This study examined how first-year law students developed a civil rights case using an open-ended interactive videodisk ("Litigation Strategies"), which uses a visual and textual database to complement the traditional curriculum by simulating the experience of a junior partner in a law firm. An implementation and formative evaluation…

A course at California State University, Northridge, titled Applied Organizational Communication, allows students to apply their understanding of group and organizational communication theory to an actual situation and then in turn to analyze the observations in the organization in terms of those theories. The class forms a simulated organization…

This game simulates trade and food production in the West African region of the Sahel which is susceptible to drought. Players are divided into teams of two and four persons, each team assuming the role of a farming household in the Sahel. Teammates collaborate on production and trade decisions under conditions of dearth and plenty. The game…

This master's thesis examines applications of computer technology to the field of industrial design and ways in which technology can transform the traditional process. Following a statement of the problem, the history and applications of the fields of computer graphics and industrial design are reviewed. The traditional industrial design process…

This study was designed to look for patterns of parental behavior by assessing styles of child rearing in a novel way--through responses on an interactive computer program simulating an average day in the life of a mother and a preschooler. Presented to each subject (39 mothers of preschoolers and a control group of non-mothers) were 30 common…

The results obtained from two basic types of pre-equatings of tests were compared: the item response theory (IRT) pre-equating and section pre-equating (SPE). The simulated data were generated from a modified three-parameter logistic model with a constant guessing parameter. Responses of two replication samples of 3000 examinees on two 72-item…

Using simulated item response data, the performance of several "robust" and conventional schemes for ability estimation was evaluated in conjunction with logistic item response theory models (one, two, and three parameter models). The simulated item response data were generated using a model that is more complex than are the usual…

Simultaneous estimation of many parameters can often be improved, sometimes dramatically so, if it is reasonable to consider one or more subsets of parameters as exchangeable members of corresponding populations. While each observation may provide limited information about the parameters it is modeled directly in terms of, it also contributes…

The use of computers in the classroom has been touted as an important innovation in education. This article features some recently developed software for use in teaching psychology and different approaches to classroom computer use. Uses of software packages for psychological research designs are included as are applications and limitations of…

This report describes the development of the Instructional Support System (ISS), a large-scale, computer-based training system that supports both computer-assisted instruction and computer-managed instruction. Written in the Ada programming language, the ISS software package is designed to be machine independent. It is also grouped into functional…

This paper reviews the existing multidimensional item response theory (IRT) models and demonstrates how one of the models can be applied to estimation of abilities from a test measuring more than one dimension. The purposes of this paper were threefold. First, the fundamental concepts required when considering multidimensional models for the…

This paper describes an experiment in using the "scenario," a concept parallel to that of the case study, as a research tool for obtaining information about possible sex discrimination in personnel decisions by high school principals in South Australia. A review of the literature indicated that in spite of legislation aimed at…

Traditionally, the errors-in-variables problem is concerned with the point estimation of the slope of the true scores regression line when the regressor is measured with error, and when no specification error is present. In this paper, the errors-in-variables problem is extended to include specification error. Least squares procedures provide a…

The focus of this booklet is on the use of simulations in secondary school writing classes. After guiding the teacher through five key questions that need to be addressed in the planning and carrying through of each simulation, the booklet presents four simulations. Varying from simple to complex demands, the booklet's simulations include the…

This report summarizes an investigation of the attitudes of elementary students, teachers, and parents toward the use of educational computer games and simulations in a teaching/learning situation. Following a statement of the project purpose and a literature review, the courseware selection process is described. (This process resulted in use of…