COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING

Computer assisted learning (CAL), is not a new phenomenon. This field of

education has been growing since the introduction of computers into the learning
environment. As computer has become standard instructional tools in the primary
and secondary school system, they are used extensively in all aspects of nursing
education. Due to the great changes in the primary and secondary school systems,
they are used extensively in all aspects of nursing education. Due to the great
changes in the practice and teaching of nursing, there has been an increase in the
possibilities offered by Computer Assisted Learning (CAL), which may help meet
the new challenges to nursing education. Although CAL has been with us for many
years it has had great difficulty competing with more conventional methods of
education.

History:

In the 1980s, the first computer assisted learning became available to university
students looking for an alternative to the traditional textbook. There programmes
used only digital files transferred onto a CDROM to give students highly portable
and accessible learning materials. The popularization of this form of learning
materials. The popularisation of this form of learning and the increased ownership
of personal computers led to the development of widely distributed educational
CDROMS. As technology continued to grow and with the introduction of the
internet, information on CAL programmes became more interactive, reflecting a
social need for flexible learning outcomes.

Definition:

CAL has often been used to describe the development and application of
educational technology for a variety of circumstances of educational technology
for variety of circumstances from the mid 1980s until the early 1990s the term
CAL was often used to refer to the development of either a single computer
programme or series of programs which replaced the more traditional methods of
instruction, in particular lecture.

1. “Computer Assisted Learning or Computer Aided Learning is defined as

learning through computers with subject wise learning packages/materials”.
- Mifflin. A

Computer Assisted learning can be defined as learning or teaching subjects like

mathematics, since, geography and etc. through computer with subject wise
learning package/materials.

1. It may include all types of technology enhanced learning (TEL), where

technology is used to support the learning process.
2. It is said to be : “ pedagogy empowered by digital technology.”
3. In broader sense, it may be considered as a part of E-learning.

Educational technology:

Electronic technologies that are used for learning and teaching. If teacher
do not understand how to support learning technology use will be ineffective
and inefficient.

Goals.

Presents information to be memorized.

Support for student exploration.

A creative and production tool.

A communication tool.
Technology can:

Help make learning more efficient by controlling large amount of data.

- Motivate students.

- strengthen teaching.

- work quickly and objectively.

Technology cannot:

Make friends or show respect.

Types of CAL software’s:

1. Drill and practice.

2. Tutorial.
3. Games.
4. Multimedia.
5. Word processing.
6. Programmed instructions.
1. Drill and practice:

Typically, drill and practice activities are supplementary to the normal teaching
process. It is good for fundamental mastery. The programme requires learning
to perform specified tasks and give a feedback on their performance.

Definition:

Drill and practice software provides exercises in which students work example
items one at a time and receive feedback on their correctness.
Features:

Reinforce instruction by providing the repetition necessary to move acquired

skills and concepts into long-term memory.

Capture and retain the attention of students.

Save teachers time and efforts.

Personalize instruction by meeting individual differences among learners.

Tutorial:

The tutorial program extends drill and practice by proving information or

demonstration to learners and then requiring them to perform some input. It also
provides feed-back on the input. Historically the user will be presented with
some information followed by an activity such as questions, with appropriate
feed-back for wrong response. A modern multimedia tutorial attempts to mimic
a live lecture that take the user though a series of objective but allows the user
to undertake the operation at their own pace and still provide the option of
interactivity with the teacher. The main difference is the emphasis on thinking
and motivation rather than a simple stimulus response.

Definition:

A tutorial exposes the learner to material that is believed not to have been
previously taught or learned. A tutorial often includes pre-test, post-test and
drill and practice activities.

Features:

Guide the learner throughout learning from the beginning (objectives) to the
end (evaluation).
 Encourage students to interact, control and response t the program.

Simulation:

Simulation provides a means for learning about an environment that may not,
for reasons of time, expense or general practically be available to learner to
explore. Simulation focuses on exploration and discovery learning. Simulation
encourages learning by decision making. Role –playing simulation may
encourage learner’s interest exposure to the model. The simulation attempts to
provide the user with same type of experience with patients that they would
encounter.

Definition:

A simulation is a computerized model of real or imagined system designed to

tech how a system works and allows learners to create their own sequence for
using simulation.

