Efficacy of a computer-based editing strategy with postsecondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities

The authors in this study used a pre-posttest experimental design with random assignment to treatment or control group to assess the use of an electronic editing cognitive strategy. The participants were 16 college students with intellectual and developmental disabilities enrolled in a 2-year postsecondary program at a Midwestern institute of higher education. Students who were taught the strategy received eight 50-minute lessons once a week for eight weeks. Each strategy lesson was driven by the strategy mnemonic and incorporated an explicit instruction format with modeling, guided practice with feedback, and independent practice. Strategy instruction included students using desktop PCs and Microsoft Word to identify and correct editing errors in electronic passages. Posttests revealed a significant difference in favor of the treatment group for total editing errors corrected and specific error types corrected for spelling, punctuation, and substance. No significant difference was found for overall appearance and capitalization errors. Two weeks following posttest, a maintenance probe revealed that students in the treatment group corrected a significantly higher number of editing errors than those in the control group.