This paper studies the use of Reinforcement Learning (RL) policies for optimizing the sequencing of online learning materials to students. Our approach provides an end to end pipeline for automatically deriving and evaluating robust representations of students' interactions and policies for content sequencing in online educational settings. We…

In the policy making process, one of the important steps is the consideration of the consequences deriving from the alternative choices. For the case of information policy, the present research has begun the development of a methodology for doing so. The methodology chosen was modeling. Information policy modeling serves the dual purposes of…

An examination of the general uses of video in instruction helps to formulate appropriate policy for maximizing video production and use. Wide use of instructional television makes advanced knowledge more usable and increases public awareness of new discoveries, reduces the time lag between conception and application of ideas which change society,…

This paper explores three audience models which have traditionally animated American communications policy: the Effects Model, in which the audience is victim; the Marketplace Model, in which the audience is consumer; and the Commodity Model, in which the audience is a coin of exchange. In separate sections, the models are defined, their varying…

This paper examines two issues in telecommunications policy in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has attempted to pursue policies that were distant from the policy desires of their supervising committees in Congress, and in which congressmen made use of various instruments of congressional influence: the FCC's attempt to…

This paper examines the need for telecommunications and international trade policies in the Information Age and presents a model for developing such policies. The first of seven sections discusses the need for an Information Age Model, and the technological changes that are giving rise to increasingly integrated Information Age networks are…

National policy makers have put forth different life cycle planning proposals for the more satisfying integration of education, work and leisure over the life course. This speech describes a decision making scheme, the Time Paradigm, for researched-based choice among various proposals. The scheme is defined in terms of a typology of time-related…

Described is a planning process that integrates program, budget and facility concerns and requirements in a way that provides University of Utah administrators with alternatives that encourage them to initiate controlled change. Outlined are eight strategies and processes that deviate from the traditional total (institution-wide) comprehensive…

Emphasizing the need for sound logic in the decision making and policy making process, this paper equates the concept of rationality with the universal audience as a means of analyzing argument, evaluating rhetoric, and persuading audiences. The paper argues that the policy systems paradigm most approximates this objective within the context of…

A typology of time-related concepts is put forth as a step toward the building of comprehensive theory in aging. The concepts derive from statistics (age, cohort, period effects), the theoretical writings of Sorokin (life course role sequences, durations and rates), the writings of Riley (on the synchronization of life course socialization and…

The relationship between the content and the context of curriculum was explored by applying basic concepts and approaches from the fields of policy analysis and organization theory. A chronology of the policy formation stage in which the University of Iowa developed its recommendations for curriculum revision is presented. The format indicates…

A study was conducted concerning television program decision-making based on a theory of human information processing. Twenty-eight programers from 13 markets completed experimental simulations of television programing decisions. Important steps in the procedure were determined to be evaluation, search for alternatives, and selection of…

To prevent policy-making from being fragmented into a series of ad hoc and disjointed decisions, it is important to be as clear as possible about the policy-making framework within which decision-making is to operate. School boards that aspire toward enhancing their policy-making function are here provided with a basic structure for policy-making.…

The study traces the development of Brazilian federal initiatives since 1964 to reform the system of access to higher education, examines the effect of those policies, and asseses the utility of Braybrooke and Linblom's "strategy of disjointed incrementalism" for analyzing public policy formation in this setting. The results reveal that:…

Because state agencies have found that the licensing of family day care homes presents administrative problems which are quite different from the licensing of day care centers this report presents arguments against traditional licensing practices. Six alternatives are suggested for states making decisions about their future directions in family…