WHAT DOES IT COST TO DEVELOP A UNIT OF PROGRAMMED ASSISTED INSTRUCTION (PAI)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06365A001000050023-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 23
• Content Type: REPORT

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WHAT DOHS I T .:OS .a. J`0 DEVELOP A UNIT OF
ASSISTED
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..i'.k' te'-i.oinal behavior. objectives ~Awa,ll. affect the cost of
r t of PAT? Bu't. this =ecujrem'eit i i so ~Jc.:i3.c to 2e'unt
fling that it. should not properly be costed again t the
e azethod of teaching ermplo'yed., . A, reco n:ized
11
sponr for' conducting courses of instruction,
a aul:xifi of PAL It sho-iAd be undertaken byr'all ins ruc-
"grle
r has rtesscribed thi's basic step:
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' The purpose of this first step in identifying the objec-
tives sought is to obtain a list of the kinds of behavior which
the course seeks to develops This means an actual listing
of such goals as: the things the students are expected to
understand as a result of instruction, the skills they are
expected to acquire, the interests they can be expected to
develop, the values it is hoped they will appreciate and the
habits it is expected they will form. This listing is basic
to planning an.evaluation program. One cannot select
appropriate measures until he knows what it is he is trying
to appraise. "
And yet experience shows that while most teachers know what they
want to teach, a surprising number become vague as to precisely
what the student must learn if the desired behavioral change is to
take place; i? e. , what must the student learn in order to perform
at maximum efficiency upon completion of a course? The answer
to this question must precede any study on why the student has
difficulty in learniwhat he is taught.
The point in all this is that management will have to take into
account the time factor, and therefore the cost, involved in deter-
mining meaningful course objectives. Only after this has been
completed can one begin to develop a unit of PAL
Variable 2
When students are paid to learn as in most Government training
courses (versus instruction given in academic institutions where the
students nay, to learn), the biggest single cost of training (or in our
case the use of a unit of PAI; is the salary paid the student while he
learns. Take the case of the Introduction to Intelligence Course.
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It can be seen therefore that if the use of PAI units in the Intro-
duction to Intelligence Course could cut the total time of the course
by one 8 hour day, the saving to the Agency would be over $26. 500. 00!
But the point brought out here is that the variable of number and grade
of students strongly affects the cost of a unit of PAL
Entire Programmed courses or units of PAI will vary in cost
depending upon the difficulty of the subject to be programmed. The
building contractor can tell you with considerable accuracy the
difference in the cost of roofing your house with a certain ply asphalt
shingle as against roofing it with redwood shakes (shingles, to you!).
But we can only estimate the difference in the cost of developing an
hour of learning for a unit of PAI in Mandarin Chinese as against a
similar unit of PAI in a clerical typing course. The commercial
developers of off-the-shelf PAR courses are for the most part silent
on costs of development, perhaps because this is a "trade secret" or
because they do not wish to disclose their methods of bookkeeping !
If the Program developer is an Agency staff or contract employee
the cost of a unit of PA! will dominantly depend on the salary of the
developers R. W. Walker' of the Martin Company of Denver,
Colorado? said,
"The qualities of the most successful programers
include an above average intelligence, perseverance,
detail-consciousness, ability to emphasize, creativity,
flexibility and management identification.
'?Martin Company, Denver Division, " PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION,
A OUaDE FOR MANAGEMENT, by Gabriel D. Ofiesh, 1965, page 292,
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My "ideal" programmer, for what its worth, would have taken a
Ph. D. in Logic, have an interest in the phenomena of learning behaviors.
not be antagonistic to change, per se, know thoroughly his subject
specialty, be able to write clear English and have been a dedicated
teacher-'though not one who had become overly enamoured by the
sound of his own voice!
Either of these definitions could well describe an Agency Super-
grade, in which case the cost of PAI would be high. Or it could
equally well describe some of the highly qualified women Career
Trainees whom I've seen go through the CTP in the last several
years, in which case the cost would be lower.
Variable 5
The cost of training the "in-house" programmer and the terminal
behavior skills achieved by the "graduate" programmer will appre-
ciably affect the cost of developing a unit of PAI? but not be a recurring
costa Obviously great care must be taken in selecting the "candidate"
programmer. He can't be "good old honest Joe" who has been mar-
ginally successful are a lecturer or an instructor. To develop good
PAI units requires a skilled programmer, just as a well built house
requires skilled artisans. The skilled programmer should be thoroughly
conversant with his subject specialty. If, in spite of this, good old
honest Joe is selected to develop a unit of PAl in the clerical typing
course but must first be taught how to use a typewriter, this added
training burden should not be a cost factor charged against this
development of the unit of PAI r
There are two ways to train the candidate programmer-- externally
and internally, and each will have varied cost factors. The candidate
.programmer can be sent outside the Agency to any one of a score of good
programmer training courses varying in length from one week to six
months. Or, ideally, he can be trained in-house by an expert program
instructor in classes of 5 or 6. This training would be a combination
of formal class instruction and supervised on-the-job PAI writing,
Over-all elapsed training time, approximately six months.
At the end of.this period the graduate programmer should be
ready to work on his own.. But we all know that this in itself is a
variable, Will the graduate programmer really be able to work on
a unit of PAI without some supervision after six months? Some will,
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but good old H. J. --?~? And how rapidly does the programmer work?
Does he work happily with power tools or has he resisted change and
is comfortable working only with hand tools?
Variable 6
No unit of PAI, whether developed internally or contracted for
externally, should be accepted by management until it has been
thoroughly tested and validated on a sample of the Agency population.
And of course this constitutes another cost variable. The County
Building Inspector has got to get his cut!
A good programmer will normally test his program each step of
the way against the stated course objectives or desired terminal
behavior. Testing is an inherent cost factor of any acceptable unit
of PAL But be sure it has been accomplished. Though testing will
add to the time cost of a program, you simply haven't got a program
unless it meets the course objectives.
Validation is something else again. This tells you whether after
passing the above test the unit of PAI is the most effective and efficient
method of accomplishing student learning. It is entirely conceivablew
that the conventional classroom method of instruction may be the most
effective and efficient means of achieving student learning. The use
of closed circuit TV, films, or improved use of visual display tech-
niques or various combinations of all the above may be more efficient
and effective than PAl. You can't be sure until you have validated
your unit of PAI against your stated objectives.
Validation can be accomplished internally where feasible but it is
time consuming and therefore costly. And supervisors don't take
kindly to having their employees experimented on! More important,
if validation is to be done internally,, it must be undertaken by a team
of experts--instructors, behavioral psychologists, and statisticians.
Also, this team must be completely ob ective, without bias or preju-
diced Else you won't have true validation..
External validation should assure objectivity and professional
treatment. It can, however, be expensive if conducted by a consulting
firm. Where units of PAI are contracted for externally, validation is
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