Educational Software Package Research Articles

Production of educational software: The situation in Denmark

This paper describes how, as a general trend, the development of software for secondary education in Europe has divided into two paths: the development of general application tools, and the development of smaller pieces of subject-oriented lessonware. In Denmark, it is recommended that software be designed in the philosophy of the ‘market place’ model, along the lines of such software as ‘Guide’. The majority of the software, though, is still designed with a linear structure, more or less advanced. An example of educational software is given, in the form of lessonware for physics education. Orfeus is a new Danish organization, which has been established by the local educational authorities in charge of schools. The aim of Orfeus is to provide software for Danish schools in greater quantity and of better quality, at the same time encouraging teachers and students to use available software.

COMPNET: an interactive computer networks analysis and design package

COMPNET is an educational software package being used as a teaching tool to study, analyze, and design computer networks. This package is an interactive, user-friendly, entirely menu-driven, and graphics-oriented software tool, implemented for the Apple's MacPlus and Digital's VAX 11/780. The authors describe the applications of this package, and cover topics in graph theory, centralized network design, and queuing systems. The software work has been successfully implemented and classroom-tested by the authors at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Several computer exercises using COMPNET are suggested to accompany classroom lectures and traditional problem assignments.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The impact of evaluation through classroom trials on the design and development of educational software

Published papers are available on numerous models for the production of educational software. Teachers have contributed curriculum ideas to many of these. Some Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) development methods include trials of software in schools to provide feedback in the development process. This paper discusses the effectiveness of classroom trials, using an example from the Computers in the Curriculum project. Consideration is given to the relation between this formative development and general research questions concerning the contribution of CAL to learning.

Development tools for educational software: Open-ended software and creative programming tools

As part of a scheme to introduce computers into education in Norway, tools have been developed to simplify the production of educational software. This development was promoted by the ministerial task force “Datasekretariatet”. The first tool developed was Mosaikk. Originally, it was meant for prototyping user interfaces, but it was later extended to become a very powerful tool, integrating many functions. The simulation and modelling tool-set SimTek was developed next. It generates Pascal or other source code programs. The third tool to be developed was The Director, an editing tool for the production of adventure games and interactive literature programs. Graf-Trix was developed to enhance quality and portability of graphics software and to simplify programming. Not only have all these tools been used efficiently in the development of such applications as Aims and Noah's Problem, but also, being open-ended and interactive, they have supported new methods of teaching. At the moment, there is an interesting project in the Nordic countries, where, in the area of ‘System Dynamics and Simulation’, a pedagogical method is used to integrate several subject areas. This method is supported by the use of SimTek as a modelling tool, which enables students to explore and handle the complexity of dynamic systems. One of the strong points of Mosaikk is the capability to integrate other tools and programs, rendering it a very useful tool for multi-media presentations, including interactive video, graphics, communication, databases, etc. Presentation of text and graphics on screen and printers is facilitated by the use of the Post-Script standard.

Computer-assisted teaching of marine hydrodynamics

This paper describes a curriculum development project in the M.I.T. Department of Ocean Engineering to augment and enhance the teaching of undergraduate marine hydrodynamics with the aid of microcomputers. This work has been part of Project Athena, an institute-wide experiment at M.I.T. since May 1983 which has been concerned with the incorporation of modern computer technology into all levels of the educational process. The fundamental educational goals of Project Athena are to help students learn more creatively with the aid of the computers' powerful computational and graphical capabilities and to improve and refine existing teaching methods. For teaching hydrodynamic theory, we have developed an educational software package, HYDRO, which employs a hybrid tutorial/simulation format with a menu-driven, user-oriented interphase and high resolution graphics. Teaching modules have been developed for basic topics in marine hydrodynamics involving surface waves and flow past rigid bodies. Each topic module is divided into tutorial, homework, and design sub-modules. The tutorials provide qualitative introductions or guided tours of each new area, the homework modules expose the students to quantitative problem solving, while the design modules allow the students to perform practical engineering design. HYDRO was used with an advanced undergraduate course at M.I.T., Marine Hydrodynamics I, during the fall semesters of 1985–1987. In addition to our subjective evaluations, student questionnaires and online surveys, as well as a department-wide faculty questionnaire, were conducted to evaluate the pedagogical usefulness of the project. HYDRO has been an invaluable complement to the other learning resources; the students have reported much improved intuitive understanding of the material due to the graphical orientation of the software, while hydro's computational capability has increased the students' quantitative and practical knowledge of marine hydrodynamics. Overall, the project has been a success, while valuable lessons have been learned. In particular, we have learned that making versatile scientific software available to the student does not necessarily ensure that significant educational benefits will be obtained. To achieve these educational benefits, the software must also have tutoring features which will guide the students in learning the material. When used in this way, the software modules present mechanisms whereby the material can be taught more effectively and efficiently than with the other modes of instruction.

Kan Alexis Bedrijfscommunicatie Analyseren ?

