Virtual Advisory Panel for ANSR / DOEd SBIR Project



To provide expert guidance for the Phase I SBIR project, Dr. Mead, the Principal Investigator, obtained the help of eight highly qualified persons who have one or more of the following areas of expertise:
- Learning Disabilities
- Special Education teaching (especially arithmetic)
- Child Psychology
- Special Education administration
- Assessment of Learning Disabilities
- Computer Aided Instruction or Computer Managed Instruction

Selected experts formed a "virtual" advisory panel and "met" via email over the Internet, with perhaps an occasional exchange by phone conversation or fax. Panel members shared ideas and information about issues related to the project, over the period from October, 1995 through March, 1996.

You're invited to read an introduction to Members of the VAP.

The results of the VAP's discussions were gathered via two "Straw Polls". The first was exploratory, and the second Poll was iterated until all active panelists were satisfied with the results. Straw Poll II consisted of 21 objectives or program features that were all considered desirable ingredients in a CBI arithmetic tutor. The voting was heavily constrained (each panelist had 6 points to allocate among the 21 items), in order to ensure that a clear prioritization was achieved. The table below shows the four items considered most desirable by the panelists:


The results of the VAP's discussions and the opinions expressed via Straw Poll II have influenced the project's directions to the extent possible within the Phase I resource limits.

One immediate effect of the VAP Straw Poll was to decide the direction to be taken in designing and implementing the Guidance/Assessment module. The VAP clearly recommended that the main emphasis of the module should be on whatever aspects of assessment are directly relevant to the teaching functions. Lower emphasis was placed on assessment designed to reinforce or supplement existing evaluation and placement tools.

The VAP discussion and Poll results have contributed strongly to shaping the proposed Phase II project.


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