This project funds student work stations, a network server, and classroom equipment to reinforce and expand dramatically the capabilities of the laboratory portion of an introductory psychology course that serves as the science distribution requirement for half of the student body. With this equipment, hypertext is used to integrate the materials from lecture, laboratory, library, and video resources, making them available both at 15 laboratory work stations and to individual students through the campus network (dormitories and computer work rooms). This instructional lab network makes it possible to use new types of pedagogical material: QuickTime video segments, animated illustrations of dynamic processes, and a readily accessible file of slides, overheads, and graphics currently scattered among faculty. The intended effect is fourfold: to give students experience with methodologies that were previously unavailable at the introductory level; to provide the means to explore more actively the methologies and often encyclopedic content of introductory psychology; to teach the use of network-available library resources; and to exploit the potential of networked stations to collect, collate, and display data so that students have more time for interpretation and consideration of possible alternative hypotheses.
