Links to Prof. Heines’s Research Papers and Other Writing

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Research Papers and Conference Presentations   [ top ]

• Heines, J.M., Greher, G.R., Ruthmann, S.A., & Reilly, B. (2011).  Two Approaches to Interdisciplinary Computing+Music Courses.  IEEE Computer 44(12):25-32, December 2011.

  The intersection of computing and music can enrich pedagogy in numerous ways, from low-level courses that use music to illustrate practical applications of computing concepts to high-level ones that use sophisticated computer algorithms to process audio signals.  This paper explores the ground between these extremes by describing our experiences with two types of interdisciplinary courses.  In the first, arts and computing students worked together to tackle a joint project even though they were taking independent courses.  In the second, all students enrolled in the same course, but every class was taught by two professors: one from music and the other from computer science. This course was designed to teach computing and music together, rather than one in service to the other.  This paper presents the philosophy and motivation behind these courses, describes some of the assignments students do in them, and shows examples of student work.

  • Abstract in IEEE Computer Society CS Digital Library
    with link to full paper as published (requires member login)



• Yang, B. & Heines, J.M. (2011).  Using Semantic Distance to Automatically Suggest Transfer Course Equivalencies.  Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications, pages 142-151.  Portland, Oregon, June 24, 2011.

  Semantic distance is the degree of closeness between two pieces of text determined by their meaning.  Semantic distance is typically measured by analyzing a set of documents or a list of terms and assigning a metric based on the likeness of their meaning or the concept they represent.  Although related research provides some semantic-based algorithms, few applications exist.  This work proposes a semanticbased approach for automatically identifying potential course equivalencies given their catalog descriptions. The method developed by Li et al. (2006) is extended in this paper to take a course description from one university as the input and suggest equivalent courses offered at another university.  Results are evaluated and future work is discussed.



• Welty, C. (organizer), Heines, J.M., & Menzin, M. (2010).  Panel on Teaching Computer Scientists to Play Well With Others.  Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Northeastern Region (CCSCNE) 2010 Conference.  Hartford, CT, April 16, 2010.

  Most undergraduate computer science programs include classes that require team work.  This helps our students work well with each other, but does not address the problem of working well with people from other disciplines.  Computer scientists have preconceived notions of people in other professions and people in other professions have preconceived notions of computer scientists.  These preconceptions can interfere with good working relationships.  Computer scientists tend to work on projects of use in an application field that may be unknown to them and, thus, must work with people in that application field.

  Many computer scientists enjoy the comic strip Dilbert^TM by Scott Adams.  A problem with the strip is that it paints stereotypical portraits of the various professionals that Dilbert works with.  The marketing people lie and make impossible demands.  Management is composed of idiotic, power mad people.  Advertising people will promise anything.  The human resources department is out for your blood.  Certainly graphic artists and usability professionals would come under similar fire if they are ever part of the strip.  Of course, the computer scientists (or engineers) are also negatively stereotyped as having no lives, being obsessed with hi-tech toys, having poor social skills and, generally, being geeky (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek).  The problem is that these stereotypes often contain a component of truth.  Computer scientists and others must learn to look beyond the stereotype and see what a person can actually do.

  This panel looks at several ways to foster appreciation of other disciplines to help broaden the sometimes narrow perspective of our graduates.



• Ruthmann, S.A., Heines, J.M., Greher, G.R., Laidler, P., & Saulters, C. (2010).  Teaching Computational Thinking through Musical Live Coding in Scratch.  41st ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on CS Education.  Milwaukee, WI, March 12, 2010.

  This paper discusses our ongoing experiences in developing an interdisciplinary general education course called Sound Thinking that is offered jointly by our Dept. of Computer Science and Dept. of Music.  It focuses on the student outcomes we are trying to achieve and the projects we are using to help students realize those outcomes.  It explains why we are moving from a web-based environment using HTML and JavaScript to Scratch and discusses the potential for Scratch’s “musical live coding” capability to reinforce those concepts even more strongly.



• Heines, J.M. & Ruthmann, S.A. (2010).  The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – Sound Thinking: An Interdisciplinary GenEd (presentation video).  1st Annual Faculty Development Conference.  Lowell, MA, April 9, 2010.

  This session presented “Sound Thinking,” an interdisciplinary course that explores the intersection of music and computer science.  We offered this course for the second time in the Spring 2010 semester, and we made significant changes based on student feedback from the first offering.  Any faculty interested in teaching an interdisciplinary course, particularly one designated as a GenEd, will benefit from hearing about our experiences.  We cover course planning, maximizing benefits to students in different departments, teaching and learning style differences, preparing a GenEd proposal, addressing different departmental definitions of “scholarly activity,” and impacts on professors.



• Ruthmann, S.A., & Heines, J.M. (2009).  Designing Music Composing Software with and for Middle School Students: A Collaborative Project among Senior Computer Science and Music Education Majors.  Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI) 2009 Conference.  Portland, OR, October 23, 2009.

  What might be learned through a collaborative project bringing together middle school students, pre-service music educators and senior computer science majors in the development of new web-based music composing software for middle school students?  This question framed a collaborative project undertaken by music education majors enrolled in General Music Methods II and senior computer science majors enrolled in GUI Programming II.  Our demonstration will share examples of the software developed through the project as well as student compositions created by the middle school students who designed and tested the software.  The challenges and surprises faced during the collaborative development process will be shared detailing our implications for future collaborations among our students.  We will also present the rationale for our decision-making as professors.  Finally, the lessons learned and insights gained by the middle school students and the music education and computer science majors will be shared and discussed.

  • Additional Co-Presenters
    • C. Holly Johnston, Music Teacher, Stony Brook Middle School, Westford, MA
    • Marie Gleason-Tada, Instructional Technoloty Specialist, Parker Middle School, Chelmsford MA
  • PowerPoint Slides (as a PDF file)



• Greher, G.R., & Heines, J.M. (2009).  Sound Thinking: Conceptualizing the Art and Science of Digital Audio for an Interdisciplinary General Education Course.  Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI) 2009 Conference.  Portland, OR, October 22, 2009.

  What is sound?  How do we capture, manipulate, and harness it in the digital world?  Thus began our journey into the creation of a general education course focused on the intersection of art and technology, exploring how sound is integrated into computer applications.  Our goal seemed simple enough.  We were going to have students explore the art and science of digital audio, from the basic end-user applications that promote creative expression and exploration, to the underlying code that allows these programs to function.  Once we began to examine what this means from the perspective of a total novice, and began to think about the software applications we would work with, as well as the projects we would assign, we began to reevaluate and question our own assumptions about the purpose of general education courses and the challenges posed by teaching students outside of our respective disciplines.

  • PowerPoint Slides (as a PDF file)



• Heines, J.M. (2009).  Interdisciplinary Computer Science Courses: Lessons Learned.  Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) 2009 Conference.  Athens, Greece, July 27, 2009.

  In 2007, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded 19 “Community Building” awards intended to “bring stakeholders together to discuss the challenges and opportunities inherent in transforming undergraduate computing education, and to identify creative strategies to do so.”  Our “creative strategy” has been to develop interdisciplinary courses that bring Computer Science (CS) majors together with Art, Music, and Theatre majors to work on joint projects in the area of exhibition and performance technologies.  We call this strategy “Performamatics,” because the common thread in these projects is that “many tasks, performed by multiple people, must come together on a tight schedule by a specific date to achieve a desired result.  Performamatics also implies that each team member must ‘perform’ his or her task in a way that can be integrated into a final product, regardless of whether that team member participates visibly in the culminating event.”

