Don Cook on CBT Authoring and Programmed Instruction

Back in the early 1990s Don Cook, Ph.D., mailed me a copy of a
paper he presented in Atlanta in 1987 at the Fifth Annual
Computer-Based Training Conference and Exposition.  The title
of his paper is "Learning Principles and CBT Authoring."

Cook, who passed away in the latter half of the 90s, had been
one of the original, old-time Programmed Instruction guys,
right from the beginning of the National Society of Programmed
Instruction (NSPI).  Over the years Cook stayed with
programmed instruction, advancing into computer-based
instruction as that became more accessible during the
1970s and especially the 1980s (remember microcomputers,
Apple II's, IBM PC's?).  Cook was a member of ABA from
its inception, and was a frequent presenter at ABA conventions.

The Table of Contents of Cook's 1987 paper is:

* The Trouble with Lecture Frames

* Enter Interaction via Questions

* Interaction at the Heart of Learning

* The Learner Response: Options vs. Answers

* The Tolman(1) Critical Process Frame

* Getting it Right for the Wrong Reasons

* Getting it Right for the Right Reasons

* Single Frames vs. Sequences of Frames

* Editing System for Tolman Frames

* Does it Matter? The Evidence

* What the Response Does

* Errors and Feedback

* Simulation and Screen Design

* Windows, Feedback, Cognitive Scanning

* When Do You Give the Correct Answer

Cook notes that "a Tolman frame presents information, and also asks
the learner to do something," all on the same frame. Cook adds,
"The essential features of a Tolman frame are (a) some information,
(b) an object of that information, and (c) a request for a response."

Cook noted that many of the CBT authoring languages that had
arisen in the 1970s and 1980s had done so without reference
to Programmed Instruction. These CBT authoring systems
often had provision for "lecture frames" (present information only,
press Return to continue = only response), or for question
frames (no information presented), but where the twain didn't
meet.  They did not offer course developers the option of
creating Tolman Critical Process Frames.

--------------------------------------------
1. Yes, it's THAT Tolman:  E.C. Tolman (1886-1959), the famous
psychologist who spent most of his career at the University
of California (except for a brief time when he was dismissed
for refusing to sign a loyalty oath, which he fought and won
on the grounds that his academic freedom had been violated).

REFERENCE:

Cook, D.A. (1987).  Learning principles and CBT authoring.
Paper presented at the Fifth Annual Computer-Based Training
Conference and Exposition, March 18, 1987, Atlanta, Georgia.

 -- JE