The developments of new technologies over the last decades provide some answers to the limited exposure imposed on second/foreign language (L2) learners, who study a target language in an academic setting in countries where that language is not actively used. Not only are such learners restricted in their exposure to the L2 in the formal academic…

The process used for evaluating computer software before it reaches the market may not be reliable or appropriate for the end user. School boards often develop their own evaluation procedures for teachers, but they may also be too technical, too long, or irrelevant to the teacher's purposes, and they may be too general for the discipline area in…

Science process skills include basic skills like observing, inferring, measuring, communicating, classifying, and predicting, as well as integrated skills like controlling variables, defining operationally, formulating hypotheses, interpreting data, experimenting, and formulating models. Recognition of the value of science process skills has…

The theory and practice of the instructional design system includes the categories of design, development, utilization, evaluation, and management; instructional designers and teachers need to determine an appropriate balance of structural knowledge and detailed knowledge acquisition. The purpose of this study was to determine what teachers'…

Following an introductory section that provides a rationale for using computers in workplace literacy classes, this guide reviews six computer programs and provides activities that teachers can use with the programs in teaching workplace literacy classes. The six computer programs reviewed are as follows: "Grammar Games,""Spell It 3,""The Way…

As one of a series of studies being conducted to develop a useful (predictive) model of the instructional design process that is appropriate to military technical training settings, this study performed initial evaluations on two pieces of instructional design software developed by M. David Merrill and colleagues at Utah State University i.e.,…

The Center for Interactive Technology, Applications, and Research at the College of Engineering of the University of South Florida (Tampa) has developed objective and descriptive evaluation models to assist in determining the educational potential of computer and video courseware. The computer-based courseware evaluation model and the video-based…

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are learning management software systems that synthesize the functionality of computer-mediated communications software and online methods of delivering course materials. This report focuses on how to evaluate the properties, capabilities and orientation of different systems from an educational perspective, and…

Compares academic performance between two groups of students in a statistics course. One group was given homework generated by computer software that provided feedback concerning incorrect answers. The other relied on the textbook without benefit of the feedback. The group using the software performed better on homework and tests. (MJP)

Addresses usability issues pertaining to the purpose of educational software, followed by suggestions for ways in which educational software can meet the language, physical, social, and cognitive needs of children. Guidelines and recommendations are provided for adapting usability engineering and testing procedures to educational software to…

Describes a study of ninth-grade students that evaluated the ability of the Word Problem Solving Tutor, a cognitive tutoring system, to improve the abstract-reasoning component of word-problem solving. Compares combinations of traditional instruction, computer-assisted instruction, and the tutoring program and discusses implications for math…

Describes a computer-based training program for library staff developed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, that used HyperCard stacks on Macintosh computers. Highlights include staff involvement; evaluation of modules; trainee participation and feedback; staff recognition; administrative support; implementation plan; supervisory…

So far educational adaptive technologies have proven their effectiveness only in small-scale lab courses, thus they still wait for being released to the large community of educators. Among the reasons, there is the difficult task of designing and authoring an interactive adaptive course, especially for non-technical group of educators. In this…

We are working on a method, called CEPIAH. We propose a web based system used to help teachers to design multimedia documents and to evaluate their prototypes. Our current research objectives are to create a methodology to sustain the educational hypermedia design and evaluation. A module is used to evaluate multimedia software applied in…

Development and evaluation of interactive videodisc (IVD) courseware for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction are described. Effective listening and viewing strategies, identified through descriptive research, were incorporated into an existing ESL IVD. Subjects, 81 college ESL students, were pre-tested, then divided into control and…