During the past several years a number of studies and subsequent reports have been issued which addressed specific needs in the area of management for schools in the District of Columbia. All of the reports cited here--the Passow, Nelsen Committee, Price-Waterhouse, and Management Review Reports--identified areas of deficiency in the managerial…

An educational management information system is a network of communication channels, information sources, computer storage and retrieval devices, and processing routines that provide data to educational managers at different levels, places, and times to facilitate decisionmaking. Management information systems should be differentiated from…

Comprehensive planning is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process through which decisions about future courses of action concerning the academic, physical, and financial condition of an institution are prepared for and made. Its relationship to information systems, planning staff, administration, and outcomes are discussed. (LBH)

Describes features of existing software packages for circulation control (borrower and item files, data capture and verification, issue, return, renewal, loan conditions, reservations, overdues, updating, and management information), and serials control (ordering, recording receipt, reader access, binding and financial control, listings, and…

For the past six years, Los Angeles County Office of Education (California) has used a state-of-the-art computerized transportation management system that produces $2 million annual net savings and provides prompt, accurate bus service for students, parents, and teachers. This article details routing and scheduling programs used. Includes seven…

Describes the design of a management information system that has demonstrated efficacy in the operation of a research project in an educational environment. The four stages in the design of this system were information collection, information organization, information analysis, and information reporting. (RAO)

Quality assurance for distance higher education is one of the main concerns among institutions and stakeholders today. This paper examines the experiences of Universitas Terbuka (UT), which has initiated and implemented an innovative strategy of quality assurance (QA) for continuous improvement. The credo of the UT quality assurance system is…

Course syllabuses are usually prepared by the instructors without any feedback observed and assembled from target students. More, even sometimes these syllabuses are used for many years with little alterations by the instructors. This situation affects the education negatively, because many of the students come with different backgrounds and…

This is a compilation of 12 primers on important information standards and protocols. These primers are: (1) Atom; (2) COinS; (3) MADS; (4) MARC 21/MARCXML; (5) MIX; (6) MXG; (7) OpenSearch; (8) PREMIS; (9) RESTful HTTP; (10) unAPI; (11) XMPP (aka Jabber); and (12) ZeeRex. The Atom Syndication Format defines a new XML-based syndication format for…

A commonly accepted definition of online learning is that students have access to learning experiences in: time, place, pace, learning style, content, assessment, and pathways (Chen, 2003). Although this is true, there is a considerable concern about the level of abstraction involved in online education. Critics of flexible learning call it just…

Systems for computer based assessment as well as learning management systems offer a number of innovative closed question types, which are used more and more in higher education. These closed questions are used in computer based summative exams, in diagnostic tests, and in computer based activating learning material. Guidelines focusing on the…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the adoption of course management software (CMS) among faculty in a nursing program in order to better understand the consequences that result from adoption decisions. Design/methodology/approach: A case study approach was taken using a component of diffusion of innovations theory as a framework for…

The purpose of this study was to examine lecturers' attitudes towards learning management systems (LMS), with particular reference to identifying obstacles to increased use. At the University College of Boras, Sweden, 22 lecturers who had used "WebCT" during the previous 9 months were interviewed. The answers show that most of the…

A semester-long ethnography study was carried out to investigate project-based learning in a graduate software engineering course through the implementation of an Open-Source Software Development (OSSD) learning environment, which featured authentic projects, learning community, cognitive apprenticeship, and technology affordances. The study…

Although many program managers look to data to inform decision-making and manage their programs, high-quality program data may not always be available. Yet such data are necessary for effective program implementation. The use of high-quality data facilitates program management, reduces reliance on anecdotal information, and ensures that data are…