Barry Bratton

The instructional development specialist as consultant

Successful instructional developers, as well as their clients and employers, are coming to realize that in addition to conceptual and technical ID skills, appropriate interpersonal “people” skills to cultivate an on-going collaborative relationship with the client are required for development efforts to succeed. This article views developer-client interaction from the perspective of the consultation process. It reviews the current level of knowledge about consulting skills as it applies to ID, summarizing and relating six theory- and research-based and six practical, intuition-based conceptions of the consulting process itself; consulting styles; client styles; necessary consulting skills; and training approaches for consulting skills. The article concludes with an analysis of four areas in which more inquiry regarding the ID consulting process is needed.

The Benefits of Tutoring: An Exploration of Expectancy and Outcomes.

The benefits of tutorials on participants have been explored extensively. The impact of expectancy to tutor on specific outcomes remains to be clarified. The present study investigated the effect of tutorial set versus study time on performance of students. Tutors who worked with partners and students who studied materials for a test performed differently than did tutors who expected to work with partners but did not. Discussion of related issues is presented.

Instructional improvement centers in higher education

A random sample of 72 instructional improvement centers in higher education were sent a questionnaire to determine their current status.Data were collected concerning whether the centers were in operation, whether they had been evaluated, the type of activities they pursued, their budget, and their staff sizes.Seventy-two percent of centers survey were still in operation. Both open and closed centers reported engaging in a wide variety of activities. Budget size and increase/decrease patterns varied widely with a general downturn noted after 1975. Few centers had been the subject of formal evaluations and evaluation data was not a factor in the decision to close all but one of the closed centers. Comparing the pattern of closed centers to some operating centers suggests more closings may occur in the next few years. Additional research on the history and life cycle of centers is recommended.

Internships in educational technology academic programs: A status report

The chairpersons of doctoral level educational technology programs were surveyed to determine the current status of internships in their programs. Ninety percent of the chairs responded. The questionnaire gathered the following information regarding internship practices: requirements, placement, participation, characteristics and evaluation. The findings are reported in these categories.

Experimental Analysis of Some Process Variables in Peer Tutorial Learning.

Forty-eight students from a sixth-grade classroom participated in a month-long peer tutorial study. Following a Peer-Mediated Instruction approach, tutors instructed partners in spelling. Focus of study was on interpersonal processes during tutoring and their effects on outcomes. Analysis of the data on tutorial process factors revealed few predictors of outcome variables. Tutor-learner characteristics did predict several process factors.

Roles for Educational Technologists by the Year 2000

ing, the rise and fall of programmed instruction, the fascination with educational broadcasting, the emergence of instructional systems thinking, and the current preoccupation with computers? Who would have predicted ten years ago that the educational technology academic programs today would be preparing more women than men to enter the field and that the majority of graduates would be taking employment outside formal educational institutions?