A large sample (N = 206) of expert instructional designers was surveyed in order to determine how developmental testing is designed and conducted. The majority of respondents indicated that they did conduct formative testing of prototype instructional materials for purposes of revising them. Both one-to-one and small group testing were recommended with both the developer and the test subjects assuming active roles during the testing sessions. Both quantitative and qualitative (including attitudinal) data are gathered with an emphasis placed on the analysis of the posttest data. Based on a review of the literature and the results of the survey, an experiment was conducted in order to investigate the effects of different roles that the participants might play during testing sessions with different numbers of participants within sessions. Individuals assigned to small groups did not produce as many comments during instruction as the one-to-one procedure. A content analysis of the qualitative data revealed that test subjects generally comment by indicating comprehension/recall problems. As a source of feedback, the attitudinal survey provided a considerable amount of data especially with small groups which were reluctant to make critical comments during instruction.

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