This project explores the various issues involved in designing an Adaptive & Interactive Computer Aided Learning System (CAL-system) which aims to keep teachers in the central position and in constant touch with the learners and yet allow the students to choose content, place, time, depth, duration and style of learning to suit individual needs. The relative advantages and disadvantages of typical Computer Aided Instruction strategies and the more recent Intelligent Tutoring Systems are studied and keeping in view the paradigm shift in technology that is taking place now, a third alternative model is proposed.
COMPUTERS IN EDUCATION - A Review
Terminologies and Introductory Concepts
Three terms, Instruction, Learning and Training keep appearing in literature preceded by words such as Computer Based, Computer Aided, Computer Assisted to describe different roles given to computers by the teachers in helping them to improve traditional teaching-learning process. Starting from the early days of Programmed Instruction to the emerging concept of Virtual University, the role of computers has undergone many changes. Although terms like CAI,CAL,CBT are often used loosely and interchangeably, it is worthwhile note the differences to avoid confusion. In this section, the commonly used terminologies are briefly explained.
Typical CAI packages are often classified under different application categories or modes. A brief description of each mode is given in section 2.2 only to show the relationship of the present work, which falls mainly under the Tutorial Mode, with the remaining field of Computers in Education. The definitions as described here are well accepted and will be adhered to in the rest of this report. A more detailed comparison between Computer Assisted Instruction and Intelligent Computer Assisted Instruction (ICAI) is presented later. This comparison allows us to get a better perspective of the issues involved in designing a better CAL system.
CAI : Computer Assisted / Aided Instruction
This term is often interchangeably used with CAL. While CAL is a popular term in Europe, CAI is more commonly used in North America & Japan. The use of the word Instruction in CAI has a special significance. It usually means that a CAI package is not only conceived and designed by a teacher but the effective control also remains with him at every stage. The content and it's treatment including the degree of elaboration, the rate of flow of information and the order of presentation are decided by the teacher only. Being teacher-centred the design is expository rather than exploratory in nature.
CAL : Computer Aided / Assisted Learning
CAL packages are designed to have student-centred activities. The student decides how much he needs to learn, in what sequence, to what depth and at what rate. The learning process is usually exploratory. Theoretically, the need to take care of individual differences amongst students is much higher in designing a CAL package than in a CAI package. The design process is much more complex.
CBT : Computer Based Training
Usually CBT packages are product or process specific and are used to impart training in operation, maintenance, sales and similar areas. CBT packages meant for use by beginners are usually expository but those meant for use for advanced learners may also be exploratory. The term CBT is also unfortunately used to mean Computer Based Testing. This is discussed later in the report.
CAT : Computer Aided Teaching
In Computer Aided Teaching the teacher usually uses a computer as a tool for teaching. The teacher may store and recall information from the computer at appropriate times during the class. The computer may also be used to store illustrative problems, for modeling, simulation, animation, creation and presentation of graphical images or data.
ITS : Intelligent Tutoring System
ITS is still in the research stage, although several well known ITS examples have been in existence for quite sometime (Guidon, Proust, Sophie, Scholar). Unlike the typical CAI or CAL, ITS employs a combination of several subdisciplines of computer science, cognitive psychology and educational research such as AI, natural language processing, Expert System, Knowledge Base Engineering, Pedagogic modeling & powerful man-machine interfaces to give the computer a more realistic teacher role. The computer generates (as opposed to present an appropriate previously stored information) an appropriate answer to a student's question from the stored knowledge base through an Expertise Module. A Socratic Dialogue mode is often employed to cause a guided discovery learning.
ICAI : Intelligent Computer Assisted Instruction
ICAI in essentially another name for ITS. As in ITS, the emphasis in the relatively small number of ICAI packages so far developed varies significantly depending on the research goals and the actual discipline to which the researcher belongs.
CCAI : Collaborative Computer Assisted Learning
In recent years CAI packages are being increasingly used in collaborative small groups where students are actively encouraged to solve problems posed by the computer as a group and co-operate with each other in those sections of a CAI not understood by one or more members of the group. It is now well established that small group collaborative learning can significantly increase the advantages of CAI packages. Some CAI packages are structured specifically for group learning, one example is the allocation of different tasks to different members of the group in solving a large problem, another being summative evaluation of individuals being linked to group performance.
CMI/CML : Computer Managed Instruction / Computer Managed Learning
Usually CMI is used more for management of instruction than for teaching-learning. A comprehensive CMI system is likely to have the following features :-
store questions
generate test papers
administer tests
evaluate scripts
store student records
provide general satistical & other data
report relevant information
diagnose student deficiencies
provide guidance to study plans
allocate and optimise resources
offer courses through computers
prepare timetables/study schedules
Many CAI/CAL/CBT system has built-in provision for testing/evaluation of students and also storing of student records in that particular topic/subject.