  This presentation discusses the successes and failures we have experienced in trying to implement Performamatics courses over the last two years.  In that time we have experimented with two pedagogical models: (a) “synchronized” courses in which students in different disciplines come together at strategic points to work on joint projects, and (b) “hybrid” courses in which all students enroll in a single course that has two instructors, one from Computer Science and one from Art, Music, or Theatre.  Our presentation will describe the content of these courses, provide examples of student work, and suggest ways in which both the student and professor collaborations could be improved, all with the intent to provide others with solid guidance on implementing similar strategies at their own institutions.



• Martin, F., Greher, G.R., Heines, J.M., Jeffers, J., Kim, H.J., Kuhn, S., Roehr, K., Selleck, N., Silka, L., and Yanco, H. (2009).  Joining Computing and the Arts at a Mid-Size University.  2009 Conference of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges -- Northeastern Region (CCSCNE 2009).  Plattsburgh, NY, April 24, 2009.

  This paper describes two NSF-funded collaborations among faculty members in the Computer Science, Art, Music, and English departments at a public university in the Northeast USA.  Our goal has been to create undergraduate learning opportunities across the university, focusing on connecting computer science to creative and expressive domains.  In past publications, we have focused on student learning outcomes.  This paper reports on the motivations, opportunities, and challenges for the faculty members involved.



• Heines, J.M., Greher, G.R., & Kuhn, S. (2009).  Music Performamatics: Interdisciplinary Interaction.  40th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on CS Education.  Chattanooga, TN, March 7, 2009.

  This paper describes how a graphical user interface (GUI) programming course offered by the Dept. of Computer Science (CS) was paired with a general teaching methods course offered by the Dept. of Music in an attempt to revitalize undergraduate CS education and to enrich the experiences of both sets of students.  The paper provides details on the joint project done in these classes and the evaluation that assessed its effect on the curriculum, students, and professors.



• Urban, J. (organizer), Heines, J.M., Fox, E.A., & Taylor, H.G. (2009).  Panel on Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education.  40th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on CS Education.  Chattanooga, TN, March 5, 2009.

  There is an imbalance in the supply and demand for computing professionals that has generated shortages in meeting personnel needs within industry.  A major program was developed by the U.S. National Science Foundation to encourage innovations in undergraduate computing education.  There are a variety of new projects that are revitalizing undergraduate computing education.  One approach to such revitalization is the introduction of interdisciplinary courses to expand the scope of computing education.  The basic idea is to have students from various disciplines work together on computing projects to expand their educational horizons and make computing courses more appealing.  This panel brings together research managers with educators who have developed and taught interdisciplinary courses with these goals in mind.  The panelists will share their experiences and solicit new ideas from the audience.



• Greher, G.R., & Heines, J.M. (2008).  Connecting Computer Science and Music Students to the Benefit of Both.  Association for Technology in Music Instruction (ATMI) 2008 Conference.  Atlanta, GA, September 25, 2008.

  We present a hands-on, interdisciplinary project designed to help music education students think about how novices learn new symbol systems.  The students design a musical instrument from a typical household object and create a musical composition for it.  They then devise a notation system that others can understand well enough to perform their composition with little to no verbal or written direction.  Given this notation system, computer science students create Finale Notepad-like programs that implement it.  The two groups of students interact during the “hand off” and when music students “try out” the programs developed by the computer science students.  Both groups of students benefit from learning to communicate with others whose backgrounds differ significantly from their own and from understanding what it really takes to create a notation system and a computer program that can be used by people who don’t share their perspective.



• Heines, J.M., Jeffers, J., & Kuhn, S. (2008).  Performamatics: Experiences With Connecting a Computer Science Course to a Design Arts Course.  The International Journal of Learning 15(2):9-16.  (This is a more detailed version of the presentation with the same title delivered at Learning Conference 2008 and linked below.  A bound version can be ordered from http://ijl.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.30/prod.1645.)

  This paper describes our efforts to stem the tide of declining CS enrollments by introducing innovations into our curriculum to give students more flexibility in course selection, especially in the freshman and sophomore years.  Our approach is based on a partnership between the CS and Art, Music, and English departments in the area of exhibition and performance technologies.

  In addition to describing our work, this paper provides the results of an evaluation conducted by an independent research.  It reports on the impact this work has had on the CS and Art students and their respective projects, as well as on the professors and the way they teach their courses.  It also describes steps that are being taken to improve the courses in the future.



• Heines, J.M., & Jeffers, J. (2008).  Performamatics: Experiences With Connecting a Computer Science Course to a Design Arts Course.  Learning Conference 2008, University of Illinois, Chicago, June 4, 2008.

  Our work is based on a partnership between the a Computer Science (CS) and Art, Music, and English departments in the area of exhibition and performance technologies.  We define these areas broadly to encompass all CS applications in the creative and performing arts.  These areas not only resonate with today’s media-rich culture, but reinforce the fact that virtually all computer applications now require the integration of creative elements.  CS majors must learn to work with specialists in areas where the perspective is often quite different from their own.  We believe that computer scientists have much to learn from those trained in the arts and vice versa.

  The common thread in Performamatics projects is that many tasks, performed by multiple people, must come together on a tight schedule by a specific date to achieve a desired result.  Performamatics also implies that each team member must “perform” his or her task(s) in a way that can be integrated into a final product, regardless of whether that team member participates visibly in the culminating event.

  Our paper reports on initial attempts to couple CS courses and integrate CS elements with courses in Art, Music, and Theater.  We describe the techniques we used that were designed to increase the scope and level of creativity in student projects and the impact these techniques and the presence of interdisciplinary teams had on those projects.  We discuss changes we will make to improve the experience for both groups of students in the future and suggest new techniques we may try to better achieve our goals.



• Heines, J.M. (organizer), Jeffers, J., Goldman, K., Fox, E., & Beck, R. (2008).  Panel on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Revitalizing Undergraduate Computing Education.  Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Northeastern Region (CCSCNE) 2008 Conference  Staten Island, NY, April 12, 2008.

  “Through the CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH) program, NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) is challenging its partners -- colleges, universities and other stakeholders committed to advancing the field of computing and its impact -- to transform undergraduate computing education on a national scale, to meet the challenges and opportunities of a world where computing is essential to U.S. leadership and economic competitiveness across all sectors of society.”

  One approach to such revitalization is the introduction of interdisciplinary courses to expand the scope of computing education.  This approach has its roots in programs such as Lynn Stein’s “small footprint” core and Georgia Tech’s “threads.”  The basic idea is to have students from various disciplines work together on computing projects to expand their educational horizons and make computing courses more appealing.

  This panel brings together educators who have developed and taught interdisciplinary courses with these goals in mind. The panelists will share their experiences and solicit new ideas from the audience.  We expect a lively discussion on the pros and cons of this approach.

  • Heines Presentation (PowerPoint)
  • Jeffers Presentation (PowerPoint)
  • Goldman Presentation (PowerPoint)
  • Beck Presentation (PowerPoint)



• Schedlbauer, M.J., & Heines, J.M. (2007).  Selecting While Walking: An Investigation of Aiming Performance in a Mobile Work Context.  American Conference on Information Systems.  Keystone, CO.

  Computing devices are becoming more ubiquitous and are increasingly used in environments away from the desktop.  For example, computers are more frequently being used while walking, as is the case with hand- held devices, navigation systems and mobile phones.  This paper investigates selection accuracy and task completion time when using stylus touch as the input method on hand-held devices.  An experiment is described that measures the effect of walking slowly during interactions.  Fitts’ law was found to be an effective predictor of task completion time.  Furthermore, walking did not have a significant negative effect on task completion time, although an increase in error rate and spatial variability of selection endpoints was discovered.  Based on these findings, stylus touch is an acceptable input method for interactive systems that are used in non-stationary environments provided that interface layout is designed to compensate for increased errors and reduced selection accuracy.



