Using a Self-Administered Visual Basic Software Tool to Teach Psychological Concepts

This article introduces LearningLinks, a Visual Basic software tool that allows teachers to create highly individualized learning modules that embrace powerful constructivist and behavioral learning principles. A sample of 35 undergraduate students participated in the field testing of a module that had been designed to improve understanding of the psychological concepts, reinforcement and punishment. Results suggest that students quickly learned to tap the module's instructional features to increase their understanding of both concept definitions and applications. Students rated instructions as easy to follow and the module as an effective instructional tool. Future research and development efforts will focus on expanding the pool of content modules and on assessing the tool's long-term instructional benefits. ********** In 1996-1997, a team of faculty and students at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education developed and field tested a software tool called LearningLinks. This set of linked programs allows teachers to blend text and graphics into highly individualized learning modules that can be self-administered by students (Strang & Schoeny, 1997). LearningLinks' pedagogical foundations represent the melding of powerful constructivist and behavioral learning principles. While using the LearningLinks authoring program to create an instructional module, the teacher designates the degree of self-direction, discovery, feedback, reinforcement, and practice through a series of simple menu selections. This article discusses the field testing of a module specifically designed to teach types of reinforcement and punishment--psychological concepts that perennially confuse undergraduate students. Module construction consists of using the authoring program to build a series of instructional frames that include components displayed in Figure 1. First, each frame is assigned a graphical template that defines its basic content and potential hot spot locations. Authoring tools are then used to create, position, and size as many as 12 individual click-sensitive zones, or hot spots, on any part of the template. Next, a short descriptor (level 1 text) is assigned to each hot spot zone. During instruction, this rtext appears adjacent to the template whenever its respective hot spot is clicked. Finally, a more comprehensive multi-line source of information (level 2 text) is developed for each zone. During instruction, level 2 text appears beneath the template in a scrollable text box whenever its predefined level 1 text box is clicked. Another phase in module development concerns defining the options that students will use during instruction. These options appear as an array of click-sensitive command buttons beneath each frame's graphical template. Navigation options can be preset to allow the student to: * move forward or backwards through the frame sequence in a linear fashion; * enable a multi-view window that offers free access to any frame; * display simultaneously or erase all the current frame's text boxes; * call up a note pad for generating a permanent record of personal notes concerning each instructional frame; and * end the instruction. Tracking the student's use of the options in this array provides valuable insights about the learning strategies employed during the lesson. THE PSYCHOLOGY MODULE Using a Windows-based personal computer, each student navigated the psychology module through a mouse and occasional keyboard entries. This module included one frame containing navigation directions and four frames offering variations of textual and graphical depictions of the following learning concepts: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Figures 2-5 display the module's two definition-based and two matrix-based instructional frames with '? …