For decades, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms were processed electronically by the legacy Central Processing System. In 2021 the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) initiated a system development effort and in December 2023 deployed a new system to process forms for the 2024-2025 school year. However, student aid…

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the entry ramp to federal grants and loans that many students depend on to afford college. Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020 in part to make it easier to apply for federal aid. However, Education's rollout of the new FAFSA has suffered from numerous challenges and delays.…

According to a recent research carried out by Aruba Networks (2014) in the US, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and UAE, 86% of all respondents have two or more devices that can connect to the internet, and nearly two thirds (64%) already own three or more mobile devices with this feature; another 39% own four or…

This paper presents a new mobile micro-broadcast (or near-me) Location-Based Service designed to promote face-to-face communication among users located within a given geographical area such as a University campus. Because the communication services provided are time dependent, the application decides whom to contact based on the geographic…

This review of Data Desk Professional, a statistical software package for Macintosh microcomputers, includes information on: (1) cost and the amount and allocation of memory; (2) usability (documentation quality, ease of use); (3) running programs; (4) program output (quality of graphics); (5) accuracy; and (6) user services. In conclusion, it is…

Discussing available computer software for prompting for the kinds of computers likely to be used in writing programs, this paper concentrates on categorizing software programs and exploring their "uniquely electronic" features. The paper deals with the following questions: (1) What kinds of planning software are available? (2) What happens when…

Arguing that software evaluation is crucial to the quality of courseware available in a school, this paper begins by discussing reasons why microcomputers are making such a tremendous impact on education, and notes that, although the quality of software has improved over the years, the challenge for teachers to integrate computing into the…

A study of microcomputer courseware reviews was carried out in order to discover which criteria they discuss, whether reviewers agree in their assessments, how evaluative the reviews are, and whether the reviewing policy of the journal influences the review. The content analysis instrument was a composite of criteria developed by organizations…

This critical review of 13 political science software simulations and tutorials rates the programs both by quality of presentation and by educational content. Courseware does have a truly interactive nature yet allows the student to be in an active mode of control. The software programs reviewed feature a variety of graphic, textual, and…

To help teachers cope with the proliferation of software and software sources, a number of resources are available to aid in the evaluation and selection of educational software. For instance, both the "Educator's Handbook and Software Directory" and "Swift's Directory of Educational Software, Apple II Edition" provide listings…

The role of computing in enhancing scholarly writing and in building student writing skills is examined, with particular reference to the social scientist's needs at the college level. Word processing, outlining, and hypertext software types are appraised in terms of their impact on writing processes, and, while strengths of each are noted, each…

Composition researchers are poised to offer new answers to the three questions which are at the heart of ideological definition: what exists; what is good; and what is possible? Researchers must consider the impact of computer-assisted composition programs (often called "style checkers") as well as the basic word processor. Style…

This history of computer text analysis of student writing while brief, is complicated by the fact that there are actually three distinct efforts underway to use the computer for such purposes. There is a certain amount of overlap among the efforts, but their intentions are different enough to warrant separate review. The first effort is toward…

Describes the Salary Model, a menu-driven software package that allows administrators to compare quickly and easily the activities of one faculty member to those of other faculty member. (MM)

Reviews the Salary Model program, a menu-driven software package that allows administrators to compare activities of one faculty member to those of other faculty members. Concludes that the program can be an effective tool in the evaluation process. (MM)