• Heines, J.M., & Schedlbauer, M.J. (2007).  Teaching Object-Oriented Concepts Through GUI Programming.  Eleventh Workshop on Pedagogies and Tools for the Teaching and Learning of Object Oriented Concepts, held at the 21st European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming.  Berlin, Germany, July 30 to August 3, 2007,

  It is difficult to teach object-oriented programming (OOP) from a language perspective, even to experienced programmers.  Complex syntaxes obscure concepts and make it difficult for learners to get a real “feel” for OO architecture.  This is a classic example of “not seeing the forest for the trees.”  OOP is best taught within a context of an application or software framework.  Graphical user interface (GUI) programming provides a particularly effective vehicle for this purpose because it is relevant to virtually all applications and provides immediate feedback on the correctness of OO structures through tangible, visual results.  We have built a GUI Programming course that focuses on the OO aspects of building user and application programmer interfaces.  This paper presents an overview of our approach and some of the techniques we use in that course.



• Pastel, R., Champlin, J., Harper, M., Paul, N., Helton, W., Schedlbauer, M., & Heines, J.M. (2007).  The Difficulty of Remotely Negotiating Corners.  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 51st Annual Meeting.  Baltimore, MD.

  Remote navigation, popular in computer games and prevalent in areas such as clinical medicine and teleoperations of robots and drones, uses human-computer interfaces for control.  Usability studies of remote navigation interfaces require good metrics for evaluating interfaces, assessing users?  capabilities, and determining the difficulty of the navigational task.  We studied the time proficient users took to navigate virtual hovercrafts through virtual hallways with corners of various widths and discovered that the time to negotiate corners is inversely proportional to corner width.  We derive and evaluate two models for the index of difficulty for negotiating corners. Both models fit the data well, with r2 greater than 0.85 for the mean time to negotiate corners verses corner width.



• Pastel, R., Wallace, C., & Heines, J.M. (2007).  RFID Cards: A New Deal for Elderly Accessibility.  HCI International 2007, Beijing, P.R. China.  In Stephanidis, C. (ed.), Universal Access in HCI, Part I, HCII 2007, LNCS 4554, pp. 990–999, 2007.  Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg.

  Elderly adults face two serious challenges bridging the digital divide.  First, many suffer from physical or cognitive disabilities, which inhibit computer use.  Second, the “traditional” personal computer interface constitutes a foreign and forbidding paradigm.  Consequently, elderly adults are less likely to access the Internet, and this lack of accessibility denies them increased social contact and access to information.  This paper presents the design of a tangible user interface (TUI) for an email client that is suited to the physical, neurologi-cal, and cognitive needs of elderly users.  A review of the TUI literature identifies radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged cards, integrated with standard personal computers, as a viable alternative to the mouse.  These cards can represent interaction objects and actions, forming the basis for an interaction language.  The email client interaction design illustrates many simple and advanced RFID card interaction techniques.



• Heines, J.M., & Liang, L. (2006).  Combining, Storing, and Sharing Digital Ink.  Accepted for presentation at CCSCNE 2007, Rochester, NY, but not presented due to a scheduling conflict.

  A number of applications are available that are designed to enhance student engagement in the classroom through the use of Tablet PCs.  The value of this goal is well documented, and researchers working with applications such as Classroom Presenter and DyKnow Vision have blazed the way in studying not only how best to deploy this technology, but also how to best teach with it in actual classrooms.  Our own experiments with Tablet PCs using Classroom Presenter have identified three issues that we address in this paper: (1) the combining of digital ink from multiple students into a single display so that one can quickly get a sense of the overall classroom response, (2) the storing of digital ink so that it can be recalled later in a structured manner, and (3) the reliable sharing of digital ink between systems so that absolutely no strokes are lost due to transmission errors.



• Schedlbauer, M.J., Pastel, R.L., & Heines, J.M. (2006).  Effect of Posture on Target Acquisition with a Trackball and Touch Screen.  Information Technology Interfaces 2006.  Dubrovnik, Croatia.

  We demonstrate the utility of a new software platform for the interactive exploration of movement time models such as Fitts’s Law.  The software is written in Java and provides a flexible environment for HCI research, input device evaluation, throughput comparison and education.  It is specifically designed using a patterns-based object model to provide maximum extensibility for new models, task types, and selection modes. The platform can be used to share experimental configurations for more meaningfully comparable experiments.  We demonstrate the platform’s utility for HCI research by measuring the effects of posture on movement time.  The experimental results show a significant increase in mean movement time when standing compared to sitting while using a trackball.



• Heines, J.M. (2005).  A Comparison of Free-Form Student Evaluations On RateMyProfessors.com and a University-Based System.  Unpublished.

  Student evaluations of teaching have been around for decades.  The debate on their validity and usefulness has raged just as long, with respected researchers on both sides of the table. The author is less concerned with numerical averages computed from SETs than with the substance of students’ free-form responses to open-ended questions.  This paper analyzes free-form responses posted on the popular website RateMyProfessors.com and compares them to analogous responses on a university webbased course evaluation system designed by the author.  It examines differences between the two and the types of information that can be gleaned from such sources to improving teaching.



• Heines, J.M. & Martin, D. (2005).  Development and Deployment of a Web-Based Course Evaluation System: Trying to Satisfy the Faculty, the Students, the Administration, and the Union.  1st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WebIST).  Miami, FL, May 26-28, 2005.

  This paper describes an attempt to move from a paper-based university course evaluation system to a Web-based one ran into numerous obstacles from various angles.  While development of the system was relatively smooth, deployment was anything but. Faculty had trouble with some of the system’s basic concepts, and students seemed insufficiently motivated to use the system.  Both faculty and students demonstrated mistrust of the system’s security and anonymity.  In addition, the union threatened grievances predicated on their perception that the system was in conflict with the union contract.  This paper describes the system’s main technical and, perhaps more important, political aspects, explains implementation decisions, relates how the system evolved over several semesters, and discusses steps that might be taken to improve the entire process.
  

  • View PowerPoint Presentation



• Heines, J.M. (2004).  Technology For Teaching: Past Masters Versus Present Practices.  In G. Kearsley (Ed.), Online Learning: Personal Reflections on the Transformation of Education, pp. 144-162.  Educational Technology Publications.  See http://bookstoread.com/etp/OnlineLearningAd.pdf.

  From the Preface by Greg Kearsley:  Jesse Heines provides an intriguing (and nicely illustrated) look at the history of computer-based learning, focusing on some of the earliest teaching devices and associated instructional programming.  He finds current systems wanting in comparison: “It’s as if the companies that develop these products simply hire programmers and tell them to start coding, without ever exploring the huge, existing body of knowledge on what’s been tried before, much less look for solid theoretical ground on which to base their instructional designs.”  He suggests that system developers need to know more about the past history of the field and build upon it in their products.
  



• Heines, J.M. (2004).  Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL).  In H. Bidgoli (Ed.), The Internet Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 755-792.  John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY.  See http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-101390.html.

  This paper provides an overview of the XML Stylesheet Language (XSL) and its three components: XSL Transformations (XSLT), XPath Expressions (the language used to refer to collections of XML nodes for processing by XSLT), and XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO).  It includes numerous code examples to demonstrate how these technologies are used and how they interrelate.



• Hirsch, B., & Heines, J.M. (2003).  Automated Evaluation of Source Code Documentation: Interim Status Report.  UMass Lowell Computer Science Technical Report No. 2003-004.

  This paper describes our efforts to date in developing a Web-based application that can analyze source code documentation, assign it quantitative measures, and provide comprehensive feedback on how to improve it.  Seed funding for this work was provided by the ACM SIG SCE via a Special Projects Grant.
  