This article describes a number of problems that the communication professional has to deal with, while analysing written business communication. Some of the problems have to do with analysing communication within training courses, others arise when analysing the communication and the flow of communication through an organization. The author presents a way to incorporate ALEXIS, a software package, into professional business communication. ALEXIS is an educational software package, designed to support staff teaching a writing course in a number of time consuming tasks, above all in supplying printed feedback on written assignments. ALEXIS has been used successfully in the writing curricula of Nijenrode, the Netherlands School of Business, and Twente University of Technology. Using ALEXIS helps to overcome some of the problems the communication professional has to deal with and tends to facilitate the process of analysing

Software Reviews : News Works Reviewed by Robert D. Duval, West Virginia University Publisher: Newsweek, Newsweek Education Department, 444 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022 Year of Publication: 1985 Materials: One disk with Instructor's Manual, Activity Sheets and lesson plan Price: Free Machine Specificity: Apple (II +, IIe, IIc) System Requirements: 64K with APPLE WORKS and 2 disk drives Effectiveness:

Summary: NEWSWORKS is an educational software package designed to demonstrate the usefulness of computerized database management for social studies. While perhaps quite useful in a high school computer lab, it has only limited potential for a college classroom. It requires that the user possess and be familiar with APPLEWORKS, but given that, it provides an excellent method for demonstrating the hows and whys of database management. The price makes it quite worth consideration by those who are in the market for this type of product.

ALEXIS: computer-assisted feedback on written assignments (1)

ABSTRACT ALEXIS is an educational software package, designed to support teaching staff in a number of time-consuming tasks: organizing and managing courses, administrating student activities and results, and, above all, supplying printed feedback on written assignments. ALEXIS has been used successfully in the curricula of Nijenrode, the Netherlands School of Business, and Twente University of Technology. In this paper we describe the specifications of the software package, and pay special attention to its capability of supplying differentiated commentary on the same textual shortcomings.

Software Reviews : Dartmouth College Courseware 1985

Summary: Dartmouth College has developed a small number of educational software products to be used in a classroom context. This review encompasses four low-cost products that have practical application in the social science fields.

Development and Implementation of an Educational Simulator Software Package for a Specific Microprogramming Architecture

Microprogramming is one technique for designing the control unit of a digital computer or computer-based instrument. It has become more widely used than a conventional hardwired logic design technique due to its flexibility and simplicity. We have developed an educational software package for the microprogramming simulation based on a computer architecture defined in a popular undergraduate computer engineering textbook [1]. This software package consists of an assembler, a compiler, and a simulator. The assembler translates a conventional assembly-language program into a macro object file, while the compiler compiles a microprogram into a micro object file. The simulator shows how a macroinstruction is interpreted by executing a series of microinstructions. The simulator is interactive, flexible, and easy to use. This software package, written in standard Pascal, is available for distribution to interested institutions.

Teaching about the electricity supply industry—The development and evaluation of a computer based teaching package for schools

This paper describes the development of a computer based teaching package for use at upper secondary school level. The project was funded by Understanding Electricity, which is the educational service of the Electricity Council. The principles of electricity supply are integral to several subject areas in the school curriculum. The purpose of this package is firstly to provide well-resourced teaching material to cover these curriculum needs and secondly to provide an industrial context in which to apply the technical skills acquired in individual subject disciplines. The package is based on a computer simulation that enables the user to experience the problems of running an electricity supply system. The use of the computer in this way enables a powerful investigative approach to be adopted in the classroom. The paper begins by discussing the background to joint industry/education projects and the procedural models that have emerged. It continues by presenting the project history, the development team model used and the educational concepts of electricity supply that provide the background to the computer simulation. Attention is drawn to the ways in which the finished package matches the industrial resource material to curriculum needs. Teachers were involved from the beginning, both in the development of the computer software and in the production of curriculum material. They also undertook the design of investigations in specific subject areas—economics, physics, mathematics and geography. This paper presents the results of field trials and discusses the problems of evaluating and marketing educational material. Although the detail of this paper deals specifically with educational material developed for the Electricity Council, the principles discussed have significance for approaches to the production of educational software generally.

Microcomputers and the teaching of operations research

In this study, we review educational software packages that have been developed for the microcomputer in the areas of operations research, operations management and statistics. A tabular comparison of 26 packages that either accompany textbooks or serve as stand-alone systems is presented. We also discuss the interesting features found in these packages and present our views on the current status and future development of educational software.

CACHE: An Interactive Control System Analysis and Design Package

CACHE is an interactive control engineering educational software package implemented on a personal computer workstation. The objective of this paper is to highlight the features of CACHE. CACHE provides undergraduate and graduate control engineering students with a comprehensive set of computational and graphics tools incorporating both classical and modern control engineering methodologies. The paper describes the menu-driven hierarchical command structure and the functions of the three CACHE subsystems: database manager, calculator, and plotter. The database manager maintains both state-space and frequency-domain transfer function models of linear time-invariant physical systems. CACHE includes analysis and design tools for both continuous-time and discrete-time systems. The application of CACHE is illustrated through the design of a position servomechanism.

MAKING INTERACTIVE PRODUCTS COME ALIVE

Interactive products include all of the new computerized vending, service, and consumer products such as video games, automatic tellers, and telecommunications shopping systems. Human factors researchers and other behavioral scientists who study these machines seek to make them more “user friendly.” Most of their research, however, is aimed at making them less uncomfortable and less difficult to use. In contrast, this paper describes a paradigm for making these machines more stimulating and fun to use. A case study is provided which describes how this paradigm was applied in the design of a teaching machine, the “Talking Typewriter,” a forerunner of Texas Instrument's successful “Speak 'N Spell” and today's educational software packages.