This guide provides experienced education researchers with suggestions for conducting high-quality effectiveness studies to overcome research challenges common to rural settings. The guide addresses four factors that researchers must consider when conducting educational effectiveness research in rural settings: (1) study design, (2) recruitment of…

Lower body negative pressure (LBNP) is an established and important technique used to physiologically stress the human body, particularly the cardiovascular system. LBNP is most often used to simulate gravitational stress, but it has also been used to simulate hemorrhage, alter preload, and manipulate baroreceptors. During experimentation, the…

HIT methodology for conceptual data structure design is briefly described and exemplified. Main features of the methodology are the natural formalism of the description of conceptual schema, and an easy-to-understand graphical way of communication between both the designer and individual experts substituting future users. (Author/MBR)

Issues and implications related to the use of microcomputers for providing practice activities are addressed, including which skills should be automatized, requirements for ensuring that a skill has attained automaticity, scheduling and amount of practice, and the type and use of data that should be collected on individual student practice…

This paper explores relationships of visual images to verbal elements, beginning with a discussion of visible language as represented by words printed on the page. The visual flexibility inherent in typography is discussed in terms of the appearance of the letters and the denotative and connotative meanings represented by type, typographical…

The use and effectiveness of gaming techniques in educational computer software was investigated through an analysis of 170 in-depth evaluations of commercially-available educational computer programs. These evaluations, conducted by the Educational Products Information Exchange (EPIE) Institute, dealt with design attributes relevant to all…

The discipline of software engineering can be extended in a natural way to deal with the issues raised by a systematic approach to the design of human-machine interfaces. The user should be treated as part of the system being designed and projects should be organized to take into account the current lack of a priori knowledge of user interface…

Two instructional design alternatives are described and discussed: (1) the supplantation model of Ausburn and Ausburn (1978), where learning strategies are built into the instructional materials; and (2) a generative design model, where strategies are "built" into the learner. These contrasting models are proposed as representing the…

This guide to the discovery, analysis, production, communication, and use of statistical information through graphic forms produced by a computer is designed to enable researchers to conduct their analyses and report research results more effectively. It is designed both for individuals with little knowledge about the use of statistical graphs or…

This paper reviews 19th and 20th century English-language literature dealing with the user friendliness of library catalogs and cataloging. Sections cover literature on: (1) the need for catalogs and the possibility of substituting subject bibliographies for the subject catalog; (2) user needs and the dichotomy between designing catalogs based on…

Argues that software for electronic boards should address a variety of teaching styles, student abilities and ages, class textbooks, teaching objectives, and learning environments for flexibility of use. The software features that contribute to flexibility include frequent stops, options for going backwards, inter- and intra-unit jumps, and…

Design considerations for speech training systems include the types of information about speech to be used in training, whether acoustic or physiologic; and the use of models of speech production, whether partially perceptual and partially knowledge-based or explicit data-based models. A taxonomy of speech training systems is presented.…

Design Based Research (DBR) is a new and still-emerging approach to research about design, learning, and allied areas. This article reports one designer's experiences within a DBR project. Whereas most reports of DBR focus on the outcomes of the design itself, the current paper offers a hermeneutical perspective by focusing on the personal…

An alternative research methodology is presented which focuses on the aims and values of education while attending to the learner as an elaborate, dynamic, everchanging total system. A summary covers the reactive, preactive, proactive, and spiralling learner systems, each of which meet the definitional system requirement of being dynamic, having a…

This study asked participants to rate models of computer-generated text on the perceived ease with which it could be read and studied. These ratings were submitted to a Q-mode factor analysis to identify the underlying criteria used when the reader/perceiver formed a judgment related to the "study-ability" of the text model. Subjects…