Student opinion of tutorial CAL

Abstract A tutorial CAL program was written to replace a human teacher in a mastery learning experience, using the authoring language “STAF2” running on a DEC VAX 11/780 computer. Students had full access to the program, which was informal in nature, flexible and capable of recognizing most if not all inputs made to it in response to the questions it posed. The topic of the mastery experience was that of batch growth of bacteria. A previous paper reported upon the students' cognitively assessed performance in a formative evaluation. The students were also asked to complete an evaluation questionnaire about the use of the program as a replacement for a human tutor. Analysis of the responses showed that use of the program met with greater than expected approval, though only as long as a detailed printed handout was provided to support it. Examination of the questionnaire responses also showed that females had more difficulty than males in answering the program questions, though they preferred it as a means of tuition more than males. Since there were no sigrificant differences between males and females in terms of the assessment test, the greater difficulty could not be ascribed to differences in ability. Partial correlation analysis of the questionnaire variables showed that the students felt much less need of human assistance and responded well to the informal style of the program, correctly judging it to be closely related to that of the lecturer who wrote it. The program also stimulated the formation of small tutorial groups to use it. These findings auger well for the future use of programmed tutorials, provided they are not used to excess or in circumstances that are not appropriate to the medium.