Features:

 Involves students into learning process.

 Save money and resources.
 Make experimentation safe.
 Make impossible situations possible and controllable.
 Let student repeat events as many times as they want.

Games:

Definition:

Instructional games are designed to motivate learning by adding game rules to

learning activities.
Features:

 Make learning fun and motivating.

 Motivate learners via the challenge of competition.
 Engage the learner in a situation where the learner is competing for a high
score.

Multimedia:

Definition:

Programs that support the interactive use of text, audio, still images, video and
graphics and manipulate tem o support learning.

Features:

 Engage a variety of learning modalities.

 Focus practice of skills that support transfer of learning.

Word processing:

Definition:

The creation, input, editing, and production of words in documents and texts by
means of a computer system.

Advantages:

 Time saving.
 Better appearance.
 Shared methods.
 Features:

 Storing documents for later use.

 Searching and replacing words.
 Checking and correcting spelling.
 Creating tables.

Programmed instruction:

Programmed instruction can be described as a different way of presenting

materials to be learned. Programmed instructional materials are constructred in
learning sequences. The students actively follow step by step at his/her own pace
of learning. There are two types of programming.

1. Linear programming:

In linear programming the students have to participate actively by making a

response. They must fill in the blanks, answer a question, solve a problem, the
programme checks the response by giving the correct answer.

2. Intrinsic programming:

Intrinsic programming, presents new ideas through a short discussion of the material
to be learned followed by multiple choice questions designed to test the points just
discussed, but very few programmed materials are suitable for nursing courses at the
time.

Nursing education setting using computers:

Whether used for information gathering or learning, the computer is being used in all
facts of nursing education. There use in basic nursing education, both diploma and
baccalaureate and graduate level is widely reported. In addition their use in
continuing education programs and in-service education is growing at a logarithmic
rate.

Factors contributing to the importance of CAL:

Tremendous growth in human knowledge and increase in the amount of information

to be learned. Increased understanding of teaching learning process. Increased
diversity in the setting where nursing is practiced.

Need for nurses to have skill that allow them to continue learning throughout their
professional careers.

Benefits of computer Assisted Learning:

Theoretically CAL might be considered attractive in that it is learner centered, and

may be designed according to good educational strategies, the true effectiveness of
CAL has been questioned, scalability, interactivity, information interactivity,
autonomic student logging and multimedia content are important features of CAL.

Scalability:

Many aspects of CAL are scalable, particularly when internet derived technologies
are utilized to produce a CAL package. Unlike any educational media a CAL
packages is digitally stored thus it may be reproduced without error as many times as
required. By providing access to a CAL package over a network. Many students may
use a single resource. Further if the CAL packages are made accessible via an
internet browser then it becomes potentially available to a very wide audience using a
diverse range of computers.
Interactivity:

“what I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I remember always.” The
nature of CAL lends itself to involving the students with the learning processes with
tasks requiring actions and dependent on the actions the student may receive
appropriate feedback leading to further tasks. This goal-action feed-back cycle may
be followed in a simple series of interactive questions, a complex case study or even
a computer simulation of a clinical situation.

Automatic of assessment:

As a student interacts with a CAL exercise it is possible to keep a record of each

interaction on an identifiable log life. This provides a convenient option to check on
student performance by checking on the correctness of response to the CAL exercise.
Further by building up a profile of how a number of users interact with the system it
is possible to identify weaknesses in the CAL exercises itself. The automatic logs can
thus help decrease both the burdens on assessing students and validating CAL
exercises.

Multimedia:

The incorporation of multimedia elements such as images, sounds and video clips in
CAL packages provide more than simply added interest. Cognitive psychologist
suggests that learning is facilitated if the student has to undertake active processing of
presented information, “mental roughage”. Different individuals learn better in
response to different media, and it has been suggested that learning may be improved
by providing information in more than one form simultaneously such as animation
wit sounds.
Distance learning on the internet:

Distance learning has many benefits and CAL delivered over computer networks is
an excellent tool for education. The largest computer network, the internet, provides
millions of user’s access to thousands of sources of information. Internet chat rooms
allow a number of users connected to a website to communicate directly with each
other by text and in some chat rooms also with sound. Internet telephony and full
video conferencing is becoming more established. Teaching sociology students over
the internet has even been suggested to be superior to teaching by more conventional
means.

