Applying ISD to a Social Problem: Systematic Development of a Driver Training Computer-Based Program

Abstract

Traditionally, Instructional Systems Development (ISD) has been applied on large, primarily military training systems. Many skill-based training programs in the civilian world have followed the more traditional textbook, lecture, written-test model of the public educational system. In the meantime, after 70 years of public and private higher education over 6,000 young persons a year are killed in traffic crashes. It is well established that exposure to driver education does not correlate with either fewer crashes, or fewer traffic violations. This symposium reports on a three-year program that applied ISD techniques to the development of CD-ROM program for young drivers. The first paper, by Dr. David Willis of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, reports on the early needs analysis which identified a new approach to driving instruction as a potential intervention for young drivers. The second paper, by Larry Lonero of Northport Associates, describes the curriculum development effort which identified, among many, a set of specific learning objectives which were used to design the CD-ROM program described and demonstrated in the third paper, presented by Dr. Deborah Blank of Electronic Learning Facilitators, Inc. Finally, the fourth paper, by Dr. Donald Fisher of the University of Massachusetts, reports on the test and evaluation of the CD-ROM program using an advanced driving simulator.