The assessment of student writing is an essential task for writing teachers, and yet many graduate programs do not require students to take a course in assessment or evaluation, and courses on teaching writing often devote only a limited amount of time to the discussion of assessment. Furthermore, teachers frequently need to prepare their students…

In the spring of 2005, the author designed and taught a graduate-level course on digital game-based learning primarily for teachers. Teachers cannot be expected to embrace digital games as a tool for learning unless they have a sound understanding of the potential as well as the limitations, and are confident in their ability to use games…

Novak and Iuli [Novak, J. D. & Iuli, R. J. (1991). The use of meta-cognitive tools to facilitate knowledge production. In "A paper presented at the fourth Florida AI research symposium (FLAIRS '91)," Pensacola Beach, FL, May, 1991.] discuss the use of Concept Maps as meta-cognitive tools that help people to think about thinking. This work…

What happens when a group of talented, energetic individuals, with diverse backgrounds, values and viewpoints, attempt to collaborate on the development of instructional products? (Author)

Ten years ago, after 20 years as a university professor, I was asked to direct the teaching and learning support center at my university. I quickly realized I had almost no knowledge of the published scholarship on this subject. From my reading of this literature, I found the research on the predictors of student learning particularly informative.…

In this article, the authors describe a method for assuring the quality of curriculum design based on techniques that have been used in industrial settings for over 30 years. Quality Function Deployment assures that the needs of the customer are considered at all levels of product design and a graphical matrix called the House of Quality serves as…

How to design a programed course with successive classes of students until the role of the instructor becomes minimal. (LS)

Discusses the theories of instructional design methodologies and describes limitations for developing instruction for interactive, technology-based delivery systems. Topics discussed include content analysis; knowledge acquisition; course organization; phases of instructional development; passive versus interactive instruction; productivity and…

The Elaboration Theory of Instruction is an alternative to organizing instruction in terms of a hierarchical task analysis. The hierarchical organization results in an instructional sequence that begins with highly fragmented, small pieces of the subject-matter content, which many educators have found to be demotivating. The elaboration theory…

Issues and illustrative material are presented from a project evaluating modular courses at McGill University from 1972 to 1976, with the overall intent of aiding instructors to produce instructional modules. Questions related to the nature of modular instruction at McGill, how modular instruction developed, and how it operates are examined.…

Defines "course of study" as a statement of work and course goals and suggests the need to follow a consistent format in developing courses of study for community colleges. Reviews divergent points of view and offers a format for developing courses. (JOW)

This article describes the development and assessment of a graduate level online art therapy class. An introduction briefly defines art therapy and the need for distance learning in this field. The challenges inherent in teaching art therapy online, including working with art media and developing appropriate interpersonal skills and group…

Instructional projects are balanced when the pieces come together at one time with the concurrent approval of all interested parties. The physical analogy of a tripod can serve to illustrate the interaction among three dimensions of all projects: content, or what the course will contain; form, or what the course will look like; and process, or how…

The order of presentation of topics is an important factor in the success of introductory psychology courses. Criteria for judging the efficacy of a course sequence should include use of students' entry level skills as a foundation, sections following each other coherently, and motivation for students to learn "hard" material. (CS)