This study is concerned with the formal assessment of a Distance Learning Environment (DLE) created to deliver a course on UML sequence diagrams to university-level students, divided into control and treatment groups. An ad-hoc DLE was constructed to deliver instruction to the treatment group, while the control group was taught in a traditional…

Software testing is a crucial component in the development of good quality systems in industry. For this reason it was considered important to investigate the extent to which the Information Systems (IS) syllabus at the University of Cape Town (UCT) was aligned with accepted software testing practices in South Africa. For students to be effective…

Using content analysis, this study evaluated the aging content and context in 11 nutrition sub-specialty textbooks: community nutrition (n = 3), diet therapy (n = 4), and nutrition and aging (n = 4). Pages with paragraphs on aging were identified in community nutrition and diet therapy textbooks, and 10% random samples of pages were evaluated in…

Preparatory to establishing a computer services program for residents, Presbyterian Homes, a multi-campus continuing care retirement community, conducted an assessment of residents' computer needs, ownership, and usage. Based on the results of the needs assessment, computer resource rooms were established at each facility, with computer hardware…

This paper presents a study in which we examined spelling mistakes made by 34 learners of German in an online CALL exercise. We analyzed a total of 374 spelling errors that occurred in 341 words and subsequently classified them along four dimensions: (a) competence versus performance, (b) linguistic subsystem, (c) language influence, and (d)…

Appropriately timed Focus on Form can help in raising the learners' language awareness. In this paper we argue that the learner's own text composition progression can indicate when a learner is ready to notice a particular language form. Stimulated recall induced discussion was used to provoke explicit writer comments relating to noticing and…

According to the dichotomy popularized by Levy (1995, 1997), computers may be used in language learning in either tutor or tool roles. Recently there has been a waning of interest in tutorial software for language learning in favor of tool-oriented applications. While we do not dispute the value of the computer as a tool, we argue that it is in…

In this longitudinal study, relationships were examined between educational aspirations and educational attainment for Australian young adults from different ethnic and social status backgrounds. Participants included 6,811 (3,547 women and 3,264 men) young adults (mean age = 20.3 years) who were in Year 9 when the study began. In the analysis,…

Many educational sites are static and rarely updated, diminishing the dynamism of the Web. An online learning system should be adjustable, expandable and regularly updated, preferably by educational staff without the direct intervention of computer experts, reflecting the dynamic character of education. To achieve this aim, we propose a system…

The current paper builds on Reports #34 and 35 in this series, which discussed the use of collaborative software to develop online communities in distance education (DE). The paper illustrates the manner in which an educational community's needs should be carefully examined, in the process of designing techniques that fulfill these needs at a…

The benefits of an e-learning system will not be maximised if learners do not use the system. This study was conducted with 26 postgraduate students at a faculty in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak taking an on-campus course supplemented with an e-learning system. The purpose of the study was to determine which factors were related to intention to use…

This paper briefly introduces the trends towards e-learning and amplifies some examples of state of the art systems, pointing out that all of these are, to date, limited by adaptability and shareability of content and that it is necessary for industry to develop and use an inter-operability standard. Uses SCORM specifications to specify the…

The present study examines the effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on the mathematics performance and classroom behavior of three second-through fourth-grade students with ADHD. A controlled case study is used to evaluate the effects of the computer software on participants' mathematics performance and on-task behavior. Participants'…

This paper outlines issues around learning to write and considers the range of difficulties children may experience. The role of Information and Communications Technology in facilitating writing development is considered. Software applications that can be used to support aspects of the writing process and target teaching are outlined. Criteria for…

This article describes an extended collaboration between a development team and an evaluation team working with GenScope, an open-ended exploratory software tool. In some respects, this was a routine evaluation, documenting substantial gains (of roughly 1 SD) in genetics reasoning ability in all but 1 of 17 classes, despite challenges presented by…