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Updated: Dec 11, 2025

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Engineering Education via WebVR-Based Online Laboratories
Published on: February 23, 2024
Towards a Modern-Day Teaching Machine: The Synthesis of Programmed Instruction and Online Education
William B Root1, Ruth Anne Rehfeldt2
1Department of Psychology and Counseling, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 USA.
Abstract:
The 21st century has seen rapid enrollment in online courses and environmental and biological determinates, such as COVID-19, that challenge how universities respond to education. However, this "new way of doing things" has empirical support from the past. Skinner (1968) laid out a science of teaching derived from operant conditioning principles and provided methods for adopting programmed instruction into what he termed a "teaching machine." This series of investigations evaluated the validity of programmed instruction in online courses, as measured by quiz performance, the frequency of discussion posts, instructor time commitment, generalization, and student perceptions of the online modalities used. Results are discussed for the synthesis of programmed instruction and group learning towards a modern teaching machine.
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