Computer based instruction of professional psychological skill acquisition

The developments in information technology and multimedia give new opportunities to increase the efficiency and quality of skills education. This paper presents three applications developed in the Netherlands to enhance professional skills learning in different areas of psychology: (1) BioPsy, an application developed to teach and train the technical and practical backgrounds for conducting biopsychological experiments; (2) PAMA (Dutch term Psychologische Analyse van Menselijke Arbeid translated as Psychological Analysis of Human Task Performance), a digital learning environment in which students can develop professional skills to analyze, evaluate, and (re)design human work; and (3) Selection, an application that teaches the development of skills to conduct personnel selection procedures. The applications use multimedia to enliven the course and to improve students' learning of skills. This paper illustrates the innovative features of the applications. Results are presented of the evaluation of students' experiences with the programs and of learning progress as a result of working with the programs. (MES) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.