• Heines, J.M. (2003).  Tutorial on Using XML and XSL with JavaServer Pages.  ACM SIG CSE 8th International Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.  Thessaloniki, Greece, June 30 - July 2, 2003.

This tutorial focuses on how to write JavaServer Pages that access XML data and process it using XSL and XPath.  Hands-on activities demonstrate applications and help participants explore ways to create and parse XML documents, apply XSL transformations to XML, and retrieve XML data using XPath.  Discussion centers around applying these technologies in specific subject areas.

• instructional materials

• Murray, K. (organizer), Heines, J.M., Moore, T., Trono, J., Kölling, M., Schaller, N.C., & Wagner, P.J. (2003).  Panel on Experiences with IDEs and Java Teaching: What Works and What Doesn’t.  ACM SIG CSE 8th International Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education.  Thessaloniki, Greece, June 30 - July 2, 2003.

Panelists reported on their experiences using different Java Interactive Development Environments (IDEs) to teach Java and what they identify as the strengthens and weaknesses of each IDE.

• View Murray Cover Slide (PowerPoint)
• View Schaller Presentation (PowerPoint)
• View Heines Presentation (PowerPoint)
• View Wagner Presentation (PowerPoint)
• View Kölling Presentation (PowerPoint)
• View Trono Presentation (PowerPoint)
• View Moore Presentation (PowerPoint)
• Download All Presentations (ZIP)

• Heines. J.M. (2003).  Enabling XML Storage from Java Applets in a GUI Programming Course.  Inroads (the ACM SIG CSE Bulletin) 35(2):88-93, June 2003.

  This paper describes a set of cooperating programs and their underlying algorithms that allow Java applets to read XML documents from -- and, more importantly, to store those documents back to a Java-enabled Web server.

• Download UmlGui package



• Heines, J.M. (organizer), Börner, K., Ivory, M.Y., & Gehringer, E.F. (2003).  Panel on the Development, Maintenance, and Use of Course Web Sites.  34th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education.  Reno, NV, February 20, 2003.

  I organized this panel discussion to focus on the numerous issues related to course Web sites.  Each panelist made a short presentation followed by a discussion with the audience.

  • View Heines Presentation (PowerPoint / HTML)
  • View Gehringer Presentation (PowerPoint)
  • View Börner Presentation (PowerPoint)
  • View Ivory Presentation (PowerPoint)



• Heines, J.M. (2002).  Creating and Maintaining Data-Driven Course Web Sites.  AACE E-Learn 2002 Conference.  Montreal, Canada, October 15-19, 2002.

  This invited paper explores techniques for reducing the amount of work that needs to be redone each semester when one prepares an existing course Web site for a new class.  The key concept is algorithmic generation of common page elements while still allowing full control over page content via WYSIWYG HTML editors.  The paper explores both client- and server-side techniques the most advanced of which are those that encode control information in XML rather than HTML or JavaScript and apply that information on the server side using XSL and JavaServer Pages.

  • View Abstract and Brief Biographical Sketch
  • View PowerPoint Presentation



• Grankovska, S., & Heines, J.M. (2002).  Course Web Sites: State-of-the-Art.  U.S.D.L.A. Journal 16(12).

  This paper grew out of an independent study project that graduate student Svitlana Grankovska did under my direction.  The purpose of that project was to assess the state-of-the-art of course Web sites.  Svitlana visited 230 such sites and analyzed their characteristics on 16 key factors.  I designed a survey on course Web site development and maintenance that we distributed to over 1275 faculty members at various institutions.  We received 150 responses (a rate of approximately 12%) and analyzed those responses to gain further insight into our research.



• Cerny, M.G. & Heines, J.M. (2001).  Evaluating Distance Education Across Twelve Time Zones.  T.H.E. Journal 28(7):18-25, February 2001.  (Link to version in T.H.E. Journal archives.)

This paper describes analyses of the technical aspects of instructional delivery in the Singapore-MIT Alliance, an innovative engineering distance education and research collaboration among the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

• Heines, J.M. (2001). 


• Heines, J.M. (2000).  Evaluating the Effect of a Course Web Site on Student Performance.  Journal of Computing in Higher Education 12(1):58-83, Fall 2000.

  This paper describes statistical analyses of final grade data in a course that was taught both with and without a course Web site and for which historical final grade data exists from both periods. The analyses revealed statistically significant differences between student grades before and after the course Web site was introduced. 



• Heines, J.M. (1999).  Evaluating Course Web Sites and Student Performance.  Fourth International ACM SIGCSE/SIGCUE Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE).  Krakow University of Economics, Krakow, Poland.

  Erwin Boschmann listed four major issues pertaining to “the infusion of technology in higher education” in a recent posting on The Technology Source.  His third issue is that “there is little existing research on learning.”  This paper addresses that issue by analyzing a course web site now in its fifth semester of operation and focusing squarely on its effect on student learning.  It discusses research methods for evaluating the web site’s effect on student performance and statistical methods for identifying performance trends.  Data on multiple undergraduate courses is presented, comparing student performance before and after the web site was introduced.



• Heines, J.M., & Becker, R.S. (1994).  A New Approach to Increasing CBT Developer Productivity with an Instructional Database.  Asian-Pacific Information Technology In Training and Education (APITITE) Conference.  Brisbane, Australia.

  The development of computer-based training is a highly labor- intensive activity.  Many CBT authoring systems have been created to increase CBT developer productivity, but many become unwieldy when applied to large courseware projects.  The authors have worked to increase development productivity by providing instructional designers with a way to build a database of lesson content that is presented by a lesson “engine” cognizant of the course’s overall lesson logic.  The engine takes advantage of repetitive interaction strategies to present students with a highly consistent user interface that is easy to update when course requirements change.



• Koegel, J.F., & Heines, J.M. (1993).  Improving Visual Programming Languages for Multimedia Authoring.  In Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 93, ed. Maurer, H., pp. 286-293.  Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, Charlottesville, VA.

  Visual programming languages are emerging as an important paradigm for development of inter-active multimedia presentations.  We are actively developing and using such languages and have identified several criteria for evaluating the user interface for such tools.  These criteria include: (1) support for the authoring process, (2) icon set semantics, and (3) usability of the interface.  In this paper we compare two commercial authoring tools and discuss visual programs used for our evaluation.



• Koegel, J.F., Rutledge, J.L., & Heines, J.M. (1992).  Visual Programming Abstractions for Interactive Multimedia Authoring.  IEEE International Workshop in Visual Language Programming.  Seattle, WA.

  Various multimedia authoring environments have been developed. resulting in a variety of approaches as to how such presentations are structured and authored. Implicit in these systems is a data model for composing multimedia objects and a user interface model for the authoring activity. Making these models explicit is one goal of this work, since we think it will lead to the design of easier-to-use and more powerful tools. We distinguish the structure of the multimedia objects being composed and the different presentation states that the viewer experiences. The latter is what the author is most concerned with; the former is what most tools allow the author to directly manipulate. We illustrate these ideas with examples of multimedia authoring tools that we have developed and suggest several directions for improvement.



• Heines, J.M. (1991).  Courseware Design in the Toolkit Age.  33rd International Conference of the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems (ADCIS).  St. Louis, MO.

  The extensive capabilities of today’s systems have made the development of state-of-the-art courseware a formidable task.  To make these sophisticated capabilities accessible to people without extensive programming backgrounds -- and to significantly speed up program development even for people with such backgrounds -- rich software toolkits have been developed.  The Macintosh toolkit has been around for several years, but Windows 3.0 for DOS systems has only recently come onto the market.  In the workstation arena, we are even seeing high-level toolkits become available that are built on lower level toolkits, as Motif is built on Xwindows.

