What users of student ratings of instruction know about ratings and what they need to know to make valid and reliable use of ratings data were studied. An item bank of 153 multiple-choice items was developed from sources of information about student ratings. The full item bank had five subsets: (1) knowledge of ratings concepts; (2) knowledge of…

A business French course developed at Utah State University was designed to meet the students' need for knowledge of the specialized vocabulary and expressions in a French-speaking business environment. These vocabulary needs include language for use at work, in daily living, and in employment-seeking. A business French text was chosen and…

This is a collection of four papers presented at a symposium examining ways in which needs data might be used in decisions about materials development, instructional strategies, assessment strategies, and administrative practices. The issues raised are based on some preliminary experience at the University of Mid-America (UMA) in conducting and…

A study involving 211 students enrolled in eight sections of a general psychology course at Brevard Community College was conducted to determine if the course activities and testing methods were biased toward certain personality types, as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI); and to evaluate the usefulness of the MBTI as a learning…

The extent to which research training is needed by Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduates at the University of Oklahoma, Advanced Programs, was investigated through the administration of a questionnaire to 38 August 1977 MPA degree recipients. The questionnaire contained 13 questions concerning where the student took most of his courses;…

A fourteen item Likert-type attitude scale concerning a college-level basic skills program was developed from topics suggested by the program staff. The scale was completed by 216 college freshmen who were enrolled in at least one of the three courses offered by the program: writing and reading, study habits and thinking strategies, and…

In a study at the University of Illinois, student written comments to four open-ended questions in end-of-semester student evaluations of 60 courses from ten different fields, taught by instructors of different ranks, were analyzed and classified into 22 categories. Nearly two-thirds were about the instructor, and one of four comments were on…

Three objectives are examined in this report: (1) to outline concisely some of the educational questions that course planning teams may wish to address in the early stages of course planning; (2) to provide a short list of resources, principally from the Open University's Institute of Educational Technology (IET), that may aid in course team…

Open University faculty create their own instructional materials for use in distance teaching. A methodology is described for evaluating the teaching effectiveness of the materials and the teaching methods used. It is applied to a unit of a materials science course written for a specific text. A small group of students in the course was surveyed…

Goals and objectives, student activities, and evaluations are contained in this guide for a one-day scavenger hunt through the North End of Boston. The culmination of a unit involving urban planning and land-use problems, the field trip is intended to give students first-hand experience with city life and a better understanding of urban issues…

THE EFFECTS OF A PROGRAMMED TEXT IN REVIEW ENGLISH CLASSES WERE STUDIED BY COMPARISON OF FINAL EXAMINATION SCORES ACHIEVED BY TWO GROUPS OF 58 STUDENTS WHO HAD BEEN MATCHED ON THE BASIS OF SCORES ON THE ENGLISH SCREENING TEST. THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP RECEIVED INSTRUCTION BY MEANS OF A PROGRAMMED TEXT, AND THE CONTROL GROUP USED A CONVENTIONAL BOOK.…

As the first in a series of monographs on competency-based education (CBE), this paper presents background information and exercises to aid instructors in understanding and utilizing performance goals as tools for articulation, program development, and student evaluation. After introductory material discussing the major differences between…

In order to provide entry-level students with an opportunity to explore career interests while receiving college credit, Johnson County Community College implemented a pilot course in Fall 1979 incorporating an emphasis on career decision-making in an English composition course. The course, which had an enrollment of 49 students in two sections,…

The improvement of student engaged time leads to improvement in instruction. Major steps for improving instruction by improving student engaged time are information collection, comparison of information and identification of strategies, selection and preparation of strategies, and implementation and re-evaluation. This leader's guide covers the…

The author describes the structure and methodology of "educational criticism" and provides excerpts from a study done in a high school art history class. Educational criticism is based on lengthy classroom observations and describes, interprets, and evaluates classroom life. The educational critic must be knowledgeable about classrooms and the…