Computer Managed Instruction - Assignment Example

Computer Managed Instruction Project Outline and Research Question This project intends to discuss Computer Managed Instruction (CMI) systems and their features. Different CMI models will be discussed which have proved to be both educative and artificially intelligent softwares. The aim of this project is to help improve the learning process in educational institutions by providing an efficient and more reliable system for self-learning, and also to make recommendations for the government to deploy CMI models to improve the education system. This project will help assist teachers to be able to produce better educational programs; will enable students to carry out self-learning procedures; and, will also help organizations for employees’ training and education. The main question of this research is to discover whether CMI is applicable to the Saudi Arabian education system. Introduction Background Since the advent of sophisticated technological means, the educators have been trying to modify the instructional process with the help of technology. According to Baker (1978, p. 3), early 1960’s brought with it “new curricula, instructional models, and approaches to individualization” of instruction but the drawback with these instructional schemes was their poor management. An ideal classroom environment is so dynamic in which each student presents his own understanding and is comfortable with his own set of instructional materials. Thus, the teacher needs to organize instructional schemes in such a way that all students with their unique calibers are equally attended to. Before CMI, teachers would process instruction manually but that process was inefficient when it came to collecting and summarizing instructional data for management purposes. This was when the need was felt to construct a reliable, fast and user friendly system which would process and manage modified instruction. Thus, a shift was made toward computer-based data processing or more specifically CMI, which a lot of educators considered “as a reasonable model for the support of the management functions associated with the individualization of instruction” (Baker). What is CMI? CMI is one of the two types of computer based instructions; Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) is the other. CMI is an instructional scheme that makes use of the computer for obtaining learning resources and objectives, and to assess student performance, thus enabling the instructor to manage instruction in a more efficient way without having to get involved in the teaching process directly. In other words, there is no human interference. To be more precise, it helps the instructor in making effective instructional decisions by providing him with “diagnostic and prescriptive information” by making use of traditional data processing equipment (Prasad, 2005, p. 114). It includes functions that support the instructional management. These functions include “testing prescribing, record keeping, scheduling, monitoring and time and resource management” (Prasad). For the performance appraisal of the students at regular intervals diagnosis and testing is used. After the analysis of the results the student records are updated. The students are then suggested learning processes that are useful to accomplish their goals. Teachers who are assisting 50 or more students that are enrolled in two or more courses having 30 teaching-learning units per course, have almost 3000 media assignments to make (Vierling and Shivaram, 1970). The major role of CMI is to facilitate those teachers to manage these assignments. This increases the efficiency of the teachers and also the quality of instructions given to each student. CMI and ICT The concept of CMI is being used in the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools that are being used in educational institutions to provide the students with the most modern learning environment (Mee Chin, 2009). According to Kaka (2008), “education sector can be the most effective sector to anticipate and eliminate the negative impact of ICT. Technology (internet) in another side can be the most effective way to increase the student’s knowledge”. Students can be made familiar with computer aided simulations and educational games. The objectives of ICT in education are to incorporate latest technology based learning in schools, to endorse literacy about newer technologies in students, to support distance education, and to improve the teaching process by using latest techniques supported by ICT. The main functions of using CMI based ICT in education are the communication and collaboration of students in their activities and the wide availability of resources for teachers (Siraj-Blatchford & Siraj-Blatchford, 2006, p. 19). CMI versus CAI CAI applications require that the students interact a lot with the computer. Since, the volume of effort input is great, the CAI applications tend to very costly and time-consuming because their design, development and implementation require much consideration. That is why, CAI programs are used only for a short part of the total course curriculum that is otherwise taught in a very conventional way. Thus, educators prefer the implementation of CMI applications to manage instruction because these tend to be cheaper than CAI. Since CMI is a prevailing technique, the organizations can generate higher benefits with smaller investments of resources in CMI as compared to CAI. Therefore, for initiating computer-based leaning in an organization CMI is said to be the best way. CMI can be most effective and cost efficient approach to projects and performance problems in the actual scenario of human resource development. Features of CMI Sieber, O’Neil and Tobias (1977, p. 137) have defined the function of CMI system in the simplest way. They state: In a computer-managed instruction program the instruction itself is not presented by means of the computer. Rather, instructional materials consist of conventional printed or audiovisual materials. The student sets the pace, and the computer is used to monitor, and to some extent to direct progress through the use of noncomputerized instructional materials. They assert that the student using the CMI system is tested and diagnosed at several places during the whole instructional process so that his strengths and weaknesses may be discovered. The CMI system has this special feature to provide prescriptions to the student to remove any errors they made, and to plan how much and when the student is going to use the instructional resources. The students are evaluated on the basis of their performance and their records are kept and managed. That is why we refer to CMI systems as artificially