We compared grades and course evaluations in an undergraduate social psychology course taught using 3 different instructional formats: traditional, traditional with a course guide, and multimedia with a course guide. Students' grades (N = 937) and course evaluations of grading procedures (N = 547) were higher when a course guide was available. The multimedia format did not provide any significant additional benefits. We discuss the relative effectiveness of different types of course enhancements (i.e., course guide, multimedia lectures) and advantages that they may provide, such as facilitating the standardization of multisection courses at large universities.

The number and variety of teaching methods are virtually endless and, given technological advances, ever increasing. As an exercise, we eight authors were able to generate a list of over 90 different methods from memory, but there are certainly many more. Given the large number, instructors are faced with the challenge of finding the most effective teaching strategy for their purposes. The need for a comprehensive, empirically based process to guide the selection and implementation of teaching strategies is clear. The purpose of this chapter is to describe such a process. In the first part of this chapter, we introduce a model of teaching that can guide the selection and implementation process. In the second part, we provide a set of examples of how the model can be used to accomplish learning goals.