Instructional Software: If You Build It, They May Or May Not Come

Student use of an instructional and computational software package for the introductory chemical engineering course was investigated in four separate course offerings in two semesters. In two offerings in the Fall of 1999 the courseware was demonstrated and included in an early homework assignment, with no further action begin taken to encourage its use, and in the two Fall 2000 offerings the students had to use the courseware in several early homework problems and questions about it were included on tests. The fact that the students used the courseware more in the second semester offerings is not surprising, but the extent of the difference in usage is. With very few exceptions, the students in the first semester largely ignored the courseware, while those in the second semester used it extensively (far more than was required) and gave it highly positive ratings in a course-end survey, even though its use directly accounted for only about 0.01% of the final course grade. However instructive and visually attractive software may be, the cost of developing and producing it is wasted if its intended beneficiaries ignore it. The lesson of this study is that instructors who wish to make effective use of courseware must be proactive about getting their students to use it: simply making it available is not enough.