E-mail: glasser@aurum.wits.ac.za
Abstract: The Department of Chemistry
at the University of the Witwatersrand has been developing and
using a computer-assisted instructional (CAI) system for its first-year
students since 1980. The programs were initially developed for
the Apple II microcomputer, but have been adapted, extended and
enhanced for the PC (initially for the MS-DOS operating system,
but now usable under Windows) since about 1995. The programs have
an integrated marks management system which can be interrogated
by both students and supervisors. There are presently about 90
programs in use, accessed by all students in our first-year classes;
thus, the system is used well in excess of 10,000 times annually.
The programs are of a 'practice-and-guidance' type, supporting
the lecturers and tutors through assistance to students in the
learning of routine procedures and providing encouraging advice
when encountering student error. The system is well-established,
with copies in operation at a number of tertiary institutions
in South Africa, and a selection of six published by the Journal
of Chemical Education. A sub-set of the programs would be suitable
for school use, and have been adapted for this purpose. The presentation
will cover the process of development of the material, addressing
issues of quality and reliability, and its application in student
learning.
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, is a major
university within Africa, with high scholarly and academic aspirations.
The degrees that it awards are internationally recognised and
accredited, yet it exists in an environment of excessively poor
schooling for much of its student intake.
The CAI programs were implemented from 1981,
with users showing a keen interest in the programs, not only for
sessional 'practice-and-guidance' but also for revision.
Within a few years, we had developed a set
of useful programs which were in constant use by students. The
use of these programs was reported in various fora and by publication
of descriptive articles (see Bibliography).
In due course we were approached by the publishers, NASOU, to
translate a sub-set of our programs into Afrikaans for use in
schools. We took the opportunity of the contract to revise our
programs to a higher standard, as well as translating them. Unfortunately,
NASOU seemed to abandon the project, and has never published the
translated programs.
The newly-revised programs were so successful
that we decided to undertake our own publishing, eventually selling
(at a minimal price) about 50 sets to local schools, Technikons
and Universities.
Our internal use of the programs continued
over all this time, during which we installed a network for the
Apple II's, which had grown to about 20 stations, with a 10Mb(!)
hard drive as the central server. However, the Apple II's began
to show their age after about 10 years in service (in terms of
hardware failures, but also in screen appearance and versatility).
Therefore, a process of conversion of the now-75 programs to QuickBASIC
for PC's was undertaken, again with a set of enthusiastic programmers
who provided innovative methods of screen display and control,
marks recording, and so forth. The programs were implemented on
the Chemistry PC network which had, in the meantime, been put
in place in parallel with the Apple network.
Once the PC programs were fully operational,
the Apple network was scrapped (and, in due course, donated to
the Johannesburg College of Education). The PC network has, since
that time, grown into a substantial system with about 100 workstations
attached, about 30 of which are largely devoted to CAI. In many
ways, the growth of our computer network has been driven by the
demands of the CAI system, and even funded from the resources
and interest generated by it (for example, by a grant of about
one-quarter of a million Rand in 1997 from the New Settlers Foundation).
Since 1998, every first-year student has
been required to demonstrate mastery (by obtaining a mark of greater
than 79%) of a limited set of programs, as set out by the class
co-ordinators. On the basis of a two-hourly count throughout 2
weeks, we have noted daily averages of about 100 first-year students
using the CAI material - which implies much greater numbers throughout
the day. We record roughly 15 000 program usages per annum.
The programs are pedagogically sound and,
since the content of first-year chemistry is very stable, they
remain valid and useful even many years after their initial programming
- and will remain so for years to come. Although DOS-based, the
programs run without problems in all Microsoft Windows environments
since low-level device access is not implemented in the programs.
We are in the process of converting some of the programs to Microsoft's
Visual BASIC (see Kinetic Approach to Equilibrium).
A comprehensive Catalogue of the programs is available as well as an Installation and Teacher's Guide to the CAI system - which is worthwhile reading. These can be downloaded from http://www.chem.wits.ac.za. A demonstration disk can be downloaded from the same site.
Recently, the Wits University Press has undertaken the marketing of the program material.
In addition to its value within the Department, our suite of programs has received considerable acceptance in other tertiary institutions in this country.
Top
Header
CEJ Vol. 5, No. 2, Contents