CAE/CBT: Computer Aided Evaluation or Computer Based Testing
CAE/CBT packages usually employ simple objective type testing. OCR techniques may be used if answer scripts have to be read automatically. A comprehensive CAE/CBT system requires developing a Table of Specification for each course listing all topics and subtopics on one side of the table and prescribing relative weightage of each, under various domains and levels of learning. It also requires preparation of topic-wise test item banks of sufficiently large size to avoid repetition. Individualised question papers are generated by the computer by selecting appropriate test items from the test item bank using the table of specification as a stencil. To ensure uniformity of standard amongst different question papers, all test items must be provided with headers indicating the difficulty index and the discrimination index. Appropriate test items can then be automatically selected depending on the purpose and the standard of evaluation. It is possible to develop highly sophisticated CAE/CBT system which can test higher order cognitive domain learning. As already mentioned, CAE/CBT of various degrees of sophistication needs to be an inbuilt feature in most good CAI/CAL packages. This issue will be taken up at a greater detail at a later stage in this report.
DESIGN OF AN IMPROVED CAL SYSTEM
Development of Conceptual Frame work
Identification of Areas of Weakness in Existing Systems
The need to individualise instruction to take care of differences in learning characteristics amongst students coupled with the powers of a good computer to compute rapidly, create and present complex graphics, animate images, present dynamic full colour and full motion visuals and rich audio information and similar powers not available to human teachers are the main driving forces behind the development of Computer Aided Instruction. Conventional CAI, based on systems approach allows students to pace their learning according their own needs but is not able to take into account the differences in learning abilities, learning styles or learning needs amongst learners. Essentially the same material is presented to all students initially. Branching for feedback and remediation is a poor substitute for individualisation.
Conventional CAI systems are, as already mentioned, unable to deal with questions from students. If C-CAIs are treated as exceptions CAI by design has no provision to benefit student learning from group dynamics. CAI packages do not, as a rule, allow students to explore or deviate too far away from the instructional path decided by the teacher.
ICAI systems take care of most the above problems, but because of inherent complexity of development, are unsuitable for large scale application. The use of mixed initiative allows student's questions to be handled by the computer / tutor. However the approach taken to deal with student questions-being primarily for cognitive research-does not allow the students to include any graphics in the question, limiting the scope of any interaction severely.
Target System Features
1. Each lesson should be so designed as to ensure achievement of a required set of learning outcomes to be decided by the teacher, while giving a learner opportunity to learn many more allied topics in a non linear fashion to satisfy their learning needs.
2. A student should have the option to choose to learn a lesson designed to match, as closely as possible, her own ability level and learning style.
3. Students should be allowed to take their own time to complete the minimum prescribed learning outcomes. A high ability student may choose to complete the prescribed learning outcomes in a relatively short time or take more time to explore additional areas of interest or face more challenging problems than is required by the minimum prescription. A student with a lower than average ability or lower initial preparation, on the other hand, should be allowed to follow another instructional track which may be longer, but at the same time easier to follow.
4. Students should have the option to control the flow of presentation at all times. They should have the option to slow down, stop or speed up the instruction, to alter the course of instruction by going backwards, skipping parts of instruction to go forward or take a different route altogether to follow the same topic or branch off to explore related concepts, at any time. They should also have the option to choose only the screen presentation or additionally listen to any supplementary audio presentation, if available.
5. The system should have built in provision for testing grading and record keeping.
6. The system should allow students easy to locate content guidelines, freedom to choose any combination of lessons, topics and subtopics.
7. The lessons should be accessible through LAN / Internet
8. Using LAN / Internet facility the students should have the option to consult teachers and / or peer groups located at a distance to seek help at anytime through built-in audio / video teleconferenceing provision. The dialogue may be a mixture of text input through keyboard, through captured & compressed live or recorded conversation with video images, graphics / line drawings / images captured and communicated by scanners at both ends.
9. Ideally, there should be built-in provision for sorting and storing frequently asked questions and associated answers. This information may then be used to update the lessons at regular intervals.
10. The system should have provision for providing hardcopy output of the instructional context of the route taken by the student during a particular session.
11. The system should ideally be developed using easy to learn, easy to use, internet compatible, upgradable, widely accepted, versatile and reasonably cheap software tools to ensure that the methodologies evolved are useable by a wide cross section of teachers for a diverse range of subjects to maximise educational impact.
12. The system should be able to exploit technology tools already available and those which are likely to emerge in the near future.
Scope of Present Work Besides developing a conceptual framework for a new generation of CAL system, which can take advantage of emerging technology and the research findings in the field of education as summarised earlier this project limited itself to the following additional objectives :1. Survey existing technology and software tools to decide the best alternatives for CAL development in the near future. The issues considered included the minimum hardware and software requirements and the question of future upgradability.
2. Development of an initial model for implementing the concept of presenting instruction suitable for three different ability groups. The three tracks of presentation considered are :
FastTrack-
for high ability learners. Presentation is no telaborate, but adequate provision for exploration through hypertext/hypermedia of allied concepts.
Normal Track -
for average ability learners,with suitable presentation and provision for exploration.
Slow Track -
for low ability learners. Presentation is elaborate. Use of animation & audio is made to supplement text.
3. Development of various navigational features mentioned under (4) in the previous section. A general procedure is developed so that other developers may easily incorporate these in their own packages.
4. Enhance the scope of standard student achievement testing provisions available in commercial authoring software to include any number of choices and all forms of known objective type tests.
5. Design screens keeping in view of adding teleconferencing facilities in future.
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