Page 135 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

Role of Technology (1990) CD

Technology can improve learning through the use of: software tools, the Internet (as a resource or
laboratory), learning objects (systematically designed learning resources to enhance the learning
process), and learning systems (systematically designed systems that facilitate the holistic devel-
opment of learners with expanded opportunities, mechanisms, and means for enhanced learning).

Learning Objects, Learning Systems, and Online higher education develop this same expertise with learning
Learning systems technology (Apple & Krumsieg, 2002).

Pacific Crest Software, Inc. (later, Pacific Crest, Inc.) Inspired by this work, Wolfskill and Hanson at Stony
began its corporate life as a technology company offering Brook University obtained grants to develop the LUCID
among its catalog of products the modeling and problem- system for learning and assessment (Learning and
solving software Point Five and PC:SOLVE. Understanding Through Computer-Based Interactive
Discovery), publishing the results of their work in the
Point Five was an “interactive mathematical scratchpad article, LUCID — A New Model for Computer-Assisted
that supports calculations, statistical analysis, modeling, Learning (Wolfskill & Hanson, 2001).
graphics, and applications development” (Aarons, 1986).
PC:SOLVE was a modeling language consisting of seven Building interactively upon the work of Wolfskill and
tools for use in problem solving: a mathematical toolbox, Hanson, Apple and Krumsieg produced the specifications
a relational data management tool, a graphing system, a and methodologies for designing quality online courses
modeling language, a report writing tool, a statistical (including hybrid or blended courses) and effective
analysis system, and a high-level programming language interactive learning systems, published in the Interactive
(Beyerlein, Ford, & Apple, 1993) Learning System Handbook (2002). In 2013, Stony Brook
University expanded its use of the LUCID system to apply to
In the course of providing customer support to our end all of its 1,500+ general chemistry students; it built a learning
users, it became clear that many professionals who used laboratory capable of accommodating 192 learners working
these systems regretted not having had the same software simultaneously in groups of 3 (Stony Brook University,
resource to help them become more effective problem 2015; see Figure 1). It is worth noting that this lab looks
solvers when they were in college. Pacific Crest then decided very similar to the lab described in the article, Developing a
to put our technology, teacher training, and resources to Laboratory for Process Education (Evans, 1998).
work in supporting higher education by helping those in
educational settings improve learning and problem solving.
Within five years, Pacific Crest built a large population of
technology users (over 500 site-licensed colleges) who then
built libraries of learning objects and learning systems for
use in statistics, physics, calculus, and quantitative methods
courses (Pacific Crest, 1992).

While so much of what we do is web- and browser-based,
it is critical to recall that prior to 1990, all Internet browsers
were text-only (Berners-Lee, 2015). In conjunction with
the rapid evolution of the Internet and other technologies,
the strictly text-based online learning systems of the 1990s
gave way to more sophisticated course management
systems (CMS). In response to the evolution of CMS
technology, Pacific Crest offered the Interactive Learning
Systems Booklet (Apple, 2000) to coach authors and
designers in building learning systems that implemented
and/or supported the principles of Process Education; this
also included an analytical rubric for rating interactive
learning systems (Apple, 2001). Shortly thereafter, Pacific
Crest took the next step and created the Interactive Learning
Systems Institute to help faculty and professional staff in

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