  The paper discusses how five standard toolkit design elements can be applied to computer-assisted instruction applications: pulldown menus, popup windows, scrollable windows, dialog boxes, and help tools.  The author strongly encourages the use of these elements to standardize user interfaces, whether through programming languages or menu-driven authoring systems.  He feels that doing so will allow courseware to obtain the standard “look and feel” of other applications and thus help students to concentrate on the subject matter they are trying to learn rather than the mechanics of running the course.



• Heines, J.M., & Smith, S. (1988).  The Development of a Software Teaching Tool.  Machine-Mediated Learning 2(3):239-250.

  This paper discusses the development of a software teaching tool that teachers can use to create exercises adapted to the needs of their curricula and individual students.  It explains how we assessed the teaching needs for a program in adult literacy and describes the tool we developed to present teacher-created exercises on a computer equipped with a voice synthesizer and audio digitizer.



• Heines, J.M., Olsen, L., & Bowker, R. (1987).  Integrating Computer Graphics and the Video Disc: New Instructional Techniques Possible with IVIS.  In Jones, A., Scanlon, E., and O’Shea, T. (eds.), The Computer Revolution in Education: New Technologies for Distance Teaching, pp. 153-162.  The Harvester Press, Sussex, England.

  Digital Equipment Corporation has developed an integrated video disc and computer graphics system that offers the best qualities of both these media.  This system is called IVIS, the Interactive Video Information System.  The heart of the system is an option to the Professional 350 minicomputer that contains:

  • a circuit for converting the NTSC signal generated by the video disc to an RGB signal compatible with that produced by the Professional 350,
  • a circuit that allows the video signal generated by the computer and that produced by the video disc to be mutually synchronised, and
  • a circuit for mixing the two synchronised RGB signals into a single signal (960 pixels horizontally by 240 pixels vertically) and displaying it on a medium resolution RGB colour monitor.



• Heines, J.M., & Israelite, L. (1986).  Increasing CBT Developer Productivity with an Instructional Database.  28th International ADCIS Conference, Washington, DC.  Recipient of Best Paper Award.

  Computer-based training (CBT) course developer productivity is most often expressed as the number of development hours needed to produce one hour of on-line instruction.  CBT authoring systems offer a number of approaches to increasing developer productivity, generally by providing built-in features for typical instructional sequences.  As one would expect, each approach has its benefits and shortcomings.  We have adopted an “instructional database” approach, which attempts to provide simplicity for the course developer without sacrificing true programming power.  In addition, this approach is designed to take advantage of the desirable built-in features of the authoring language while maintaining the extensibility needed to implement new instructional designs.



• Heines, J.M., & O’Shea, T. (1985).  The Design of a Rule-Based CAI Tutorial.  International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 23:1-25.

  Rule-based systems are a development associated with recent research in artificial intelligence (AI).  These systems express their decision-making criteria as sets of production rules, which are declarative statements relating various system states to program actions.  For computer-assisted instruction (CAl) programs, system states are defined in terms of a task analysis and student model, and actions take the form of the different teaching operations that the program can perform.  These components are related by a set of means-ends guidance rules that determine what the program will do next for any given state.

  The paper presents the design of a CAl course employing a rule-based tutorial strategy.  This design has not undergone the test of full implementation; the paper presents a conceptual design rather than a programming blueprint.  One of the unique features of the course design described here is that it deals with the domain of computer graphics.  The precise subject of the course is ReGIS, the Remote Graphics Instruction Set on Digital Equipment Corporation GIGI and VTl25 terminals.  The paper describes the course components and their inter-relationships, discusses how program control might be expressed in the form of production rules, and presents a program that demonstrates one facet of the intended course: the ability to parse student input in such a way that rules can be used to update a dynamic student model.



• Heines, J.M., & Grinstein, G.G. (1985).  Implications of Windowing Techniques for CAI.  Visions of Higher Education: Trans-National Dialogue.  Stockton State College, Pomona, NJ.

  Windowing is a technique that allows a single computer terminal to act as either multiple output devices for a single computer program, or a single output device for multiple computer programs.  This paper discusses the use of windowing in computer-assisted instruction (CAI) programs to allow independent control of functional areas in complex CAI displays and simultaneous display of output from a running computer program and coordinated instructional material.



• Heines, J.M., Olsen, L., & Bowker, R. (1984).  Integrating Computer Graphics and the Video Disc: New Instructional Techniques Possible with IVIS.  26th International ADCIS Conference, Columbus, OH.  Recipient of SIG CBT Best Paper Award.

  Note:  This is an earlier version of the 1987 paper by the same title (linked above) that appeared in Jones, A., Scanlon, E., and O’Shea, T. (eds.), The Computer Revolution in Education: New Technologies for Distance Teaching, pp. 153-162.  The Harvester Press, Sussex, England.

  Digital Equipment Corporation has developed a new system for integrating computer graphics and the videodisc.  This system is called IVIS, the Interactive Video Information system.  The unique characteristic of this system is that it allows images generated by the videodisc to be overlaid with computer graphics of industry standard quality (resolution of 960 pixels horizontally by 240 vertically).  This quality is achieved by converting the NTSC videodisc signal to RGB rather than using the more common technique of converting the RGB computer signal to NTSC.

  The power of this integrated medium offers CAI course developers a number of new techniques for communicating information to students.  This paper introduces some of these techniques, emphasizing CAI applications of overlaying. Controlling software is explained, including extensions to a graphics editor for specifying videodisc sequences.  An IVIS CAI course on the installation and maintenance of a new printer is described, highlighting applications of the system1s unique instructional features.



• Heines, J.M. (1983).  Interactive Means Active: Learner Involvement in CBT.  Data Training 4(4):46-53.

  All CBT developers strive to make their programs interactive, to design sequences in which their programs pause to accept student input and then use that input to determine what to do next.  But one finds many degrees of interaction in today’s CBT programs.  As Donald Cook has pointed out, the major interaction in today’s most popular programs is pressing the space bar or the return key to go on to the next display (“CBT’s Feet of Clay,” Data Training, November, 1983).  Even in a program which boasts on its package that users “often” describe it as “by far the best computer-based training for the IBM PC we’ve seen,” one of my colleagues found that of the 309 interactions in the entire course, 224 (over 72%) involved nothing more than such electronic page turning.

  Why is there so little meaningful interaction in these programs?  In most cases the cause is clearly not a lack of programming skill, but it may certainly be a lack of programming care.  The problems also may be caused by a lack of training in instructional design or simply by a lack of creativity.  Whatever the reason, CBT without meaningful interaction is neither instructionally nor financially justifiable.  The development of quality CBT demands attentiveness to the principles of interactive instruction, creativity in the design of interaction strategies, and a recognition of the craftsmanship required to develop, quality materials in any medium.



• Heines, J.M. (1983).  Basic Concepts in Knowledge-Based Systems.  Machine-Mediated Learning 1(1):65-95.

  Knowledge-based systems are receiving an increasing amount of attention as viable tools for solving a wide range of computer programming problems.  Such systems are also useful in educational environments for introducing some of the basic concepts of artificial intelligence.  This paper provides a brief overview of the role of knowledge-based systems in educational environments and presents the basic concepts underlying these systems.  It then takes a detailed look at one knowledge-based system, Advice Language/X (AL/X), and uses it to illustrate the concepts presented in the earlier sections.



• Heines, J.M, Levine, R., & Robinson, J. (1983).  Tomorrow’s Classroom -- The Changing Focus in Computer Education.  T.H.E. Journal 10(5):100-104,108.

