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2.2.4 Known Problems with CAI

Although CAI has greatly improved since its early days, it has never achieved the popularity originally expected of it. In LATE [Mau96b] Maurer listed 13 points why:

  • bad price/performance ratio on the equipment side;

  • lack of (colour) graphics and animation to better visualise processes;

  • high effort to produce good quality courseware;

  • the decentralisation due to personal computers and stand-alone configurations;

  • the cost of authoring systems was unjustifiably high;

  • production costs for good quality material remained high (typically 100 hours effort for one hour of instructional material);

  • lack of sophisticated interactivity and insensitivity towards individual student needs: most courseware was still of the ``page turning variety'', with students working in a ``tunnel'' from which they could not escape;

  • since scanned images are so much easier to use than carefully prepared vector graphics (diagrams) they are often used even if vector graphics would be more appropriate;

  • replacing the ``tunnel effect'' and ``page turning'' by arbitrary free navigation leads to ``getting lost in hyperspace'' and disorientation;

  • the use of images, video and audio clips increases data volume to an extent that network-based or floppy-based distribution becomes infeasible;

  • preparation of small packages is easy: indeed easy to the extent that even those who have never considered pedagogical or design issues suddenly believe themselves to be expert courseware designers;

  • it is not enough to prepare small courseware packages; large databases of reusable, maintainable, and customisable modules are also necessary;

  • courseware should be available both in stand-alone and networked mode;

Many of these points have already been solved by better, faster and cheaper computers and software. However, there are still some unsolved problems. One point which is, in my opinion, also very important, is the problem of softreading. Although computer screens are much better now and have better refresh rates, reading from a screen is still more tiring than reading from paper. There is a tremendous need for new screens which are big (bigger than notebook LCD screens), thin (thinner than CRT), light, cheap and of course have no edge flicker.