International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / In today's world, the importance of training for telemetry systems continues to grow as new technologies provide users with ever-increasing capabilities. Successful training programs ensure telemetry systems quickly become operational yielding the acquisition of critical test data. Over the years, training programs have been greatly impacted by the changes in defense contracts -- specifically funding. Today's aggressive telemetry market requires contractors to develop complex telemetry systems within the constraints of Firm Fixed price (FFP) contracts and within very short schedules. As a result of these conditions, training programs have changed significantly over the last ten years. Projects which used to have dedicated training personnel (instructors, technical writers, etc.) now rely on the system developers to provide the training. In actuality, the quality of training has improved with this new approach. Now students benefit from having the most knowledgeable personnel teach them about the system and, often times, latent problems with the system are efficiently identified and corrected. This paper will summarize the evolution of training programs for telemetry systems developed by Computer Sciences Corporation. The benefits of a scenario where the system architects train the end users with the use of increased "hands-on" training will be explored.

This experiment was designed to investigate the effectiveness of the CDROM hands on instruction program provided by the University of Canberra library by comparing it with demonstration only sessions and a group that received no instruction at all. The results indicated that the hands-on instruction program evaluated did not prove to be superior to a demonstration in providing students with necessary skills to search CDROM databases. A sample of 98 novice users enrolled in Research Skills were randomly allocated to three groups. The first group received hands on instruction on CD-ROM searching. The second group watched a demonstration using a liquid crystal display. The third group acted as a control group and received no instruction. Each group conducted a search on three pre-determined questions. The experiment was conducted in three stages. The first stage was a pretest in which students searched the three search questions. The second stage was instruction. Two groups of students were instructed, either hands on or demonstration. The final stage was a post-test which involved searching the three questions used in the pre-test. The following databases were used in the study: ERIC, MEDLINE and Sports Discus. The results were measured in terms of a number of search terms used, number of retrieved records, number of Boolean operators used, and a appropriate choice of a database. The statistical significance level among the groups was tested by the means of the technique of oneway analysis of variance to test The F test was used to compare differences between the different groups. The results of this experiment indicated that groups of students instructed on either method of instruction, hands-on and demonstration, performed significantly better than the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the two methods of instruction. This research confirms the need for CD-ROM instruction for novice users if CD-ROM databases are to be used effectively by students. Furthermore, this result shows that demonstrations can be used as alternative methods of instruction.

With the low enrollment in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at the high school and college levels, administrators at the local school district have been struggling to improve elementary school students' performance in math and science. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the STEM program using hands-on instruction facilitated by professional development (PD) activities. Guided by Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky' constructivism theory, the qualitative program evaluation using the research questions examined the success of the STEM program using a hands-on instructional approach and the PD support that teachers need to be effective in the classroom. Through a purposeful homogenous sampling, 10 science and math teachers having the experience in using the hands-on instructional approach participated in the data collection. Data collected from the 6 interview respondents, a 4-member focus group respondents through semi-structured interviews, and Grade 5 students' science and math test scores were analyzed for assessing outcomes. Thematic coding, peer debriefing, and member checks were employed as methods to ensure the trustworthiness of interpretations. Two themes emerged indicating that hands-on pedagogy allowed students to become active learners and PD activities provided teachers with quality teaching skills. The program evaluation report recommends efforts to make PD necessary for kinesthetic learning as an integral component implementing a STEM program. Social change is promoted by helping teachers to use proper kinesthetic learning skills to translate STEM concepts into reality to increase student's performance

This investigation focused on identifying model foundational strategies to assist Canton Public School District (CPSD) officials in recruiting new teachers, successfully hiring them, and then retaining them the district. Located within the boundaries of the city of Canton, Mississippi, CSPD is geographically located in the central portion of the state. The district consists of 1 high school, 2 middle schools, 4 elementary schools and Canton Education Services Center. CSPD is continually affected by an ever-increasing teacher shortage because new teachers tend to leave the district after they are hired. More than 50% of new teachers leave their teaching positions in the district’s schools within 5 years. The investigation utilized published literature and other archival data (e.g., scholarly papers presented at conferences) accessible to the public in the form of books, chapters in published books, journal articles, and scholarly papers presented at learned societies and associations. Two research questions guided the investigation. The first research question asked: What does the published literature and related archival data (e.g., available scholarly papers retrievable from sources such as colleges, universities, foundations, conferences, etc.) accessible to the public reveal about recruiting, hiring, and retaining teachers? Overall, the material collected and analyzed yielded abundant information. Much of the available information proved valuable because the material focused attention the “how-to-do-it” aspects of recruiting, hiring, and retaining quality new teachers. The second research question asked: Will information gleamed from an analysis of the published literature and other archival data (e.g., unpublished scholarly papers) lead to the development of foundational strategies for assisting school district officials in recruiting, hiring, and retaining new teachers for CPSD? It was possible to develop a model holding potential for improving teacher recruitment, hiring, and retention at CPSD. The model that was developed features seven foundational strategies that if implemented, hold potential for improving teacher recruitment, hiring, and retention at CPSD. The seven strategies are: (1) identify the vacancy and write the job description, (2) announce and advertise the teacher vacancy, (3) develop a customized application form, (4) paper screening process, (5) interviewing process, (6) salary and benefit package, and (7) induction and mentoring.