Submitted by: Isaacs and Dekeyml, The University Of Iowa, 348 LCM, Iowa City, IA

Operating System: RSTS/E

Source Language: BASIC-PLUS or DECsystem-10 BASIC, Memory Required: 16K, Other Software Required: Run from Program CADA

Abstract. The Iowa Testing Programs of the University of Iowa has been awarded a grant in the amount of $91,355.00 by the National Science Foundation for development of a system of Computer-Assisted Data Analysis (CADA). Principal Investigator for the project is Dr. Melvin R. Novick. The system, now being used in developmental form at numerous universities throughout the world, is designed for instructional and operational use and consists of a collection of conversational language programs written in the BASIC programming language. These programs are designed to lead an investigator step-by-step through elementary and complex methods of Bayesian statistical inference. Included in the system will be conversational programs that will permit substantive workers to monitor advancement decisionmaking in modularized instructional programs, to evaluate the effects of educational intervention programs such as compensatory education, to provide guidance information to students from academic prediction systems and to provide educational administrators with easily used yet sophisticated methods of combining probabilities with utilities or values in order to produce coherent and effective decisions.

Media Price Codes: E7, H60, M50