The Development of a Training Manual for Students 
              in a Computer Mediated Distance Education Program
                           
                                CHAPTER 1
                              Introduction


Introduction and Problem Statement

     For many persons, employment in today's highly competitive
information-processing society often requires higher entry-level
educational credentials as well as a need for on-going personal and
professional education.  Unfortunately, the same responsibilities
that cause this need for additional education often limit the
amount of time a person can spend in an educational environment. 
For this and a variety of other reasons, distance education, in a
variety of forms, is fast becoming a viable alternative to
traditional classroom instruction in meeting the educational needs
of students throughout the United States and the world. 

     Alternative instructional methods, including tele-courses, classes
offered off-campus and computer-based instruction present many
opportunities to institutions of higher learning that are willing
to make the economic, logistic and pedagogic commitments necessary
to initiate and maintain such a program.

     Many institutions, upon developing programs of this type, soon
discover that one of the major problems facing them is the issue of
student attrition and poor performance.  Many studies have shown
that attrition rates of distance learning programs, when compared
to their traditional counterparts, are typically higher (Bernard
and Amundsen, 1989).  Several studies (Dille and Mezack, 1991; 
Ehrman, 1990; Powell, Conway and Ross, 1990; Terrell, 1992;
Terrell, 1994; Wilkes and Burnham; 1991) have attempted to answer
questions concerning poor performance and attrition by looking at
the psychological, pedagogical and environmental factors that would
lead to behavior of this type.  

     Nova Southeastern University's School of Computer and
Information Sciences (SCIS), located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida,
offers both masters and doctoral level programs in computer
science, information systems and computer education.  Students
enrolled in the programs are offered a variety of settings in which
to take their coursework.  Options include an institute-based
format where a student sits for one-week of instruction or a
cluster-based format where students meet for two three-day
weekends.  Both of these formats are part of a six-month period of
instruction, the remainder of which is devoted to computer-mediated
instruction.  Another option, open only to masters level students,
is a three-month period of independent study during which the
student sits for no formal instruction but is required to
participate in computer-mediated instruction.  Administrators and
faculty within the SCIS have documented an attrition rate of
between thirty and forty percent for students at this level.  Each
student leaving the program represents a significant fiscal loss to
the SCIS and University, but more importantly, represents a failure
on the part of NSU, in certain instances, to address problems and
concerns that could have prevented certain students from leaving
the program.  Evidence of this lies in qualitative data collected
from students failing to complete the program that suggest that
confusion and a lack of understanding of the specific tools used in
the computer-mediated instructional paradigm are a major factor
contributing to their failure to complete their chosen program of
study. 


Purpose and Significance of Study 

     The purpose of this study is to develop a detailed student
training manual that will introduce students in Nova Southeastern
University's School of Computer and Information Science to the
computer managed instructional model and the specific computer-
based tools employed by that institution to deliver distance
education.

      It is obvious that the development of such a training manual,
if used as it is designed and developed, should help alleviate the
problem of attrition within the program.  


Research Questions

     Specific research questions to be addressed in this study
include:

     - What are the types of information that students lack when
       attempting to interact with NSU's computer-mediated        
       instructional system from their home or office?

     - What are the steps necessary in developing an effective
       training manual?



                    Organization of This Study

     Chapter One has served to introduce the study as well as 
establish the basic purpose and processes of the study.     

     Chapter Two offers a review of the related literature and is
divided in several sections.  It begins with a review of various 
developmental models used in education and the information systems
industry.  The chapter continues with a review of literature aimed
at investigating how other institutions have addressed problems of
this nature.  The third section describes the UNIX operating
system, the software currently being used by Nova Southeastern
University to support its computer-mediated distance learning
programs.  Section four of the chapter investigates various
communication software packages that students could conceivably use
in connecting to the NSU host machine from their personal computer.
The chapter concludes with a summary of all findings therein.

     Chapter Three presents a detailed design of the study and
includes the methods of data collection and the variables to be
tested.


                           CHAPTER II
                  Review of Related Literature
   
     This review of the literature will investigate several
distinct areas related to the development of a training manual for
students in an online distance education program and is divided
into several sections.  

     The first section will present an investigation of various
developmental models used in both education and information
science.    

     The second section will attempt to identify other
institutions, educational or otherwise, that have experienced
problems of this type.  It is expected that the insight provided
from their experience will provide guidelines for the development
of a similar training manual at NSU.

     The third section will provide a familiarization with the UNIX
operating system, the computer systems software used at Nova
Southeastern University.  This will involve examining various
components of the software that students might be expected to
master.  This will include, but not be limited to, directory and
file control commands, communication commands, editors and help
facilities.

     The fourth section will continue by presenting an
investigation of various communications software packages available
for use for connection between computing systems.  These software
packages will be limited to those that run on IBM Personal Computer
(PC's) or Apple MacIntosh products.

     The last section presents a summarization of the findings of
the previous sections and provide a basis for the developmental
plan presented in Chapter III. 



                              CHAPTER III
                              Methodology

     This chapter is divided into several sections including a
development plan, a statement of assumptions concerning the
development of the product and a statement of product limitations. 


Product Development

     The following steps represent the development plan for the 
student training manual.  This plan is divided into several
distinct sections; criteria establishment, criteria validation, a
product development plan and a product validation plan.

     Criteria Establishment

     The objectives of this product are five-fold:

     1. Students must have the ability to load communications 
        software on their home computer and make a connection
        to the main computer at Nova Southeastern University.

     2. Students must be able to upload ASCII text documents
        from their home computer to the main computer at 
        Nova Southeastern University

     3. Students must be able to submit their assignments via
        the Electronic Student system resident on the main
        computer at Nova Southeastern University.

