The Use of a Computer-Assisted Cooperative Learning Classroom Environment to Teach Job Skills to Adults

Abstract

A training course designed to teach job skills to adults was designed using a cooperation, technology, and performance model. The purpose was threefold: to increase interaction between the students and the computer by utilizing cooperative learning techniques; to standardize learning and processing of work by utilizing computer-based training; and to measure skills attained by utilizing performance-based simulated case testing procedures. The course was developed to train the reinstatement task of a Government life insurance policy, performed by policy service technicians at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The course was structured so that a cooperative learning group of two to three students would progress through a CBT course, sharing one computer. The results of fourteen classes completing the module are of interest to anyone seeking to increase the level of and the quality of interaction among students and between the student and the computer.