The computer as adaptive instructional decision maker

Abstract : The document is concerned with the computer's potential for education and most particularly for instruction as contingent on the development of a class of instructional decision models (formal instructional strategies) that interact with the student through appropriate peripheral equipment (man-machine interfaces). Computer hardware and software by themselves are not to be expected to accomplish educational miracles. One way of viewing computer-administered instruction (CAI) is as a simulation. The teacher qua instructional agent can be reduced to recurring cycles of decisions about information to be displayed to the student. Issues are discussed in the context of an ongoing CAI systems development project (IMPACT). (Author)