Headed by Ms Trish Alexander

Aim

Development of CAI courseware for a variety of subject areas for our own and other departments.

Associated and overlapping fields

• CAI falls within the larger field of Computers in Education and many of its activities are conducted within the Electronic Education Technologies and Strategies research project. This larger field includes all use of the Internet in education (Telematics), development of content for use on the Web, and the use of curriculum management tools (eg WebCT) and Computer-managed Instruction (CMI).  In some of our CAI activities we have created web versions of the stand alone products that we have developed but in general are of the opinion that interactive, multimedia courseware is more sensibly delivered via CDROM.
• Although HCI has not been the primary focus of  our projects it requires practical application of these concepts.

Courseware Products

Products that have been produced include -

• The COMUSER set is now in its third edition and consists of ten lessons.
• Chemistry has also involved considerable work and resulted in two sets of lessons.
• The Palestina project has produced an exceptional product.
• The Academic Reading Construction Kit (ARCK) was part of a high profile project in which the CSIR, St Alban's and international evaluators participated and where extensive funding was obtained.
• Smaller individual lessons have also been very successful. Various awards have been won (for Chemistry: Basic Concepts; Karnaugh Diagrams; and Memory and Retrieval Strategies).

Expertise

The group has the following areas of expertise

• Project management
• Instructional design. This covers issues particular to interactive, multimedia, computer-assisted instruction but also embraces the wider issues of human-computer interaction. Here the specialist from the research group works closely with the subject matter expert so that the creative ideas, content and teaching requirements are effectively combined.
• Quality control including extensive experience in carrying out formative and summative evaluation, collecting quantitative data by means of embedded and invisible data collection techniques, helping subject matter administration experts to set pretests and post tests and questionnaires and structured interview forms.
• Knowledge of and the ability to compare various authoring languages such as Quest (various versions over the years), Tencore, Propi, and general programming languages such as Delphi and Java.
• The type of programming experience that can only be obtained by implementing real, non-trivial programs.

Current Activities

Manderin

Memory strategies & Retrieval strategies (2nd)

Chemistry: The gaseous state

Presentations & Publications

PUBLICATIONS

1. Alexander, P M and M C Pistorius: "The use of computer-based testbanks at the University of South Africa" and User Manual, Technical Reports of Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Unisa, TR91-09, October, 1991.
2. Alexander, P M, N F du Plooy, C de Villiers and M C Pistorius: Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI): Standards used for development of the Computer User's course, Technical Reports of Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Unisa, TR92-01, January, 1992.
3. Alexander, P M and M C Pistorius: The use of telecommunications in testing at a distance teaching university: a feasibility study. Research Reports of the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, Unisa, RR92-01, January, 1992.
4. Basson J H with contributions from P M Alexander et al: Using Telematics for Community Information and Education: A pilot project Final report Grant Number 96-8902-01

PAPERS READ AT CONFERENCES

1. Alexander, P M, M C Pistorius, N F du Plooy and C de Villiers: A Teaching Package which includes CAI to be used at a Distance Education University. Computing in Southern Africa Foundation, 2nd International Conference CISNA-91, Blantyre, Malawi, April 1991.
2. Alexander, P M, M C Pistorius, N F du Plooy and C de Villiers: Setting up and Managing a CAL Environment at a Distance Education University. Computing in Southern Africa Foundation, 2nd International Conference CISNA-91, Blantyre, Malawi, April 1991.
3. Alexander P M: The use of CAI in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. Bureau of University Teaching, Unisa, July 1991
4. Alexander, P M, M C Pistorius, N F du Plooy and C de Villiers: A Teaching Package which includes CAI to be used at a Distance Education University. Southern African Computer Science Lecturers' Association, Caledon, July 1991
5. Alexander, P M, M C Pistorius, N F du Plooy and C de Villiers: Man and Machine - working together or Worlds apart? Unisys Users' Association of Southern Africa, Port Elizabeth, November 1991
6. Alexander, P M, M C Pistorius and C de Villiers: A tutorial on basic practical elements of designing courseware for computer-based education or training. Computing in Southern Africa Foundation, 3rd International Conference CISNA, Windhoek, Namibia, April 1992.
7. Alexander, P M, C de Villiers, N F du Plooy and M C Pistorius: CAI to the rescue: Experience at a distance teaching university in South Africa. 4th ICCAL, Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada, June, 1992.
8. Alexander, P M, M M deV Steyn and R A Hasty: Poster, Sensitive CBE for Basic Concepts in Chemistry. 32nd Convention of the South African Chemical Institute, Midrand, RSA, February, 1994
9. Alexander, P M, M M deV Steyn and R A Hasty: Poster, Appropriate technology for a developing society: CAL for Basic Concepts in Chemistry. EdMedia'94, Vancover, Canada, June, 1994
10. Alexander, P M, M M deV Steyn, D.Röhm and R A Hasty: Meeting the challenges of distance teaching: CAL for basic concepts in Chemistry. Computer-Assisted Education and Training in Developing Countries, Midrand, South Africa, October 1995.
11. Alexander, P M and C de Villiers. Computer-based education courseware design for tertiary distance education and training. Conf. on Information Technology in Tertiary Education, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, April 1996

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS APPEARING IN THE APPROVED LIST OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL EDUCATION

1. Fallick, P M and M C Pistorius: A Review of the use of Computers in Education in Southern Africa: Primary and Secondary Schools. South African Computer Journal, No. 2, 1990
2. Fallick, P M and M C Pistorius: A Review of the use of Computers in Education in Southern Africa: Tertiary Education. South African Computer Journal, No. 3, 1990
3. Alexander, P M, M M deV Steyn, D.Röhm and R A Hasty: Distance education: design and evaluation of computer aided lessons for problem solving in Chemistry. South African Journal of Higher Education, Oct 1995
4. Alexander, P M, M M deV Steyn and D Rohm: CAL for first year analytical chemistry by distance education. Computers & Education , Vol 27, No 2, Sept 1996

1. Alexander, P M and M C Pistorius: The use of computer-based testbanks at the University of South Africa. Progressio, Vol 1., 1992
2. Alexander, P M, C De Villiers, M C Pistorius and N F du Plooy: The constraints on computer-assisted instruction in a distance education environment. Computing and Control Engineering Journal, January, 1992.
3. Alexander, P M, C De Villiers, M C Pistorius and N F du Plooy: The computer concepts course. Computing and Control Engineering Journal, January, 1992.
4. Alexander, P M, C De Villiers, M C Pistorius and N F du Plooy: The computer-assisted instruction (CAI) development model used for the computer concepts course. Computing and Control Engineering Journal, January, 1992.
5. Alexander, P M, and M C Pistorius: The use of computer-based testbanks at the University of South Africa. Computing and Control Engineering Journal, January, 1992.