CAI

From EvaluationWiki

CAI stands for Computer-assisted instruction, and CBT for the more recent term that has largely replaced the former, and stands for Computer-based training. This is usually, in its most effective form to date, an interactive approach in which the computer program provides material for the trainee to read, then asks questions about it and comments on, and possibly grades, the answers the student gives. The program might be online or software on a disc in the student's computer. Its two most obvious advantages are that it proceeds at the student's own pace, and that it never objects to be asked to repeat what it said, or (in many versions) to give further reasons for its rating of the student answers. Less obviously, if the program has been properly developed, in a way that has been fully documented by the pioneers in this field, it will proceed in a way that is known to work for virtually all students at this student's level and with his or her background. The secret to developing these 'programmed texts' is to intersperse (muliple-choice) questions at very frequent intervals in the working drafts, perhaps every 20 seconds of reading time, so as to pick up immediately the moment when the student begins to lose touch with the line of thought being presented-and to provide positive reinforcement for the nearly-always correct responses. No other form of instruction of groups has ever shown itself to be competitive with programmed texts if they are properly developed; but they were expensive in hardcopy form and hence became a natural approach for CAI, since the paper costs are negligible. But the development costs are truly formidable, and the successes have not been sufficiently well publicized to swing publishers or public over to this approach.