This discussion of the development and use of the ARCS model, a system for improving the motivational appeal of instructional materials, instructor behavior, and course/lesson design, begins by considering the need for a such a system. Noting that research on motivation is included in several different research fields and theoretical orientations,…

As a regional institution serving the needs of 11 different island nations of the South West Pacific, the University of the South Pacific (USP) is, along with its on-campus face-to-face teaching activity, deeply committed to and reliant on distance study methods. Both of these activities at the university are the principal responsibility of a…

A process of formative evaluation which considers moral, scientific, and social values as its criteria and which is conducted by project staff is proposed for the evaluation of educational television (ETV) programs produced by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The theoretical framework of ETV evaluation is outlined in the first section,…

A computer assisted learning (CAL) program in the area of intravenous drug administration developed by the Nightingale Project is currently being used in a number of nursing schools and hospitals throughout the United Kingdom. The success of this program and the emergence of interactive video as a significant training medium persuaded the…

The hypothesis tested in this study was the statement that teachers reflect what they have been taught--that teaching is a direct presentation of a specified curriculum and the direct reinforcement of students' correct responses to the curriculum. A survey of 455 graduate students called for scale responses about several theories of learning as…

This practicum addressed the problem of providing practical computer application experiences to fifth grade students as they relate to real life work situations. The primary goal was to have students become cognizant of computer functions within the work setting as contrasted with viewing computer activities as instruments used for games or…

This report summarizes and compares the views of six experts (three university professors and three elementary teachers) concerning elementary-level social studies teaching. The experts were asked to treat the topic comprehensively by addressing issues of curriculum (goals and objectives, selection and organization of content); instruction…

This report of the proceedings of the 50th anniversary year of the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) includes: (1) the text of the address given by Kevin Smith, the outgoing president of the organization; (2) a review by the outgoing president of activities of the ICDE during its first 50 years (from 1938 to 1988); (3) the text…

The project described in this report was designed to: (1) address the lack of adequately trained faculty members needed to introduce geriatrics within colleges of pharmacy, (2) facilitate the use of existing materials within the educational program provided pharmacy students, (3) teach a geriatric pharmacy course twice at each of Texas' three…

A discussion of microcomputer applications in elementary and secondary school social studies is accompanied by a list of publications and a checklist to aid educators in evaluating programs for microcomputers. Six instructional uses of the microcomputer are drill and practice, tutorial, demonstration, simulation, instructional games, and computer…

This report on the TMT (Training Modules for Trainers) Project, part of the Special Discretionary Grant Program developed by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) in response to the need for coordinated training activities, begins with a discussion of the emerging problem of upgrading teachers' computer literacy skills. A description of the…

Everyman's University (EU) in Israel acts as a social safety valve by providing an avenue for education to students who are unable to attend conventional universities; however, the heterogeneity of EU's student population creates many problems for course developers and coordinators. Differing from other Israeli universities, EU operates by…

Planning the activities for an instructional development unit and evaluating how well it has performed requires a set of standards against which the unit can be compared. This paper proposes a set of standards developed from a variety of references and personal experiences with instructional development units from across the country. Thirty-eight…

This examination of the topic of research in educational technology addresses four major areas: (1) why research is conducted in this area and the characteristics of that research; (2) the types of research questions that should or should not be addressed; (3) the most appropriate methodologies for finding answers to research questions; and (4)…

This paper reviews critically four studies on teacher thinking as conducted at the Center for Instructional Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium. The four empirical studies were: (1) a process analysis of teaching; (2) subjective problems of student teachers while teaching; (3) context variables during lesson planning; and (4)…