1. Teaching Roles for Instructional Software
James Hutto
Columbus State University

2. Main Types of Instructional Software
Drill-and-Practice
Tutorial
Simulation
Instructional Game
Problem-Solving

3. Drill-and-Practice
Users can work problems or answer questions and get feedback on correctness.
Allows the effective rehearsal students need to transfer newly learned information into long-term memory.
Beneficial for teachers of students with learning disabilities.
Yields equivalent or better benefits when compared to paper-pencil practice.
More efficient and appealing to students.

4. Benefits, Limitations, & Examples of Drill-and-Practice
Immediate feedback
Increased motivation
Saving teacher time
Limitations:
Instructional overuse or misuse
Criticism by constructivists
Examples:
Flash card activity
Chart fill-in activity
Branching drill
Extensive feedback activities

5. Tutorial Entire instructional sequence on a topic.
Students should be able to learn the topic without any other help or materials.
True teaching materials.
Sometimes confused with drill-and-practice.
Often categorized as linear or branching tutorials.

6. Benefits and Limitations of Tutorial
Immediate feedback
Motivation
Time savings
Self-paced instruction
Limitations:
Criticism by constructivists
Lack of well-designed products
Reflect only one instructional approach

7. Simulation
Computerized model of a real or imagined system that is designed to teach how the system works.
Incorporates both directive and constructive teaching styles
Simulations that teach about something:
Physical simulations
Iterative simulations
Simulations that teach how to do something:
Procedural simulations
Situational simulations

8. Benefits and Limitations of Simulation
Compresses time or slows down processes
Gets students involved
Makes experimentation safe
Makes the impossible possible
Saves money and other resources
Allows repetition with variations
Allows observation of complex processes
Limitations:
Criticism of virtual lab software
Accuracy of models
Instructional misuses

9. Instructional Game
Software products that add game-like rules and/or competition to learning activities.
Incorporates both directive and constructive teaching styles.
Promote excitement and challenge due to competition.
Can include educational video games.

10. Benefits and Limitations of Instructional Game
Add fun and excitement to the classroom
Fosters noncognitive skills
Makes learning more engaging and motivational
Used to create a desire learn a curriculum topic
Limitations:
Belief that students just want to have fun and not learn
Confusion of rules
Inefficient learning
Classroom barriers

11. Problem-Solving Three components:
Recognition of a goal
Process (sequence of physical activities or operations)
Mental activity
Fosters component skills in or approaches to general problem-solving
Two main approaches:
Content-area problem-solving skills
Content-free problem-solving skills

12. Benefits and Limitations to Problem-Solving
Promotes visualization in mathematic problem solving
Improves interest and motivation
Prevents inert knowledge
Limitations:
Names versus skills
Software claims versus effectiveness
Lack of skill transfer

13. Criteria for Effectiveness
Teaching Roles
Characteristics
Criteria for Effectiveness
Benefits
Drill-and-Practice
Presents items for students to answer.
Gives feedback on correctness.
User control over presentation rate.
Appropriate feedback for correct, incorrect answers.
Gives immediate, private feedback.
Motivates students to practice.
Saves teacher time.
Tutorial
Presents an entire instructional sequence.
Complete instruction.
Can be linear or branching.
Extensive interactivity.
Thorough user control.
Appropriate pedagogy.
Adequate answer judging and feedback.
Same as drill-and-practice.
Offers instruction that can stand on its own.
Simulation
Models a real or imaginary system.
Can model physical phenomena, procedures, and hypothetical situations.
Users can see the impact of their actions.
System fidelity and accuracy.
Good documentation to explain system characteristics and uses.
Compresses time or slows down processes.
Gets students involved.
Makes experiments safe.
Saves money & resources.
Allows repetition with variations.
Instructional Game
Promotes excitement and challenge.
Incorporates both directive and constructive teaching styles.
Appealing and appropriate formats and activities.
Instructional value.
Social, societal, and cultural considerations are addressed.
Adds fun and excitement to the classroom.
Makes learning more engaging and motivational.
Problem-Solving
Tools to help students solve problems.
Environments that challenge students to create solutions to complex problems.
Problems to help develop component problem-solving skills.
Opportunities for practice in solving content-area problems.
Challenging, interesting formats.
Clear links to developing specific problem-solving skills or abilities.
Challenging activities motivate students to spend more time on the topic.
Prevents inert knowledge by illustrating situations in which skills apply.

14. Reference
Roblyer, M.D. (2015). Integrating Educational Technology Into Teaching (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.