Improving the quality and effectiveness of computer-mediated instruction through usability evaluations   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Michael S. Crowther  Chris C. Keller  Gregory L. Waddoups 《British journal of educational technology : journal of the Council for Educational Technology》2004,35(3):289-303

Brigham Young University's Center for Instructional Design (CID) creates online courses and multimedia instructional applications for university faculty. This paper asserts that including usability testing as a part of evaluation improves the quality and effectiveness of computer‐mediated instruction. The paper describes the fundamental purpose and functions of usability testing, and also distinguishes between different forms of evaluation: accessibility, quality assurance (QA), usability and implementation. Through a detailed case study, we describe how usability testing improved the quality of a computer‐based chemistry course and facilitated a clearer analysis of the learning effectiveness of this course.  相似文献   

Help or Hindrance? Higher Education and the Route to Ethnic Equality   总被引：2，自引：1，他引：2  

Michael Shiner  Tariq Modood 《British Journal of Sociology of Education》2002,23(2):209-232

Upward social mobility has been evident among British ethnic minority communities since the 1960s, and education appears to have had a key role in this process. Despite this, social scientists have been slow to consider the link between education, ethnicity and social stratification. The role of higher education has been particularly neglected. Although there has been some suggestion of an ethnic bias in the allocation of university places, previous work in this area has been limited by the nature of the data that have been available and by the types of analysis that have been conducted. This article includes detailed consideration of the key stages of the university application procedure, and particular attention is given to the role of candidates' predicted and actual A-level grades. Although young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are admitted into university in large numbers, it is suggested that higher education has an ambivalent role in relation to ethnic equality. Institutional biases mean that ethnic minority candidates are filtered into the new university sector, and it is concluded that biases in education and the labour market combine to create a cumulative pattern of ethnic disadvantage.  相似文献   

A role for history and philosophy in science teaching     

Michael R. Matthews 《Interchange》1989,20(2):3-15

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Controlled choice assignments: A new and more effective approach to school desegregation     

Michael J. Alves  Charles V. Willie 《The Urban Review》1987,19(2):67-88

The authors argue that conventional mandatory and voluntary school desegregation techniques have failed to provide minority students with maximum feasible relief from invidious discrimination because they do not redress the root causes of segregation. They demonstrate that residential-based student assignment plans as well as plans that give students limited access to a few educationally enriched magnet schools are not asymmetrical remedies to wrongful segregation and thus work to perpetuate the racial and social inequities that they purport to correct. The authors offer an alternative approach to school desegregation—controlled choice—that operates independently from residential housing patterns and which explicitly seeks to maximize personal choice within a racially unitary, equitable, and educationally enhanced system of public schooling. Controlled choice was originally pioneered in Cambridge, Mass. during the early 1980s and has recently been adopted in Little Rock, Ark., and Fall River, Mass. The policy is also being actively reviewed by several of the nation's largest school districts including Seattle, Memphis, and Boston.  相似文献   

Assessing the Interpersonal Communication Competence of Vocational Teachers: contemporary issues and dilemmas     

Michael Kaye 《Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education》1994,22(1):69-80

In recent months, certain major policy documents have highlighted the importance of facilitating the development of interpersonal communication competence in vocational teachers. These documents include the provocative Australian Education Council Review Committee Report (Finn Report) which lists interpersonal and personal development as one of six key competency areas. As new vocational teacher education courses like the Bachelor of Teaching are beginning to be developed on a national scale within Australia, it is appropriate to cater for the development of interpersonal communication competence in vocational teacher education curricula. Among the more vexatious questions which need to be addressed is the determination of whether vocational teachers can demonstrate interpersonal communication competence, particularly in relation to their professional roles. This paper examines current scientific literature on communication competence. Since competence implies more than skill alone, consideration is also given in this paper to ways of identifying vocational teachers’ understanding of interpersonal communication processes and their importance in relation to the facilitation of learning in the post‐secondary vocational education sector. Such issues as assessing interpersonal communication competence in teacher‐learner relationships by means of direct observation, video‐based structured reflection, and self‐analysis are identified for further study. Finally, implications are drawn for vocational teacher education curricula currently being developed within Australia.  相似文献   

Editorial     

Michael A  Peters 《Educational Philosophy and Theory》2006,38(6):711-711

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An Agency Theory Perspective on Student Performance Evaluation     

Michael E. Smith  George A. Zsidisin  Laural L. Adams 《Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education》2005,3(1):29-46

The emphasis in recent research on the responsibility of college and university business instructors to prepare students for future employment underscores a need to refine the evaluation of student performance. In this article, an agency theory framework is used to understand the trade‐offs that may be involved in the selection of various approaches to student evaluation. Understanding these trade‐offs may be particularly important as faculty members seek to balance competing obligations, such as research and service requirements, while ensuring instructional effectiveness. This article presents propositions for examining how various institutional, instructor, and student characteristics influence the selection and use of student performance evaluation techniques (i.e., exams, papers, and group assignments). In conclusion, we suggest that agency theory may serve as a foundation for understanding current evaluation practices and guiding instructors in their selection of appropriate evaluation mechanisms.  相似文献   

The British University Grants Committee 1919–83: Changing relationships with government and the universities     

Michael Shattock  Robert Berdahl 《Higher Education》1984,13(5):471-499

Since its creation in 1919 the University Grants Committee (UGC) has been seen in Britain and many other countries as a model piece of machinery for channelling funds from Government to universities. Over these 60 years there have been many changes and fluctuations in its relationships both with Government and universities, and its effectiveness has varied, depending on the circumstances of the period.Up till World War II the UGC achieved its purpose of serving as a buffer or shock absorber (UGC, 1968). These metaphors picture a largely reactive body responding to initiatives either by Government or the universities. After the Second World War there were calls for the UGC to play a more positive role in university development and national planning and its terms of reference were changed. The UGC's response to this change has been variable and only in the period post 1979 has it consistently played the broader role envisaged for it in 1946 although its rhetoric claimed this role for it in the 1960s. This more active role in the 1980s has brought mixed reactions: more respect from the Government but more criticism from the universities.Insofar as this criticism relates to the processes used by the UGC during its selective retrenchment activities (1981–83), these could be improved by a strengthened UGC; insofar as the criticisms relate to the basic idea of a committee composed primarily of academics apparently aiding and abetting a Government's policy to cut back higher education, the future viability of the UGC idea itself is called into question.Another variable in the UGC's future is connected with the recently created National Advisory Board for Local Authority Higher Education (NAB). Discussions have ranged widely over the future options for the coordination of higher education: a merger of the two bodies, their separate development or creation of an overarching body over both sectors and their respective agencies. For the moment, however, the continued existence of the UGC represents an extraordinary example of institutional longevity over a period when immense changes have occurred in British society, the machinery of Government, and the British education system.  相似文献   

Peer Feedback Improves Students’ Academic Self-Concept in Higher Education     

Simonsmeier  Bianca A.  Peiffer  Henrike  Flaig  Maja  Schneider  Michael 《Research in higher education》2020,61(6):706-724

Research in Higher Education - Peer feedback has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve academic achievement. However, little evidence is available about the effects of peer feedback on...  相似文献   

The microeconomics of referral and reintegration: A paradigm for evaluation of special education     

Michael M. Gerber  Melvyn I. Semmel 《Studies in Educational Evaluation》1985,11(1):13-29

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