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This article reports the results of a study conducted to examine the use of small group learning strategies in an online college course. The study examined the effect of four types of positive interdependence and the affiliation motive on learning and attitude in an asynchronous, collaborative learning environment. Results indicated no significant differences in achievement by type of interdependence, or by affiliation motive. Correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation, indicating that participants with higher numbers of interactions attained higher posttest scores. Participants in reward groups had significantly higher agreement with several attitude statements that reflected benefit from working with others and being able to generate better ideas in groups. Furthermore, participants in all three types of structured interdependence, compared to groups with no interdependence, had significantly higher agreement with being able to learn more because team members knew it was their job to contribute to the group work. In addition, participants with high affiliation motive had significantly higher agreement with several attitude statements. Groups with no structured interdependence had the most cognitive interactions, role groups had the most group processing, and reward groups were most off task. Implications for integrating small groups in computer-mediated learning environments are discussed.

This paper focuses on the research competencies of students in Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) programs. First, we describe how research is being taught to students enrolled in several leading IDT programs. Next, we present findings from a survey administered to determine what knowledge and skills are being taught to IDT graduate students. Implications for the design of courses that focus on research are discussed.

This study examines the effect of cooperative versus individual learning strategies and the need for affiliation on achievement, attitude, and student interactions when receiving instructional television lessons. Subjects (n=126) were undergraduate education majors enrolled in a required course in educational psychology. Subjects classified as high or low affiliation used either a cooperative or individual learning strategy while receiving instruction from a television lesson. Study participants completed a need for affiliation scale, viewed an instructional television program on objectives-based assessment, answered questions for practice and read feedback sections in a workbook, and took a posttest following the program. The television lesson was designed following a competency-based approach and included objectives, information, examples, practice, feedback, and review. Results include: (1) there was no significant difference between subjects who used cooperative and individual learning strategies when overall achievement and application were tested; (2) subjects who worked alone performed significantly better on the knowledge portion of the posttest than those who worked cooperatively; (3) the need for affiliation was related to attitude toward future learning activities; and (4) the need for affiliation was related to student interaction behaviors. Study results indicate that cooperative learning does not always increase learning from instructional television that has been systematically designed. (Contains 24 references.) (SWC)

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 investigated the effects of interface tools and learner cognitive styles on performance in searches for information within a hypermedia database. The subjects, 75 students in a university English as a Second Language (ESL) program, were blocked for field dependence and assigned to four treatments which differed by the search tool available. The subjects searched "EarthQuest," a social studies and science hypermedia database, for facts to answer practice and posttest questions on science topics. Field-independent subjects had significantly better achievement than field-dependent subjects in both the index/find and map treatments but not in the browser or all tools treatments. The active engagement, transfer of concepts to new contexts, and high information processing demands that accompany effective use of the index, find, and map tools may explain the greater achievement by field independents. The interface design and instructional use of hypermedia databases should reflect the range of cognitive styles of users. (Contains 20 references.) (Author/JLB)

The effects of orienting activities and practice on performance and student behaviors in a cooperative learning environment were studied with 80 graduate education majors in an educational psychology course. A 2 x 2 factorial design was used, with orienting activity (advance organizer versus objectives) and type of practice (verbal information versus intellectual skill) as the independent variables. Dependent variables were achievement and student behaviors. Students in the treatment groups (combinations of organizers and practice) received instructional television lessons with workbook activities. Helping and on-task individual and group behaviors were observed. The type of practice had a significant effect on performance, with those receiving skills practice performing better than those receiving information practice. Practice alone did not influence knowledge acquisition, but it was influenced by a combination of practice and orienting activity, with students receiving information practice and objectives outperforming all subjects on the knowledge section of the posttest. Orienting activity and type of practice also influenced student behaviors. Implications for instructional technologists are discussed. (Contains 15 references.) (SLD)

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)

