This article is a workshop report and exploration of interim outcomes related to the role and significance of online teachers and exposes a range of ways of understanding online teaching, including from competency, humanistic and cognitive perspectives. The main body of the report concentrates on a competency-based approach. (JMK)

Although there is evidence that increasing amounts of training budgets are allocated for programs delivered through technology, there are two problems. Much of what is touted as technology-enables learning is poorly designed and programs are not focused on the entire work environment system. (JOW)

Considers how to adapt the design of distance education to students' cognitive styles. Discusses cognitive styles, including field dependence versus independence, holistic-analytic, sensory preference, hemispheric preferences, and Kolb's Learning Style Model; and the characteristics of distance education, including technology. (Contains 92…

Describes an instrument to evaluate instructional videos in terms of content, instructional plan, technical considerations, and supplemental material. Explains its use in establishing baseline information about videos in order to decide whether to recommend their use. (SK)

Discussion of instructional design in large organizations highlights a project management approach. Topics addressed include the role of the instructional designer; project team selection; role of the team members; role of the project manager; focusing on what employees need to know; types of project teams; and monitoring time and responsibility.…

Rapid prototyping involves abandoning many of the linear steps of traditional prototyping; it is instead a series of design iterations representing each major stage. This article describes the development of an instructor-led course for midlevel auditors using the principles and procedures of rapid prototyping, focusing on the savings in time and…

Two instructional designers were provided with formative evaluation data from sources recommended in the literature and were asked to revise a piece of instructional text while thinking aloud. Examination of the content of coded segments showed that one of the participants demonstrated more attributes of expertise than the other, based on…

Examines the role of social systems design and what values design can add to education. Topics include design as a decision-oriented disciplined inquiry, change and new realities, models and model building, and an image example of the present educational system and what the future system should be. (LRW)

Discusses how design projects can best be encountered through a designer approach that is inclusive of theoretical and practical knowledge as well as the capacity for pragmatic action. Highlights include design cultures and cultures of design; foundations of design; fundamental activities supported upon the foundations of design; and design…

Provides a framework that explores the design of group projects. The framework focuses on pedagogical purposes for using such projects and considers critical factors to consider when designing a group project. Discusses use of a systems approach, distinctions between product and process, and multiple evaluators. (Contains 35 references.) (JOW)

Investigates, using Marton's theory of the structure of awareness, the aspects that students discerned and brought into their focal awareness while they studied four science stories in an instruction designed for fostering understanding of the nature of science (NOS). The data showed that when students studied the stories, many focused only on one…

Discussion of distance education in higher education focuses on how to avoid the trade-off between quality and quantity. Topics include the mediation process, involving the relationship between the instructor and the student; customized styles of education; the history of correspondence education; and the need for mediation to be design-driven…

Discusses the use of applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA) to interview novices and gain insight into their cognitive skills and processes. Focuses particularly on novice Internet searchers at the University of Staffordshire (United Kingdom) and reviews attempts to modify ACTA, which is intended to gather information from experts as part of…

Three articles discuss "The Bell Curve" and its theory that IQ is an inherited trait rather than an acquired skill. Topics include implications for educational designers, IQ tests, cognitive architecture, learning mechanisms, and abstract knowledge structures. (LRW)

Includes three articles that discuss activity theory, based on "Context and Consciousness." Topics include human-computer interaction; computer interfaces; hierarchical structuring; mediation; contradictions and development; failure analysis; and designing educational technology. (LRW)