Discusses usability in the context of creating distance learning or computer-based training environments and describes a three-step approach to learner-centered usability testing. Highlights include functions of the instructional interface that should be similar to a responsive teacher; elements in the learning environment; and testing it via a…

Discussion of student resistance to technology-delivered training focuses on strategies at the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) that overcame learner resistance by maintaining a personal relationship with each student and flexibly addressing each student's personal style and concerns. Considers reasons for student resistance and the continued need…

Develops a model of users' perceptions of Web technology as a training tool. Discusses users' attitudes toward Web-based environments that integrate the Technology Acceptance Model, Social Cognitive Theory, motivational perspective, self-efficacy perspective, and attitude in order to develop a new aspect of users' perceptions toward Web-based…

Over the past several years, there has been a shift in emphasis in many business, industry, government and military training organizations toward human performance technology or HPT (Rossett, 2002; Dean, 1995). This trend has required organizations to increase the human performance knowledge, skills, and abilities of the training workforce.…

More than ever there are both leadership shortages and the temptation to cut training budgets. Senior administrators and faculty are retiring at an alarming rate, and the trend is expected to continue. For a decade, prominent business journals have focused on a crisis of leadership in the corporate sector. This article describes executive…

Traditional professional development focuses on declarative and procedural knowledge. That is, participants usually learn what to do and how to do it rather than when to do it and why it is important. In McREL's leadership development program, they focus first on providing participants with an overview of research findings found in their…

A description is given of an alternative to long-term mentor training. Under this orientation model, mentors are introduced to the mentoring task through a one-day formal training program in which the district makes clear what it expects of mentors, including a review of what has worked well in the past. Prospective mentors are encouraged to feel…

This paper deals with an attempt by the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) to strive for excellence in education via a collaborative approach to administrator preparation. The approach utilizes professionals from both the university community and the local education agency in forming a training team to prepare preservice supervisors and…

This chapter considers the history of instructional development (ID) in the military, with particular emphasis on the U.S. Navy. The ID process used at the Navy's Instructional Program Development Centers is presented, including the process for simulator development. An in-depth analysis of the problems encountered with educational technology…

Designed to help develop a model for training and support in childminding, this report provides a close analysis of regional meetings on training and support needs in London, England. The discussion is presented in three sections. The first part provides examination of the background of the project, current trends and approaches, and justification…

Two case studies illustrate the Fine-Tuning Effect and its benefit to participants in athletic competition. The Fine-Tuning Effect is the sharpening of psychological processes that enable physical skills to be expressed in a maximum fashion. Such techniques as muscle relaxation, visual imagery, guided fantasy, autogenic training, and meditation…

The training of psychotherapists has been an ongoing process in psychiatry and clinical psychology. Recently, however, a growing demand to operationalize competence criteria to enable independent evaluation of therapists' skills in specifically defined psychotherapies has occurred. To examine this phenomenon, evaluation procedures were developed…

The results of a year-long involvement in providing tailored professional development experiences for linking agents in the Northwest Reading Consortium is presented. This report is divided into five sections. A brief description of the collaboration between the Consortium and the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory is presented in the first…

This report describes SpaceGraph, a new computer-driven display technology capable of showing space-filling images, i.e., true three dimensional displays, and discusses the advantages of this technology over flat displays for use with the instructor/operator station (IOS) of a flight simulator. Ideas resulting from 17 brainstorming sessions with…

The tutor training sessions at the University of Minnesota Technical College are outlined and an evaluation of the program is included. A bibliography of 38 print and 3 videotape resources for tutor training is also included. Appendixes contain the tutor and tutee handbooks and a study skills kit specifically designed for tutor training.…