The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international assessment of student performance in reading literacy at the fourth grade. PIRLS measures students in the fourth year of formal schooling because this is typically when students' learning transitions from a focus on "learning to read" to a focus on…

The major concerns of adaptive testing studies have concentrated on effectiveness and efficiency of the system built for the research experiments. It has been criticised that such general information has fallen short of providing qualitative descriptions regarding learning performance. Takahiro Sato of Japan proposed an analytical diagram called…

Describes research conducted in the United Kingdom that asked Open University distance education students what type of assignment feedback they would like to receive. Interviews with 22 students are discussed that ascertained their views regarding feedback on tutor-marked assignments and computer-marked assignments. (Author/LRW)

Presents results of a survey that was conducted to examine the use of computers in the instructional process of Australian distance education. Highlights include computer-managed learning; computer-marked tests; computer-aided learning; expert systems; and relationships between the type of computer usage, the instructors' expectations, and…

Describes an expert system designed to simplify evaluation of teacher-authored high school matriculation examination forms for official recognition. Because conventional knowledge-engineering methods were inadequate, a learning-by-example model called the Ordinal Learning Model was utilized. Responses from the system's users during a two-year beta…

Discusses results of a study conducted in two secondary schools in the Netherlands that investigated student attitudes toward the use of computers in education. Highlights include the use of two questionnaires, one paper-and-pencil and one using a computer; student motivation; gender differences; and student characteristics, including computer…

Describes the Technical Literacy Project which was developed at the University of Nottingham to examine and compare the computer literacy skills of graduating secondary school students and industry workers. The use of Macintosh computers and HyperCard software is explained; gender differences are examined; and results showing better performances…

Describes design of an item bank for use with lower ability mathematics students in Scottish secondary schools. Aspects of bank usage discussed include raw score translation to measures on validated scales, test design for various purposes, and ways of recording and analyzing results. Test examples with corresponding outputs are given. (Author/MBR)

The purpose of this research study was to compose a user profile of one specific electronic conference/electronic mail (e-conference/e-mail) discussion group through an in-depth case study, using a survey administered, collected, and tabulated electronically. The BALT-L is an online forum devoted to communication to and about the Baltic republics…