ABSTRACT
This chapter is addressed to the topic of assessing instructional outcomes. It occupies, conceptually, an interesting point in the consideration of instructional technology. On the one hand, the hallmark of technology is its repeatable utility based upon its use of verified knowledge produced from research. Assessment is clearly a requirement to determine if one has a technology that works. On the other hand, in practice, the serious consideration of assessing educational outcomes is often overlooked in the excitement of exploring innovation or in the day-to-day tedium of producing sufficient amounts of courseware or other instructional products on schedule and within budgetary constraints. Because of the lack of attention to the issue of educationaloutcome assessment, measuring outcomes in the recent history of instructional design has been treated routinely, more as a historical obligation than as a tool integrally related to the improvement of instructional effectiveness. For this reason, it is important to see that the measurement of instructional outcomes has two critical functions: (1) It is both a means to assess how well the product, courseware, or other technology performs, and (2) It is a mechanism to intervene in and to improve the process of instructional design and development itself.