  This paper explores the evolution of Digital Equipment Corporation’s Educational Services Department and the various techniques the Corporation is exploring to automate training and deliver it to a wider audience.



• Heines, J.M., Briggs, J., and Ennals, R. (1983).  Logic and Recursion: The PROLOG Twist.  Creative Computing 9(11):220-226.

  This article approaches the issue of recursion by describing a traditional programming problem and comparing the ways it is implemented in four languages: Basic, Pascal, Lisp, and microProlog.  It is a programming exercise and does not purport to be an exhaustive discussion of recursion or the recursive properties of the four languages.



• Heines, J.M. (1981).  The Personal Computer as an Appliance Problem I: Integrating Training and Documentation.  IEEE Conference on Cybernetics and Society.  Atlanta, GA.

  Personal computers will become ubiquitous office appliances only when their ease of use is significantly increased by integrating adequate training and documentation with the base system.  This integration requires careful attention to human engineering, by providing intuitive access to HELP and on-line training, designing clear and informative error messages, prompting users for input, orienting users to which mode they are in, and presenting information on the screen in such a way as to avoid disrupting the user's job or task context.  Such features often require trade-offs between ease of use and system performance.  Such trade-offs must be made wi th a thorough knowledge of the user population and how the system will be used.



• Moreau, K. & Heines, J.M. (1980).  Creating Graphic Displays on Non-Graphic Terminals.  Conference of the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems (ADCIS).  Washington, DC.

  Graphic displays are an important tool for helping students visualize concepts presented by computer-based training materials.  Many current terminals have limited graphic capabilities, but very few have complementary firmware or software to make those capabilities easily accessible to the instructional programmer.  One solution to this problem is presented in this paper.  An interactive system for creating graphic displays is described, and its use by Digital’s Computer-Based Course Development Group is discussed.



• Heines, J.M. & Moreau, K. (1980).  The Three-Pronged Computer-Based Course Development Process.  Conference of the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems (ADCIS).  Washington, DC.

  The development of computer-based training materials is at least as complex as the development of mater ials in other formats.  Several different skills are needed, including subject matter expertise, instructional and media design, and computer programming.  This paper describes the components of the required skills, explains why they are needed, and discusses how people who possess the skills interact to produce computer-based training materials at Digital Equipment Corporation.



• Heines, J.M. (1980).  Courseware Development and the NSF.  Computer 13(7):31-34, July 1980.

  After reading a prepublication copy of Technology in Science Education: The Next 10 Years by Joseph I. Lipson (Computer 13(7):23-28), Jesse M. Heines wrote author Joseph I. Lipson, expressing his reservations.  Finding Heines’s arguments cogent and well-documented, Lipson encouraged him to discuss them with one of the guest editors for this issue, Robert M. Aiken.  The result is the following short article.  We thank Lipson for encouraging and supporting this contribution, and we appreciate Heines’s preparing the article under a very tight deadline.



• Heines, J.M. (1980).  Writing Objectives with Style.  Training/HRD 17(7):40-41, July 1980.

  Objectives have long been recognized as the backbone of individualized. instructional materials.  And we’ve all heard that these objectives should be stated in terms of overt, measurable student performances or behaviors.

  This article deals with style in writing objectives and stating the criterion in the form of a sample test item.  These test items can serve to clarify objectives and assure that they can be tested.  In addition, sample test items illustrate the exact way students will be evaluated.



• Heines, J.M. (1980).  The Reliability of Sequential Testing.  Third Canadian Symposium on Instructional Technology.  Vancouver, British Columbia, February 29, 1980.

  A study was conducted to assess the feasibility of using computer-managed instruction (CMI) to control the quality of self- paced training in a customer environment.  The study centered on a self-paced course on BASIC language programming and its complementary interactive CMI system.

  The CMI system employed a mastery algorithm based on a sequential probability test ratio.  The purpose of this algorithm was to reduce testing time while retaining a high level of criterion-referenced test reliability.  These factors were assessed by comparing results on tests that were terminated by the sequential probabillty test ratio to those on test that were extended to 30 items in length.  Average test time differences were computed, and four reliability indices were reported that compared mastery classifications on the shorter tests with those on the extended tests.

  The study found that the sequential probability test ratio reduced testing time by an average of 29.8% over the extended tests and that criterton-referenced reliability was not significantly effected.



• Heines, J. (1979).  Evaluating Interactive, Computer-Managed Instruction.  Conference of the Association for the Development of Computer-Based Instructional Systems (ADCIS).  San Diego, CA.  ERIC Document No. ED165779.

  A computer managed instruction (CMI) package to teach BASIC programming, together with questions to be answered in its evaluation, are described.  The training package consists of 16 learning modules coupled; an interactive CMI system generates pretests and posttests for each module and branches students to the next appropriate module.  It is intended to be sold to customers to be used in a self-paced mode.  Evaluation questions pertain to (1) what percentage of customers will use the CMI system, (2) whether students will use the tests as intended, (3) whether a sequential probability test ratio will reduce test length significantly, (4) whether test reliability is maintained, and (5) whether all test items are working properly.



• Heines, J.M. (1978).  The Use of Interactive, Computer-Managed Instruction to Control the Quality of Self-Paced Training Without Requiring the Presence of an Instructor.  Proceedings of the 1978 ACM/CSC-ER Annual Conference 2:849-854.

  The cost of computer systems is constantly decreasing, but the cost of training people to run these systems is constantly increasing.  To make training cost-effective for its small systems customers, Digital Equipment Corporation has been providing self-paced training packages for several years that can be used by its customers on-site.  To control the quality of this training, Digital is now incorporating Computer-Managed Instruction (CMI) into some of these packages.  This CMI component uses a sequential probability test algorithm that allows tests to vary in length depending upon the learner’s skill level.  This algorithm assures that the tests’ results are statistically reliable while keeping their lengths as short as possible.



• Heines, J.M. (1975).  Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Computers ... You Can Teach Yourself.  Educational Technology 15(5):47-50, May, 1975.

  The chilling fear that computers will dehumanize education is slowly taking its rightful place among the archives of unfounded educational beliefs. This is due to several factors, but the most important by far is simply the growing existence of the computer in instructional settings. You can talk all you want to about how exciting computers can be, but there is no equal to sitting down at a teletypewriter and conversing with a computer for understanding what these machines are really all about.



• Heines, J.M. (1973).  Designing Machines to Work With Teachers.  Unpublished.

  This is the first technical paper I ever attempted to have published.  It was written when I was an M.S. student at the University of Maine at Orono, after I had spent a summer working on PLATO at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.  The paper was submitted to the Journal of College Science Teaching, but they declined to publish it.  The review letter from the editor is included.

Workshops Presented   [ top ]

• Heines, J.M. & Ruthmann, S.A., (2011).  Making Music with Scratch.  CS4HS @ UML Workshop, Lowell, MA, June 28, 2011.

  This workshop reprises the one we offered at SIGCSE in March with some updated material.  It introduces playing and generating music with Scratch, a media-rich visual programming system developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.  It is based on lessons learned using Scratch to teach both music and computer science in an interdisciplinary GenEd course.

  • Workshop Handout
  • Source Code for Examples



• Heines, J.M., & Maloney, J. (2011).  Making Music with Scratch.  42nd ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on CS Education.  Dallas, TX, March 12, 2011.

  This workshop introduces playing and generating music with Scratch, a media-rich visual programming system (scratch.mit.edu).  It is based on lessons learned using Scratch to teach both music and computer science in an interdisciplinary GenEd course.  As students write programs that make music, they learn control flow, user interaction, synchronization, real-time programming, and data structures.  Participants use their own laptops to explore progressively complex musical Scratch programs (see www.scratchmusic.org).  They also write their own programs and use external sensor devices to make custom musical instruments.  Scratch music program examples and an extensive handout are provided.  The workshop culminates in a concert of participant-created music.



