The Efficacy of an Interactive Hypermedia Program for Teaching a Test-Taking Strategy to Students with High-Incidence Disabilities

Abstract

Increased demand for accountability in the public schools has led to an increase in the number of testing situations for all students, including students with disabilities. The purpose of this project was to develop and validate an interactive hypermedia (IH) program to teach a test-taking strategy to secondary-level students with disabilities. The program was designed to deliver a substantial portion of instruction needed for students to master the strategy. The strategy for which the IH was developed and tested in this study is The Test-Taking Strategy (Hughes, Schumaker, Deshler, & Mercer, 1988). With input from student, teacher, design, and technical consultants, the IH program was created. Students who have learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and other health impairments learned the strategy via the IH program. A multiple-baseline design was used to show the effects of the instruction. The effectiveness of the IH program in teaching students with learning disabilities to use the strategy was found to be comparable to live instruction. Further research is warranted to determine if this medium is feasible in inclusive classrooms and effective in teaching students other types of strategies.