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Forty years ago, Robert Gagne published the first edition of his book The Conditions of Learning (1965) in which he proposed nine events of instruction that provide a sequence for organizing a lesson. These events remain the foundation of current instructional design practice (Reiser, 2002; Richey, 2000). They represent desirable conditions in an instructional program and increase the probability of successful learner achievement in the program (Gagne, 1965, 1985, 1988; Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992). Other authors cite similar elements of instruction that promote student learning from an instructional program (Dick & Carey, 1996; Sullivan & Higgins, 1983).

This study investigated the effects of audio, animation, and spatial ability in a computer-based instructional program for biology. The program presented instructional material via test or audio with lean text and included eight instructional sequences presented either via static illustrations or animations. High school students enrolled in a biology course were blocked by spatial ability and randomly assigned to one of four treatments (Text-Static Illustration, Audio-Static Illustration, Test-Animation, Audio-Animation). The study examined the effects of instructional mode (Text versus Audio), illustration mode (Static Illustration versus Animation), and spatial ability (Low versus High) on practice and posttest achievement, attitude, and time. Results for practice achievement indicated that high spatial ability participants achieved more than low spatial ability participants. Similar results for posttest achievement and spatial ability were not found. Participants in the Static Illustration treatments achieved the same as participants in the Animation treatments on both the practice and posttest. Likewise, participants in the Text treatments achieved the same as participants in the Audio treatments on both the practice and posttest. Findings for time-in-program and time-in-instruction indicated that participants in the Animation treatments took significantly more time than participants in the Static Illustration treatments. No time differences of any type were found for participants in the Text versus Audio treatments. Implications for the design of multimedia instruction and topics for future research are included. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/AEF)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of implementing cooperative learning and objectives with computer-based instruction (CBI). Subjects were 125 fifth and sixth grade students. Cooperative dyads and individuals worked through a CBI earth science program that contained either instructional objectives, advance organizers, or no orienting activities. Results indicated that students who received instructional objectives performed significantly better on intentional posttest items than students who received either advance organizers or no orienting activities. Results also revealed that dyads who received objectives exhibited significantly more on-task group behaviors, more helping behaviors, and fewer off-task behaviors than dyads in the other orienting activity conditions. Furthermore, learning strategy influenced time on task; individuals spent significantly more time on instruction and practice than cooperative dyads. Implications for CBI developers are explored. (Contains 52 references.) (Author/MES)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of learning strategy and summarization within a computer-based chemistry and physics program. High school students worked individually or in cooperative dyads to complete science instruction; half of them completed summaries over the instructional content when directed to do so. The study examined the effects of learning strategy and summarization on posttest and enroute performance, attitude, time-on-task, and cooperative interaction behaviors. (Contains 53 references.) (Author/MES)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using individual, cooperative-dyad, and collaborative-dyad learning structures with a computer simulation. College students implemented and experienced one of the three learning structures while using a computer simulation designed to teach the technical and procedural aspects of accounting. Results indicated that performance scores were high, and time on task similar, regardless of learning structure; however, students who worked alone expressed significantly more continuing motivation for their learning structure than students who worked with a partner. Responses to student interviews revealed somewhat mixed feelings for the small group structures. More than 60% of the student overall commented that they would enjoy working with a partner, but less than 50% said they thought they would learn more with a partner. Observation of the small groups indicated that students in the cooperative dyads exhibited significantly more discussion and provided more answers to their partners' questions than students in the collaborative dyads. Implications for implementing small group structures with computer-based instruction are provided, and two tables summarize student responses. (Contains 25 references.) (Author/SWC)

This study assessed whether learner control of feedback has a beneficial effect in student performance and attitude, focusing on whether the degree of elaboration feedback needed for high performance could be determined. Program and learner control were used at three levels of feedback, verification, correct answer, and elaboration. Subjects were 126 undergraduate education majors at a southwestern university, divided into 6 experimental groups. This study and a previous study demonstrate that verification feedback alone is insufficient for subjects to reach high levels of performance on a posttest. This study shows only a minimum improvement when elaboration was added to the correct answer feedback. The additional time and expense needed to design the instruction with elaboration feedback is probably not warranted, since students perform at almost the same level with only the correct answer. The pattern of improved performance from verification to correct answer was seen in program and learner-control conditions. Program control subjects always outperformed learner control subjects, and learner control subjects spent less time studying feedback than did program control subjects. Results suggest that program control with correct answer feedback is the most effective and efficient way to present instruction on the computer. (Contains 4 references.) (SLD)

Although both learner control and feedback have been heavily researched, very little research has been conducted on giving learners control over the feedback which they receive. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of learner control of feedback in a computer assisted instruction (CAI) lesson. The independent variables were type of control (learner or program) and level of feedback (verification or elaboration), The dependent variables were performance on a posttest, attitude toward the program, and time to study feedback. The subjects, who were 100 undergraduate education majors enrolled in an educational psychology class at a large southwestern university, used one of four CAI programs which provided either program control or learner control over verification or elaboration feedback. Results indicated that subjects who received elaboration feedback during instruction performed better than students who received verification feedback. Type of control did not have a significant influence on performance. Implications of these findings for the design of CAI are discussed. (17 references) (Author/BBM)

The effectiveness of learning paired associates from a computer-based drill strategy known as the progressive state drill was compared in this study with the effectiveness of having students use their own strategies with flashcards. Characteristics of the progressive state drill which make it a potentially effective drill and practice strategy for learning paired associates include: (1) the use of a small working pool of items; (2) increasing ratio review; (3) dynamic adjustment of the drill based on student performance; and (4) recordkeeping from session to session. The 96 high school sophomores who acted as subjects were placed into matched pairs on the basis of a pretest which measured their ability to remember word-number pairs, and one member of each pair was randomly assigned to the flashcard or microcomputer group. The treatment consisted of three 20-minute sessions, i.e., one session each day for three consecutive days. Although the results failed to show any superiority on a posttest achievement measure for the progressive state drill over the flashcard approach, the microcomputer group demonstrated a significantly more positive attitude toward the instruction. A discussion of the implications of these findings for design and use of microcomputer drills such as the progressive state paradigm conclude the paper. Statistical analyses and a list of 26 references are appended. (MES)

Presents results of a study that used feedback from 231 eighth graders in a computer-based instruction (CBI) science program to examine the effects of interaction cues and ability grouping on class performance, attitudes, instruction time, and interaction behaviors. Results indicate that students who used the cued version of the CBI program performed significantly better. (JMV)

Discussion of learner control in computer-assisted instructional simulations focuses on an experiment conducted with undergraduate students that compared three different treatments for instructional control in an aircraft simulator. Topics addressed include performance on immediate and delayed posttests; practice; student attitudes; effects of instructional control on challenge; and effects of task complexity. (25 references) (LRW)