Effects of Locus of Control and Provision of Overviews in a Computer-Assisted Instruction Sequence

AbstractThe effects of locus of control (learner control versus program control of branching) and provision of overviews were investigated using a computer-assisted instruction sequence. Sixty college students were assigned randomly to four treatment conditions. Performance and response latency data were collected. Achievement gain was significantly greater under learner control than under program control. No significant main effects were found when using test response latency as the dependent measure. There was a significant difference among average response latencies of correct and incorrect responses on the post-test. A high negative correlation was observed between the time interval taken to make a response on the post-test and percentage of correct responses within the interval.