How Effective Are the New Auto-Instructional Materials and Devices?

This paper rapidly reviews 30 research articles and attempts to use the data derived from these studies to evaluate the effectiveness of auto-instructional materials. The instructional areas covered are: elementary school, high school, special education, armed forces, and industrial use. There is no attempt to evaluate the research designs used in the studies, as this vital point was not within the aims of the paper. The primary goal is to point out that effectiveness of auto-instructional materials means more than that they "teach better." Fifteen possible criteria of effectiveness are presented and the studies reporting data to each of these criteria are listed. The reader interested in doing research in this area is directed to a more detailed study of the particular research areas of interest. A 32 item bibliography is included.