Teachers oftentimes assign homework or other supplementary study activities whenever students appear to have not acquired an adequate level of understanding of the instructional materials. Teachers also usually makes their decisions as to what activities to assign based primarily only upon their past teaching experience. In light of these facts, it can readily be seen that sometimes inappropriate study activities may be assigned. In this study, the authors have proposed some techniques for using the results of previous exercises and examinations in determining appropriate supplementary study tasks. Based upon their previous research, the authors were able to express student levels of attainment based upon average correct examination responses. Even so, it is still impossible to use a single numerical value in expressing a student's degree of mastery of any particular subject. This is because the student's reactions to a variety of items related to a single topic are usually not very consistent. In order to convert this instability into a fixed quantity is necessary to quantify the student's degree of mastery not only based upon his or her average of correct answers but also based upon a specific section or block of study. If one is to really understand the contents of a block of instruction, he or she must be able to systematically and structurally relate the learning task at hand with previous broad, underlying mastered tasks. If a learner's understanding of a task must be structurally based, it is natural that the structure of the learning materials themselves must be considered when determining supplementary work. To do this, the authors have proposed a three-cornered graph for describing the degree of mastery, the structure of the teaching materials and what supplementary tasks should be assigned.

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This paper describes an experiment the relationship between word recognition and computer screen text style and location. For the experiment, 16 computer screen positions (4 top to bottom by 4 left to right) were used to show character strings of Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji. The characters were grouped in strings of three to five each, some making words and others being nonsensical. The strings were shown both vertically and horizontally. The subjects' times for locating the previously as­ signed target screen was measured. The results showed that reactions times were shorter when horizontal strings were shown in the upper left portion of the screen as well as when vertical strings were shown in the upper right portion of the screen. Average reactions times were also shorter for four and five character strings when they were shown vertically rather than horizontally. It was also found that locating words in Hiragana or Katakana is easier than locating words in Kanji. The authors also report on their investigation of eye movement patterns.

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In this paper, the author reports on an attempt to clarify the relationships between student personality characteristics and success in passing the A Class Information Processing Qualification Test (sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Special School Education). The results from a suitability test as well as from the proficiency test were analyzed by principal factor analysis and the resulting factor score was subjected to an analysis of variance in order to extract such characteristics of the successful group as might not have been recognized from the proficiency test alone. The results showed that those who passed the proficiency test, in comparison to those who did not, shared a tendency towards more logical and theoretical ways of thinking.

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The objective of the present study was to construct a design framework for a hypermedia learning program for self-evaluation of learning activities as well as to construct a teacher-student discourse framework for a teacher-students using the program. A hypermedia program, named "Hyper­ Hydrangea," was developed using a Macintosh computer and authoring software. In order to illustrate the features of this program, the following five tables and figures were constructed to represent the program: 1. Program Design Intent, 2. Program Design Specifications, 3. Three Levels of Design Specifications, 4. Instructional Content and Manipulation Sequence Table, 5. Modality Input Information Map. The framework for discourse support included discourse categories induced from a communication process protocol for using the hypermedia learning program while the discourse-support categories were developed from the design specifications for the program.

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Improving the university educational environment has become important in the effective teaching of undergraduates of various interests and abilities. The utilization of visual materials is considered an effective means for motivating students as well as increasing learning. Since the students come into contact with a variety of educational media, to even include teachers, textbooks, classmates, each school day, understanding the characteristics of the various visual materals is important to their effective use with other educational media. In this study, the authors introduced a visual material during the presentation of basic engineering experiments and discuss its positioning and functions in comparison with other educational media.

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In order to obtain data required for courses in computer education at the Kinki University Kyushu Junior College, a survey was made of company ownership of personal computers in Kahanzan Region of Fukuoka Prefecture. It was found that while some companies have a number of personal computers, 18.6% of the companies surveyed had none at all. Slightly over 60% of all of the personal computers reported were NEC PC98 series models. It was also found that "Ichitaro" accounted for 55.1% of the word-processing software used, that Lotus 1-2-3 accounted for 55.6% of all spread-sheet software and 30.2% of all database management packages were "Kiri." As a result of this study, it was determined that the computer education being conducted at the authors' junior college was appropriate to professional education.

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