"Computer-assisted (or aided) instruction" (CAI) refers to instruction or remediation presented on a computer. These tools improve instructional qualities. CAI's were also known as CBTs (Computer based training) when they were used to "train" individuals for vocations. CAI programmes have the following features:

1. Interactive and can illustrate a concept through attractive animation, sound, and demonstration.
2. Allow students to progress at their own pace and work individually or problem solve in a group.
3. Provide immediate feedback, letting students know whether their answer is correct. If the answer is not correct, the programme shows students how to correctly answer the question.
4. Offer a different type of activity and a change of pace from teacher-led or group instruction.
5. Improve instruction for students with disabilities because students receive immediate feedback and do not continue to practise the wrong skills.
6. Capture the students' attention because the programmes are interactive and engage the students' spirit of competitiveness to increase their scores.
7. Move at the students' own pace and usually do not move ahead until they have mastered the skill.
8. Provide differentiated lessons to challenge students who are at risk, average or gifted.

 

Development history of CAI

1. The earliest computer-aided instruction was invented in 1925 - Pressey's multiple-choice machine (developed by Sydney Pressey, Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University). Pressey's multiple-choice machine presented instruction, tested the user, waited for an answer, provided immediate feedback, and recorded each attempt as data.
2. In 1950, Norman Crowder developed a process for the U.S. Air Force in which a CAI programme presented some content as text, tested the user, provided some feedback, and then branched to corrective instruction or new information based on supplied responses. Branching was thought to be an advance on Pressey's multiple-choice machine.
3. Much influenced by theories of behaviourism, in 1954 at the University of Pittsburgh, Psychologist B. F. Skinner demonstrated a teaching machine for "reinforcing" - and not just teaching - spelling and arithmetic with a machine. In addition users, as reinforcement, may also access auditory material, listen to a passage as often as necessary then transcribe it. The machine then reveals the correct text. Students may listen to the passage again and again to discover the sources of any error and self-correct themselves.
   Developers applied principles of data transmission and reinforcement theory to a variety of educational situations. Skinner used reinforcement theory to downplay the role of punishment in changing behaviour. Instead, he was convinced that behaviour could be altered by simply using positive and negative types of reinforcement. Positive reinforcers presented rewards (good grade or congratulatory comment) after the user achieved a desired behaviour. Negative reinforcers remove aversive stimuli after the user failed to achieve a desired behaviour. Crowder applied these ideas to ‘‘intrinsic programming'' so that a user's responses determined the material to be presented next. The main advantage of intrinsic programming was that it did not waste the time of the fast learner with unnecessary repetition. Its disadvantage was that it required a large amount of content to present even a relatively small amount of material.
4. By the late 1950s early computers were available and promised to offer a better platform than mechanical devices for teaching machines. However, it was not until the 1980s before there was widespread interest in the computer as an instructional tool. These early applications of computers to education were mostly demonstrations to show the potential of computers in education. Researchers extended Skinner's work and used sophisticated mathematical models of student learning to help design instructional materials and strategies to achieve a level of individualization.
5. Early computer based teaching system to enter commercial production was the Self-Adaptive Keyboard Instructor (SAKI), developed by Gordon Pask and Robin McKinnon-Wood in 1956.
6. A project "The Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations (PLATO)" commenced at the University of Illinois in 1959. By the late 1960s, the PLATO system was using time-sharing computers to allow large numbers of people to interact with lesson modules created by the TUTOR programming language.
7. Subsequent developments in programmed instruction (CAI) arise from perspectives influenced by behaviourism and cognitive science. While teachers have mostly used CAI for drill and practice especially in teaching mathematics and languages, there have been other users of CAIs as well.

Commercial CAI products

The market for CAI products has been growing by leaps and bounds, almost in tandem with the ITC industry itself. School administrators and teachers are presented with a wealth of choices and making those choices is challenging. In a very centralised system like the one we have in our country, such choices are often made at a much higher level than teachers in the classrooms; however, teachers also do have access to many freely available CAI products on the WWW. In exercising your choice a few simple guidelines are presented in Chapter 6 (pp. 175-177).

 

The CAI experience in Malaysia

As I had remarked earlier, in the last section, decisions on the use of computer assisted programmes, particularly in schools, are made at a higher level than teachers. It is however not the case in institutions of higher learning. I want you to read the studies conducted by Malaysian academics on the use of CAI at schools and universities . The university level programme is centred around medical education and the school level programme on languages. After reading these two experiences you will watch a video of a North American training workshop on CAI.

For a quick review let us view the PowerPoint presentation on a CAI TOUR by Nancy Dowdle.

Click here to access the presentation.