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An Evaluation of an E-learning Training Course to Teach Instructors to Implement Discrete Trial Teaching

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often require early intensive behavioral interventions (EIBI) to learn new skills and decrease maladaptive behaviors. Discrete trial instruction (DTI) is a strategy behavior analysts often incorporate in EIBI programs. Researchers have demonstrated that DTI is very effective, but it requires intensive training for teachers to implement the strategy with high fidelity. Therefore, researchers have recently begun to investigate more time-efficient methods to train instructors to implement DTI. One method, e-learning, is a multi-media, computer-based training that typical includes audio narration, videos, and graphics. E-learning is a lowcost, time-efficient alternative to the traditional face-to-face training method. Very little research has been conducted thus far to evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning for teaching behavioral intervention techniques. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the use of e-learning to teach university students to implement discrete trial instruction with children with autism. Four participants completed the e-learning training package and we found that all participants’ fidelity when implementing DTI increased in role plays with an adult. All participants also were able to accurately implement DTI when teaching a child with autism and we observed generalization to untrained instructional programs. All participants were able to complete the training in an average of 2 hours and the social validity questionnaire indicated that participants felt the training was interesting and useful to help them learn how to implement DTI.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-2367
Date01 August 2012
CreatorsPollard, Joy S.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

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