ELFsoft: A Simple Route to CAL in Higher Education

The University of Bradford is undertaking a process of total computerization. Staff and students are being encouraged to own a personal computer It is proposed that computer‐assisted learning (CAL) may be adopted for use in University teaching. Hardware, software and financial constraints limit the potential for use of existing authoring systems. There is a requirement for a simple‐to‐use CAL system capable of delivering courses on low‐cost PCs with monochrome monitor ELFsoft is being developed to fill this requirement. ELFsoft is design‐onented and can prepare CAL materials either by means of an interactive program (ELFsoft WRITE) or through the creation of a text file using a variety of popular word‐processing packages. The paper describes the rationale behind ELFsoft in detail and outlines the methods being used to develop ELFsoft.