Video conferencing:

Perhaps one of the most exciting uses of synchronous communication provide by the
use of computers is the option of video conferencing. Video conferencing systems
can broadly be divided into desktop systems and room systems. A desktop system is
useful for a small number of participants of each site sat at specially configured
personal computers each with a simple camera and microphone. Room based systems
are for larger groups using much more sophisticated and expensive equipment. Video
conferencing provides obvious improved communication through people being able
to see each other at remote sites but requires careful planning and training to gain
maximum effectiveness. Teleconferencing is a term that may be used when
videoconferencing is a term that may be used when video conferencing allows people
at two or more sites to see live pictures with sound, where as data conferencing
allows people at different sites to view and work on a common document of life.
Web Based Learning:

Goals of web-based learning:

1. Enhancing communication:

Web based education tools provide many ways to increase communication between
class members and faculty. Researchers have found that adding these elements to a
course increases student motivation and participation in class discussion and projects.

2. Students share perspectives:

Online forums, like course talks areas, provide public areas to post information.
Each student can view other student’s answers and learn through the exposure to
different perspectives.

3. Students experience a sense of equality:

Another benefit to using web-based communication tools is to give all students a

reinforced sense of equality each individual have the same opportunity to “speak up”
by posting messages without typically distraction such as seating arrangements,
volume of student voices and gender biases.

4. Activity learning:

When instructors post discussion questions or short essays assignments in the online
portion of a course, students must attend to and reflect on the subject matter before
responding. This results in reflection and articulation of content, as the very process
of reporting and writing about what they have learned engages student in an activity
learning experience. Students can complete assignments during their most productive
times.
5. Physical location is not an issue:
Students can communicate and update each other without the constrains of date,
time and place.
Advantages of web-Based learning:
 Access to multiple perspectives bout a particular situation or concept.
 Access to applications or instructional materials about a particular situation or
concept.
 Opportunity to engage in an interactive environment.
 Access to and organization of a lot information quickly.
 Opportunity to interact with experts.
 Easy to transfer information and data, any time of the day.
 Promotes self regulation learning, view information at your speed no
deadlines.
 Creates a record of information and when it was produced.
 Opportunity to enhance your creatively and perception of ideas.
 Promote non-linear, non-directive, open ended thinking.
 Time to formulate ideas and thinking to improve presentation.

Disadvantages of web-based learning:

 Simulation experience is not as exciting or beneficial for students.

 Information is not necessarily valid or correct.
 Can be distracting because the computer is more inviting than the teacher.
 Content is not always most appropriate for learning.
 Could be misused and not applied in a meaningful way.
 Computer and internet access are sometimes slow.
 Changes the experiences of research if you are not physically going through
books.
 Internet does not always have information you are looking for.
 Hard copies are earlier to read.
 Decreases personal communication skills. Promote non-linear, non-directive,
open ended thinking. (Students and teacher can love sense of direction).

Advantages f computer assisted learning:

 Computer assisted learning is ideal for distant learning such as the Open
University as you don’t need a lot of teacher contact.
 The student can learn in their own place which is different than the traditional
approach were everyone learns together at the same place which could leave
people behind which can be bad if the person have learning difficulty.
 Computer based environments are sometimes used to simulate real situations
such as operations etc, this is ideal as the students can experience the situation
in a safe environment.
 Programs can be put to CD-ROM or DVD or internet so people can get hold to
content easily.

Disadvantages of computer assisted learning:

 Need a computer for computer assisted learning.

 Computer based learning lowers the teacher’s role: teacher who has felt secure
in their role as dispensers of information may feel uncomfortable. As they find
their role as dispensers of information may feel uncomfortable as they find
their role changing to that of facilitator moderator and co-ordinates.
 The nurse educator must have knowledge about the use of computer.
 CAL lack the human and emotional factors which are available in the normal
classroom lessons in which the teacher is present to internet with student.
 With excessive use of CAL, competence of students takes a backseat.
 CAL provides more mental and physical fatigue as compared to other method
of instruction.
 As the student cannot interact with computer in the human language, the
mechanical responses by punching the keys can become dull and frustrating.