ABSTRACT
The use of computers in education and training has been greatly influenced by the history of their introduction into universities, colleges and industry, and by their use in applications other than education and training. Teaching people about computers uses a substantial amount of computer time and, traditionally, research and teaching computing together account for most of the computing activities in higher education. Training commonly uses criterion-referenced testing which seeks to establish whether the student has achieved specified objectives. The early view of the computer as a machine which could help the available teaching staff to deal with greater numbers of students is changing to a realisation that the technology, properly applied, offers the possibility of improving the quality of learning. The early development of computer assisted instruction in North America, and later in Europe and the Soviet Union, was largely in response to unfavourable staff-student ratios.