     4. Students must be able to communicate with instructors
        and other students via the various types of communications
        software on the main computer at Nova Southeastern        
        University.

     5. Students must be able to understand and use various UNIX
        file and directory commands on the main computer at Nova
        Southeastern University.   

     The knowledge base represented by these criteria has been
obtained through various interviews with faculty and students as
well as a survey of currently available literature.  While there is
much literature available that describes the UNIX environment in
detail, there was nothing discovered that meet the five criteria
established above.

     
     Criteria Validation

     A panel of experts was identified in order to assess the
content and construct validity of the criteria.  This panel was
composed of six full-time faculty members, each of which has been
teaching for at least three years in the computer mediated programs
offered by NSU's School of Computer and Information Sciences. 
These faculty members represented two each from the Computer and
Information Systems, Computing Technology in Education and Computer
Science programs.  

     The panel of experts was asked to evaluate the content
validity of the criteria by answering the question:


     Please evaluate each of the items considered to be criteria  
     for a training manual for online distance education students. 
     Do you think each item represents a skill that is necessary to
     succeed in this program?  Rank your answers to each question 
     from zero (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree). 

 
     Mean scores for each of the criteria ranged from a low of 8.7
for criteria 1 to a high of 10.00 for criteria 4, 5 and 6.  These
high mean scores indicate that the expert panel believes that it is
necessary that each of these items be included in the training
manual.

     The panel of experts was then asked to evaluate the construct
validity of the criteria by answer the question:


     Please evaluate the criteria for the training manual as a
     whole.  How well do you think that the scope of the knowledge
     necessary to function in a computer-mediated distance        
     education is represented?  Please rank your answer on a scale
     from zero (the criteria are not comprehensive enough) to 10
     (the criteria are perfectly comprehensive).


     Mean scores for the construct validity demonstrated a value of
9.25 indicating that the expert panel agreed that the criteria
stated represented the knowledge base requisite for successful work
in the computer-mediated distance education program.

     Product Development Plan

     The product development plan will call for the establishment
of a formative and summative review committee whose
responsibilities will include the on-going and final evaluation of
the document.  The committee will consist of representatives from
the faculty, the administration and the student body.  Any person
selected for the committee will have to have been involved with the
computer-mediated process for a minimum of two years and be
thoroughly familiar with all system functionality.

     The product development plan will require several steps:

     1. The persons actually working on the development of the plan
        will work together on each of the criteria, with each major
        functional area being addressed independently.

     2. As each section of the training manual is completed, it   
        will be reviewed by members of the formative evaluation
        team to ensure that all areas of concern have been
        addressed.  If problems or concerns are noted, Steps 1
        and 2 will be repeated until the formative team is 
        satisfied that the document meets its stated objectives.

     3. Upon completion of all sections, the entire document will
        be turned over to the summative review committee who will
        review it for thoroughness, aesthetic appeal, continuity of
        flow and accuracy.  As was the case with the formative
        review, any shortcomings will call for an iteration of
        Steps 1 through 3 to address the problem.

     4. Upon approval of the document, it will be turned over to
        a pilot group of students for initial testing and         
        evaluation.

     Product Validation Plan

     Prior to the start of the pilot test, it will be necessary to
collect quantitative and qualitative data representing the types of
problems new students are having when first trying to work using
the computer-mediated distance learning system.  This data will be
collected during the Spring and Summer terms of 1996.
     
     It is anticipated that the document will be ready for pilot
testing during the Fall Semester, 1996.  At that time, new students
enrolling in the program will attend the usual orientation session
and be given the new document for use during their first semester. 
Quantitative and qualitative data representing the types and
frequencies of the problems they are having will be collected
during their first term in the program.

     The data collected will be analyzed using various descriptive
and inferential techniques in order to attempt to understand the
degree to which the type and number of students problems and
complaints were reduced.  Conclusions will be made as to which, if
any, sections of the training manual should be modified prior to
distribution to all incoming students.

Assumptions

     It is assumed that the student population entering the program
in the 1996 Fall semester are homogeneous with the student
populations entering during the Spring and Summer terms of 1996.

     It is assumed that all students entering the program during
the Fall term of 1996 will use the training manual in an effort to
solve any problems or questions they might incur.


Limitations

     This study is limited to students entering the graduate level
information science and computing technology classes offered by
Nova Southeastern University's School of Computer and Information
Sciences.  Results of this investigation are only generalizable to
like populations and any inferences beyond that may be inaccurate.



     
References


     Dille, B. and Mezack, M. (1991). Identifying predictors of   
        high risk among community college telecourse students.
        The American Journal of Distance Education, 5,(1).

     Ehrman, M. (1990). Psychological factors and distance
        education. The American Journal of Distance Education
        4(1):11-23.

     Papert, S. (1992). The children's machine: rethinking school
        school in the age of the computer.  New York: BasicBooks.

     Powell, R., Conway, C. and Ross, L. (1990). Effects of
        students predisposing characteristics on student
        success. Journal of Distance Education, V(1): 5-19.

     Terrell, S. (1994). An investigation of predictors of success
        in computer-based graduate-level education.  A paper 
        presented at Interactive Multimedia, 94.  Washington D.C., 
        August, 1994.

     Terrell, S. (1995). Predicting success in computer-mediated
        coursework.  A paper presented at the 6th International
        Congress of Technology and Distance Education.  San Jose,
        Costa Rica, October, 1995.
 
     Terrell, S. (1994). The student's guide to the UNIX          
        environment.  New York: McGraw-Hill.

     Wilkes, C. and Burnham, B. (1991). Adult learner 
        motivations and electronic distance education. 
        The American Journal of Distance Education 5(1).