Improving the Army's Assessment of Interactive Multimedia Instruction Courseware 2009 Book

Preface iii

Tables vii

Summary ix

Acknowledgments xxi

Acronyms xxiii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Background 1

Purpose and Organization of This Report 3

Chapter 2 Quality-Evaluation Approaches and Their Usage in TADLP 5

Approaches to Evaluating Training Quality 5

Training Outcomes 5

Test Evaluation 7

Administrative Data 7

Courseware Evaluation 7

Current Evaluation Efforts in Army Training 8

Measures 9

Conclusion 12

Chapter 3 RAND's Approach to IMI Evaluation 13

Courses Evaluated 13

Evaluation Criteria 15

Coding Process 22

Chapter 4 IMI Evaluation Findings 23

Interactivity and Course Length 23

Technical Criteria for Courseware 24

Production-Quality Criteria for Courseware 26

Pedagogical Criteria for Courseware 28

Chapter 5 Conclusions and Implications for TADLP's Assessment of IMI 41

How IMI Courseware Can Be Improved 41

Recommendations for Courses in Our Sample 41

Strategic Issues in Instructional Design 44

Recommendations for Improving TADLP's Assessment Program 46

Implementing a Program of Courseware Evaluation in TADLP 49

Potential Directions for Other Program-Level Evaluations of IMI Quality 51

Conclusion 54

Appendix

A Courseware Evaluation Criteria 57

B Summary of Specific Changes for Improving the Quality of IMI Courseware 63

References 65