intelligent systems. The main features of CMI are described below: Testing. Executing any new or revised program to check whether all data is processed properly Prescription generator. It is based on the comparison between completed training and competency requirements. Record keeping. The ability of recording students’ details, training history and skill profiles. How is Instruction Managed? The steps that are included in the management of instruction by CMI systems include diagnosis of entry behavior of the learners; setting of instructional objectives; generating individualized instructional plans; generating instructional materials and learning experiences; availability of instructional material into curriculum units; monitoring of progress; and, providing remedial instructions (Mangal, p. 541). Example of a CMI System- CHARLIE CHARLIE is an asynchronous computer-managed homework, assignment and response, learning and instruction environment. Basically, it was developed for engineering technology students studying at Buffalo State College (Barker, 2002). According to Barker, the main features of CHARLIE include: “individualized homework with graphics, course agenda, course syllabus, tutorials, lecture summaries, student bulletin board, laboratory descriptions, grades, and access to the Internet”. The main objectives of CHARLIE are to enhance student learning, shrink down homework grading, and provide alternative teaching processes. Some limitations of CHARLIE are multiple choice, graphical input, symbolic equations or unit conversions, since these are not supported by CHARLIE. But these limitations are temporary since up gradation is expected. However, there are many other tradeoffs to be taken into consideration before making any changes to CHARLIE. These are friendly computer interfaces, software and hardware reliability, system availability, server capability, cost, network bandwidth, student acceptance, user friendliness, simplicity, speed, resources and the printing loads. Feasibility of CMI in Central Asian Countries In the recent years, internet access has enabled people to gain information right from the comfort of their homes, and this has made distance-learning through web easier which is a blessing to students who live in remote areas of the world. Many websites have courses that the educational institutes are offering to remote students. Students can easily download lecture notes, can study web-based material or even attend web-lectures. The video lectures or seminars are even available on the web. But there are limitations to this kind of learning. For example, laboratories are essential for engineering courses so that the students can understand theoretical note which is not possible on the internet. The experiments available on the internet are computer simulations rather than real experiments (Asgharizadeh, Geshlajoughi & Mirmahalle, 2008). Project Summary In this project, I have introduced and discussed CMI systems and their exclusive features that make them preferable over any other type of instructional management process. CMI has eradicated the need for managing instruction through old conventional methods replacing the whole system by a more sophisticated and well developed computer based learning process with no teacher intervention. I have discussed why the need for CMI systems arose and how CMI make a basis for the development of ICT tools being deployed in education sector to improve learning. I compared CMI to CAI and analyzed the features of CMI. I supported my argument by the example of an already existing CMI system. In the end, I assessed the feasibility of deploying CMI systems in Central Asian countries after which I came to the conclusion that, by all means, the Saudi government should make efforts and take measures of deploying CMI systems in the education sector of Saudi Arabia. Although, Saudi Arabia has been making worthy efforts in implementing CAI models and ICT tools in the curricula, still there is need for improving it by the incorporation of more sophisticated features that are exclusively provided by the CMI systems. Thus, the research question has been answered. Project Plan In the next phase, I will make a model for CMI based on current research and then I will implement a demo application for my CMI model. My CMI model will feature all the characteristics that have been described in the above report. The application will be able to test and diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the students, will be able to schedule their use of instructional resources, will assess them on performance, and will be able to keep their record. For instructor use, my CMI application will be able to let the teacher decide which instructional program to proceed with which student, and the teacher will able to record his teaching schedule and teaching plans in the software. Additional features will be attended to while developing the model. References Asgharizadeh, E., Geshlajoughi, M. A. & Mirmahalle, S. (2008). Presentation of a blueprint for the development of education and a virtual university in iran, wireless communications, networking and mobile computing, WiCOM 08. 4th International Conference. pp. 1 – 7. Baker, FB. (1978). Introduction to CMI. Computer Managed Instruction: Theory and Practice. USA: Educational Technology. Barker, DS. (2002). CHARLIE: a computer-managed homework, assignment and response, learning and instruction environment. 27th Annual Conference, 3, pp. 1503-1509. Prasad, BK. (2005). Media and Social Life in India. India: Anmol Publications PVT. LTD. Kaka, S. (2008, July 25). The role of ICT in education sector. Very Kaka’s Community. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from http://verykaka.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/the-role-of-ict-in-education-sector.html Mangal, SK. (2009). Essentials Of Educational Technology. India: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Mee Chin, W. (2009). A computer managed instruction (CMI) based tool to support information systems instructional process. University of Malaya. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from http://dspace.fsktm.um.edu.my/handle/1812/256 Sieber, JE., O’Neil, HF. & Tobias, S. (1977). Computer-managed instruction. Anxiety, Learning, and Instruction. USA: Routledge. Siraj-Blatchford, I., & Siraj-Blatchford, J. (2006). Using technology for communication and collaboration. A Guide to Developing the ICT Curriculum for Early Childhood Education. United Kingdom, UK: Trentham Books. Vierling JS. & Shivaram, M. (1970). On-line computer managed instruction- the first step. Proceedings of the Fall Joint Computer Conference. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/AFIPS.1970.123 Read More