GAP: a Graphics Authoring Package which produces BASIC from graphical input

The authors argue that there is a need for a microcomputer software authoring package which produces graphics. The novel feature of the Graphics Authoring Package (GAP) which they developed is that it produces Basic code from the user's graphical input. GAP is described together with the results of an evaluation study. The results indicate that the package is easy to use, effective in rapidly producing graphics code and that, in general, it fills a gap in the current range of educational software.     

How Family and Informal Supporters Appraise Service Quality

Within the field of intellectual disability, progressive policy thinking in Wales has led to an emphasis on the tailoring of services to individual needs and wants of service users, especially through individual planning processes and the creation of service packages. Using an adapted structure‐process‐outcome evaluation model, research is reported about how informal supporters appraise service quality. Based on a survey of 752 families, the first phase of the research reported here has been concerned with charting relationships between personal characteristics of users, service process factors and appraisals by informal supporters of service quality. The findings suggest the importance of key service process factors to an understanding of dimensions of service quality.     

Current conceptions of literacy – insights from work with children and older learners with sensory needs

There have been many efforts to conceptualise literacy, both in terms of its essence and component parts, but it has proved difficult to define. This paper considers work that is undertaken with children and older learners with sensory needs in order to promote the early stages of literacy. Recent government initiatives aimed at fostering literacy development have caused teachers of children with sensory needs to re-examine their practice. The paper discusses early literacy as part of children's attempts to communicate and describes children with sensory needs engaging in a range of activities that are termed 'literacy' by those working with them. By taking into account these activities, the authors endeavour to throw light on the broader questions around concepts of literacy.     

Restructuring higher education systems through institutional mergers: Australian experience, 1981–1983

This paper reviews Australian experience over the period 1981–1983 in order to illustrate how institutional mergers can be used to tackle system-wide as well as local institutional problems in higher education. It also illustrates some of the tensions and complications that arise in a federal political system where the legal control for two out of three sectors of tertiary education lies at one level of government and funding responsibility at another. The background and context to the mergers are explained, an analysis is provided of how institutions and state governments reacted to Federal Government coercion, and an attempt is made to assess outcomes.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Efficacy of Multimedia Instruction in Counseling Skill Development

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of multimedia instruction on students' counseling skill development. The participants were 73 beginning‐level counselor education students (20 men and 53 women, ages ranging from 24 to 47 years). Ratings of students' pre‐ and posttest video counseling tapes were used to assess the effects of the multimedia approach. The results found that there was no statistically significant difference among the levels of students' counseling skill development across the 3 (high‐tech multimedia, low‐tech multimedia, and traditional instruction) treatment groups.