• Ruthmann, S.A., & Heines, J.M. (2010).  Exploring Musical and Computational Thinking Through Musical Live Coding with Kids in Scratch.  Scratch@MIT Conference, Cambridge, MA, August 13, 2010.

  What might a Scratch algorithm look like that resulted in a rock drum pattern?  How could you create an algorithm in Scratch that would generate the guitar riff from Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused?  How could you use the modulo and random functions to create music that changes over time in interesting ways?  How might you use analog sensors and the computer keyboard to perform a musical algorithm in Scratch?

  These are just a few of the questions we’ve been exploring over this past year using Scratch as a creative platform for making music and exploring computational thinking with children and university students.  Taking advantage of Scratch’s design as a live compiler/interpreter, simple through complex computational algorithms can be implemented to create original music using the many functions from the sound category.  Through hands-on workshops and classes with middle school and high school students in Lowell, MA, as well as with undergraduate students enrolled in a general education course entitled Sound Thinking and co-taught by a computer science and music professor, we have amassed an array of innovative examples of student work using Scratch to create generative, algorithmic music and musicenhanced animations.

  • Source Code for All Examples (on Scratch website)
  • Workshop Handout (on ScratchEd website)

Masters Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation   [ top ]

• Heines, J.M. (1979).  The Use of Interactive, Computer-Managed Instruction to Control the Quality of Self-Paced Training.  Ed.D. Dissertation, Boston University School of Education.

  The purpose of the study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using a computer system to control the quality of self-paced training.  An interactive, computer-managed instruction (CMI) system was built to complement a self-paced training course on BASIC language programming.  This system assessed students’ work to determine their statuses in an established module hierarchy and administered pretests and posttests on the modules for which they had met the prerequisites.  The CMI system was highly human-engineered so that it could be used wi thout the presence of an instructor.  The system’s mastery algorithm was based on a sequential probability test ratio intended to reduce test lengths and testing time without sacrificing test reliability.

  The complete training package was used for teacher training in two public school districts and one junior college for a period of approximately two months.  During this time, the CMI system recorded usage data which was periodically transferred to magnetic tape and mailed to the author for analysis.

  Analysis of the specific usage data yielded the following major results:

  (1)  The system was successful in assuring that students worked through the module tests in accordance with the learning hierarchy prescribed by the course developers.

  (2)  The system was generally successful in discouraging excessive test taking even though students were free to repeat the computer-administered tests as often as they liked.

  (3)  The mastery algorithm based on a sequential probability test ratio was able to reduce test lengths significantly on all tests except pretests on which examinees were classified as masters.

  (4)  Test length reductions achieved by the sequential probability test ratio did not significantly impact the criterion-referenced test reliability.

  (5)  The system was successful in collecting data for cr iter ion-referenced item analysis, but assessment of this data for evaluating the validity of the items was inconclusive due to the small number of test administrations for some modules and the lack of a qualitative definition of a “good” criterion-referenced item in terms of its item analysis results.



• Heines, J.M. (1974).  An Interactive, Computer-Managed Model for the Evaluation of Audio-Tutorial Instruction.  M.S. Thesis, University of Maine at Orono, School of Education.

  This study attempted to enhance the evaluation of individualized, audio-tutorial instruction by the use of computer management.  The computer was used to provide (1) students with feedback on their achievement of behavioral objectives and (2) instructors with guidelines for the revision of teaching and evaluative materials.

  The study developed a model system on a BASIC language time-sharing computer for use in an introductory physical science course.  The system was designed to allow both students and instructors to gain access to the computer in an interactive mode, thereby minimizing the amount of special instruction required for its use.  The computer programs generated and stored data on student work while the model was being tested, and these data were used to analyze the system’s ability to evaluate instruction and the cost factors involved in its use.

Books   [ top ]

• Rigopoulos, R., English Edition by Heines, J.M. (2003).  Secret War.  Turner Publications, Peducah, KY.  See also the Secret War Website.

  This book is the English edition of Rigas Rigopoulos’s memoirs of his service in the Greek resistance during World War II.  Rigas’s book was originally published in Greek.  I had it rough translated and then worked with Rigas for almost three years to smooth the text, give it the right “feel,” and get it published.  The following text is from the book’s Introductory Thoughts.

  More than half a century has passed since we lived the great adventure.

  Right after the Liberation, when we old close comrades met again, we felt that we’d rather keep our story to ourselves.

  A purely emotional need drove us to this struggle, whose unforgettable moments offered us complete satisfaction.  Any commotion about these experiences, full of emotion and exaltation, and linked to the memory of lost comrades, would disturb our contentment and peace of mind.

  Even when the newspaper Ethnos (Nation) started publishing a series of articles on the activities of our Service, I requested in a letter published on March 3, 1945, that they condense and complete the story as soon as possible.  And the series stopped after the fifth installment.

  We only allowed ourselves to honor the memory of our dead with a public ceremony in a conference hall.  This created a wider sensation for a few days, but shortly all commotion abated.

  In the years elapsed since then, many references to Service 5-16-5 and its members -- always honorable, but not always accurate -- appeared in Greek and foreign books, newspapers, and magazines.  No one could control or restrict them.

  With the passage of time, the dust has settled, and today I have ceased viewing the struggle of that epoch through my personal feelings.  Historical data do not belong to individuals.  Likewise, the fascination, the agony, and the creations of an era do not belong to any single person.

  Living in the intense conditions and the multifarious reactions of the period of Occupation and also from the standpoint of the head of an intelligence organization, I witnessed the tragic drama and grandeur of an unequal struggle, decisive and effective, with incredible political and social repercussions.

  In the darkness of slavery I saw the bright glow of intellectual and spiritual flashes.  I saw heroic deeds filled with grandiose simplicity, and simple deeds filled with heroic grandeur.  I met figures who lived and died noiselessly, but who deserve a place in the memory and hearts of the people.  I also witnessed painful errors and shameful actions by both Greeks and foreigners who did harm.

  Starting from the history of some young men who constituted Service 5-16-5, I describe in this book these momentous situations and emotions as I lived through them moment by moment in Athens and in the Middle East, trying to be as objective as possible.

  Many pages are filled with love and admiration, others are marked by pain.  Every word is written with complete sincerity, without passion, but also without fear.  They tell the clear and often bitter truth, a truth needed by our unsettled times and, most of all, by the restless and justifiably rebellious younger generation.

  Events lose none of their importance when they cease being action and become history.  There is always some hope that if people turn their eyes toward a clearly certified account of the past and unscramble its magnificent as well as its frightful teachings, they may be able to better experience the present and to more wisely shape the future.



• Heines, J.M. (1984).  Screen Design Strategies for Computer-Assisted Instruction.  Digital Press, Bedford, MA.

  This book introduces the major concepts in designing video displays for Computer-Assisted instruction (CAI).  The text does not present a pragmatic “how to” formula for designing video displays, nor does it teach the rudiments of any specific CAI system such as PLATO, TICCIT, or the like.  Rather, it attempts to sensitize you to the major variables in the field.  The design skills you gain from reading this book will help prepare you to apply your own teaching and curriculum development skills to the creation of effective instructional materials for the computer/video medium.

  The design of effective computer screens requires knowledge of the special characteristics of computer-driven screens, an artistic sense of layout and balance, creativity, and sensitivity to the characteristics of the people who will be viewing the screens.  The discussion in this book focuses on the special characteristics of computer-driven screens, explores what the computer/video medium can do, and presents the pros and cons of a large number of display techniques.  Artistry, creativity, and sensitivity are discussed in relation to the examples, but not exhaustively.  I have attempted to provide a set of techniques that you can apply to your courseware when appropriate, rather than presenting rules that are applicable in all situations.  You must use your own artistic sense, creativity, and knowledge of your students to adapt these techniques and make them appropriate within your instructional setting.



