Use of the student portfolio as an assessment instrument in an interdisciplinary multimedia-development course is described. Guided by the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM), the portfolio is used both for continuous course improvement and for student self-assessment. The assessment portfolio is built on the Bloom taxonomy. A…

Given the drive in higher education institutions to employ web-based learning (WBL) technologies in their curricula, this article sets out to address the question of how staff experience the incorporation of such technologies into their educational practice. The study focuses on an initiative involving four institutions in South and West England…

In Scotland, national guidelines were laid down for the content of, and the targets to be attained in, Information and Communication Technology, for all 5-14-year-old pupils. This article gives an account of the planning, design, implementation and evaluation within a specialist school for blind and partially-sighted pupils of a teaching programme…

Many, even most, teachers have probably read or heard about the potential of the Internet and feel an obligation to use it in their classrooms. But, despite vast improvements in the quality of educational materials on the Internet, they are left with frustrating questions. How do teachers wade through the overwhelming amount of "information" on…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a powerful instructional design for professional education, which may be used to guide the design of interactive multimedia (IMM). An IMM package incorporating PBL principles has been developed to assist teachers in learning to integrate information and communications technologies (ICT) into their teaching. The…

This study evaluated a custom-designed course management system in use at a mid-sized public institution in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. While focusing primarily on gathering information relevant to the continued development of the course management system, this study sought to identify the relationship among user…

This article focuses on the social practices of propagating and circulating memes within Internet environments as a significant dimension of cultural production and transmission. Memes (pronounced "meems") are contagious patterns of cultural information that are passed from mind to mind and which directly shape and transmit key actions and…

On today's college campuses, says the author, there is no such thing as a "typical" student or "typical" teacher. Diversity abounds among both students and faculty across generations, racial/ethnic backgrounds, and socioeconomic status. This book is intended as a guide for understanding today's diverse college student population and demonstrating…

Distance education has been at the forefront of forging unique partnerships to facilitate learning. The purpose of this case study was to describe a business-education collaboration between General Nutrition Corporation, Inc. and the University of Florida, involving a series of online courses in introductory nutrition. Utilizing a competency-based…

In spring 1995, Virginia's John Tyler Community College (JTCC) conducted a survey of faculty to assess their perceptions of the integration of general education into classes and programs at the college. A total of 100 surveys were distributed to full-time faculty members and a random sample of adjunct faculty members, receiving a 34% response…

This paper assesses the impact of using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in three American University undergraduate classes, a General Education survey course on Latin America (taught in English), and two Spanish language courses. The courses utilized both commercial software programs and software programs authored by faculty using Macintosh…

This study investigates pre-enrollment factors, particularly those related to computer confidence, in relation to persistence in the community college. Data on sex, ethnicity, reading level, high school grade point average (GPA), goal for attending college, and self-reported ability to use five computer application programs were gathered from 543…

This book is intended to provide ready access to a wide range of literature about librarians educating users to utilize biomedical and health science information resources. The chapters were selected from articles published in "Medical Reference Services Quarterly" from 1987 to 1994. The 27 chapters are divided into five parts: (1)…

The Computer Attitude Questionnaire (CAQ) is a Likert-type self-report instrument with paired-comparison items added to provide supplemental information. The CAQ is intended for use in the middle school environment, grades six to eight. A 1993 preliminary validation study indicated the instrument's stable measurement qualities and probable…

The Research Library at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has been teaching an Internet class to adult learners since May 1994. The weekly class combines lecture, personal anecdote, and teacher demonstration with hands-on practice using Gopher and the World Wide Web. The class, open to any Lab employee or associate, has provided 250 people…