test a system for evaluating the adequacy of the vocational curriculum utilized by the Vocational Village, an alternative school for the training of individuals who have experienced failure in other educational settings. Focus was on the development of an evaluation model which will assess the…

A study of the federal role in the advancement of lifelong learning focused on the probable impact of a federally supported lifelong learning system and the existing educational system on one another. The conditions and parameters of the following claim were examined: any lifelong learning enterprise initially funded by the federal government…

This report contains an explanation of the Wisconsin laws relating to school truancy; a review of truancy statistics, procedures, and penalties in selected Wisconsin school districts; and a sampling of alternative programs and procedures from other states to deal with truant pupils. Effective procedures for dealing with truant pupils and effective…

Presented is a compilation of materials describing the Alternative School of Alachua County, Florida, a special day school which serves 85 severely emotionally disturbed adolescents in grades 6 to 12. Included are brief sections covering the following topics: a description of the school in the form of an introductory letter which is given out to…

This book consists of nine papers that were originally delivered at the First Annual International Conference on Magnet Schools, which was held in Dallas in March 1977. In addition to discussing the rationale for magnet schools and the history of their development, the various papers examine how to initiate and plan a magnet schools program, how…

This document includes special references to British open classrooms. (MK)