• Heines, J.M. (1976).  The CLASSIC Primer: A Self-Teaching Guide.  Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA.

  This was the first self-teaching guide ever distributed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).  It was designed to support the CLASSIC product, a modified PDP-8 marketed by DEC’s Educational Products Group and the company’s first foray into marketing systems that customers would be expected to install themselves.  I wrote this book when I had been a course developer with the company for less than two years.

Columns   [ top ]

The CBT Artisan was published regularly in Authorware Magazine, (the first few issues of which were named coAction Magazine), a trade journal for training professionals published by Authorware, Inc., from 1988 until the journal discontinued publication in 1990.  The following four articles were published during that period.

• Milestones in Early Learning Devices (on machines by Pressey and Skinner).  1(1):24-29, November 1988.
• Computers in Soviet Schools (on the first ADCIS conference in the USSR).  1(2):30-32, February 1989.
• The Right Stuff (on how the CAI masters got to be masters).  1(4):25-27, August 1989.
• Changing the Scenery (on designing courseware for multi-platform delivery).  2(4):21-24, August 1990.

The CBT Craftsman was published bi-monthly in Training News, a trade journal for training professionals published by Weingarten Publications, from 1985 until the journal discontinued publication in 1987.  The following 17 columns were published during that period.

• Anybody Can’t Do CBT (on course development teams).  March 1985.
• Instructional Gain By The Numbers (on uses of CBT).  May 1985.
• ¿Queue Parser? (on authoring language limitations).  July 1985.
• Fontastique (on author-defined character sets).  September 1985.
• I Do Windows (on uses of windowing techniques).  November 1985.
• The Graphic Touch (on graphics design and use).  January 1986.
• CBT for the Visually Impaired (on knowledge of one’s target population).  March 1986.
• CBT in the Oil Fields (on instructional graphics).  May 1986.
• Can I Call You? (on combining authoring tools).  July 1986.
• Jump Up, Jump Down (on authoring system levels).  September 1986.
• Front End Drive (on authoring system preprocessors).  November 1986.
• Not Just Another Pretty Authoring System (on the Authorware system).  January 1987.
• Authoring Productivity Revisited (on the IconAuthor authoring system).  March 1987.
• On CBT and Creativity (on not settling for development tools’ capabilities).  May 1987.
• On Creativity in Programming (on hard-coding vs. algorithmic techniques).  July 1987.
• The Design of a Rule-Based Router (on AI techniques for student routing).  September 1987.
• The Implementation of a Rule-Based Router (on AI router programming).  November 1987.

Digital Equipment Corporation Technical Reports   [ top ]

In 1978 I became Manager of the Computer-Based Course Development Group at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC or just “Digital”) and initiated a Technical Report Series to chronicle the company’s efforts to implement computer-based training.  The following papers were in that series and are presented in their original Technical Report formats.  Some of these papers were published, and in those cases the published versions can be found elsewhere on this page in other formats.  The entire series is presented here for posterity, including papers written by DEC employees other than myself.

List of Reports (PDF format)

1. Heines, J. (1978).  The Use of Interactive, Computer-Managed Instruction to Control the Quality of Self-Paced Training.
2. Heines, J. (1978).  Evaluating Interactive, Computer-Managed Instruction.
3. Heines, J. (1979).  Style and Communication in Interactive Programming.
4. Heines, J. & Moreau, K. (1979).  The Three-Pronged Computer-Based Course Development Process.
5. Moreau, K. & Heines, J. (1979).  Creating Graphic Displays on Non-Graphic Terminals.
6. McVay, P. (1980).  Tapping the Appeal of Games in Instruction.
7. Heines, J. (1980).  The Reliabiity of Sequential Testing.
8. Heines, J. (1980).  Courseware Development and the NSF.
9. Scott, B. (1980)  Viewdata and Training: What, Where, and How Much.
10. Zimmerman, M. & Heines, J. (1981).  The Implications of Window Management for Computer-Based Training.
11. Heines, J. (1981).  The Personal Computer as an Appliance -- Problem I: Integrating Training and Documentation.
12. Skyrme, D. (1982)  Role of Graphics in Computer Assisted Learning.
13. Heines, J. (1982).  Basic Concepts in Knowledge-Based Systems.
14. Heines, J. & O’Shea, T. (1983).  The Design of a Rule-Based CAl Tutorial.
15. Heines, J., Briggs, J., & Ennals R. (1983).  Logic and Recursion: The PROLOG Twist.
16. Wyer, J. (1983).  New Bird on the Branch: Artificial Intelligence and Computer-Assisted Instruction.
17. Heines, J., Olsen, L., & Bowker, R. (1983).  Integrating Computer Graphics and the Videodisc: New Instructional Techniques Possible with IVIS.
18. Ehrlich, L. (1983).  Using Simulations to Evaluate Skills and Competencies.
19. Seidner, C. (1983).  CBI Pilot Evaluations: A Prototype Study.
20. Ehrlich, L. (1983).  Evaluating Technical Competencies: Designing Assessment Items Using a Computer/Videodisc Training System.
21. Seidner, C. (1984).  User Preference re CBI Menu Choice Mechanisms.
22. May, L. (1984).  Corporate Experience in Evaluating Interactive Video Information System Courses.
23. Touger, H. & Seidner, C. (1984).  Effect of Integrated CBI Practice on Task Performance and Attitude.

Association for the Development of Computer-based Instructional Systems
Special Interest Group in Computer-Based Training Newsletters   [ top ]

In 1978 I became president of the Association for the Development of Computer-based Instructional Systems Special Interest Group in Computer-Based Training (ADCIS SIG CBT) and initiated a newsletter.  The newsletter contained many articles written by many authors.  The technical ones in each issue are listed below.  The entire series is presented here for posterity.

Personal Writing   [ top ]

A Tribute to Charlie Batterman, address delivered at the Celebration of the Life of Charlie Batterman, longtime swimming and diving coach at MIT.

• Boston Globe tribute (PDF file), May 27, 2010
• Diving Results at the 1944 NCAA Championships

Wedded Bliss, a poem written for a contest sponsored by The Lowell Sun to honor Valentine’s Day 2008 by revealing the secrets of long marriages.

Good Morning, a tribute to our colleague Prof. John C. Seig, Jr., who passed away prematurely on December 30, 2005.

Two Deaths, a tribute comparing the death of my mother, Dorothy Heines, who passed away peacefully on September 21, 2001, to that of my friend, Chuck Jones, who died tragically on September 11, 2001 when American Airlines Flight 11 was crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.

You’re Just Like a Communist!, an essay on teaching students from highly diverse cultural backgrounds. Originally published in Thought and Action 17(2):139-141, Fall 2001.

• An excerpt from this essay was published under the title A Muslim, a Jew and a surprise in the October 21, 2001 issue of The Lowell Sun.
  • graphic version (scan of page as published in the newspaper, 731K)
  • text version (for faster downloading and ease of printing)
• Nadeem Chaudry, the main student mentioned in the essay (who now lives in Pakistan) was passed a copy of this issue of The Lowell Sun by his uncle (who lives in Lowell) and sent me a fascinating and thought-provoking response on November 18, 2001.

Is It Ever Right to Kill?, an article relating a dinner conversation I had with my son Scott in 1996, published in The Lowell Sun.

Soviet Jews at Simchas Torah, an article about an experience I had when I was a junior high school teacher at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, Russia, in 1970 and had been in Russia for just 2½ months.