ABSTRACT
Although systematic approaches to identifying and measuring learning and its outcomes can be traced back to over 400 years, most of the significant developments have occurred in only the last 50 years. Skinner's (1953) maxim that reinforcement was a necessary condition for learning was the catalyst for substantial research and development into programmed learning and its corollary the 'systems' approach to training. This model identified the behavioural components of stimulus control and the reinforcement processes of discrimination, generalisation, associations, and chaining into an analytical procedure for analysing tasks into constituent objectives with conditions and standards for prescribing acceptable performance. The fervour for the 'systems approach' in the late 1950s and early 1960s shared many parallels with today's messianic belief in the educative power of web-based learning.