The effects of cooperative learning and type of reward on performance and continuing motivation were studied as part of a study designed to investigate how cooperative groups can be implemented with media originally designed for individual learning. Subjects were 126 undergraduate (30 males and 96 females) education majors. Subjects were assigned to treatment groups with combinations of instructional method (individual versus cooperative) and kinds of reward (task, performance, and none). Subjects received information, examples, practice, and feedback from an instructional television lesson. Results indicate that subjects who worked alone performed better and expressed more continuing motivation than did those who worked cooperatively. This may result from the fact that television watching is usually a solitary activity, and from the lack of practice in working with others while using instructional television. Type of reward did not affect continuing motivation, and a significant interaction between instructional method and reward was not found. Future research should continue to explore the use of cooperative learning with technologies that were originally designed for individual learning. (Contains 18 references.) (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cooperative learning and type of reward on performance and continuing motivation. Subjects used either a cooperative or individual learning strategy while receiving information, examples, practice, and feedback from an instructional television lesson. Subjects (126 undergraduate education majors) were also provided with one of the three rewards (i.e., task, performance, none). Results indicated that subjects who worked alone performed better on the posttest and expressed more continuing motivation than those who worked cooperatively. Type of reward did not affect performance or continuing motivation. Implications for reemploying cooperative groups in settings that were originally designed for individual learning are provided. Two tables containing performance and motivation test score data are appended. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/KRN)

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)

This study determined the effects of using an instructional game and supplemental readings on student motivation as defined using the ARCS model of motivation and performance. Subjects were 75 undergraduate education majors enrolled in a required educational psychology course at a large southwestern university. All students attended a lecture on the information processing model of learning and were told to read a chapter in the textbook, "Essentials of Learning for Instruction," by Gagne and Driscoll. Two days later, subjects were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. Both groups were given 30 minutes to practice the information presented in the lecture and assigned reading. Treatment group subjects used an instructional game developed by the researchers, and subjects in the control group used a worksheet containing the same review questions as the game. Upon completion of the practice activity, all subjects completed the Instructional Materials Motivation Scale (IMMS) and then took a 15-item constructed response posttest to measure their performance. Multivariate analysis was used to test for an overall difference between groups on the motivation scales. This was followed by univariate analysis on each of the four IMMS subscales. Results indicate that using the instructional game and completing the reading assignment both had a significant effect on motivation, and that completion of the reading assignment significantly contributed to posttest performance. While results suggest that subjects in the treatment condition outperformed control group subjects on the posttest, this difference was not statistically significant. These results suggest that instructional designers can provide students with a motivating practice alternative that is as effective as more traditional methods of practice. (39 references) (GL)

This chapter describes the development and implementation of a graduate-level course on human performance technology (HPT) at Arizona State University -- Tempe. It includes a list of HPT competencies that graduates of instructional design and technology (IDT) programs should attain and a description of a performance improvement project designed to help them acquire those skills. The chapter concludes by providing some "lessons learned" aimed at faculty who are thinking about implementing a course on HPT and students who are considering enrolling in one. [For the complete volume, "Educational Media and Technology Yearbook, Volume 35," see ED598751.]

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of navigation tools and computer confidence within a hypermedia environment. Twelve course sections containing 354 undergraduate college students were blocked by ability and randomly assigned to an embedded hyperlink group, a content list group, or a concept map group. Results indicated that students in the content list group scored significantly higher than those in the embedded hyperlink group on the achievement posttest and had more positive attitudes toward the program. Navigation patterns indicated that students in the content list group and the map group visited more distinct pages than those in the embedded hyperlink group. Furthermore, high computer confidence students scored better on the posttest than low computer confidence students. Implications for designing hypermedia instruction are provided. (Contains 4 tables.)

Describes a study that investigated the effects of search tools and learner cognitive styles on performance in searches for information within a hypermedia database. Students in a university English-as-a-Second-Language program were assigned to one of four treatment groups, and results show a significant interaction between search tool and cognitive style. (Author/LRW)

The effects of individual versus cooperative learning and type of reward (points for completion or performance, or none) were studied with 126 undergraduate education majors. Subjects working alone performed better on the posttest and expressed more continuing motivation. Reward type did not affect performance or motivation. (SLD)

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)

Describes a study that was conducted to investigate the effect of cooperative learning and the need for affiliation on performance, time on task, and satisfaction of undergraduates using an instructional television lesson. Individual measures are described, cooperative versus individual learning strategies are compared, and future research is suggested. (20 references) (LRW)