Abstract
In general, Computer Aided Learning (CAL) is the term given to software applications in which a computer is used to partially replace the function of a human instructor in the education or training of a learner/student. CAL is not limited to a particular field in education or constraint to a specific subject matter. The primary goal of CAL is to convey pre-defined theory/concepts to student so as to allow him/ her to understand and apply gained knowledge at work place. A CAL application offers the student a structured method of obtaining information as well as using the computer as navigational and information retrieval medium. CAL can therefore be thought of as a front end to a large information database. Early CAL packages offered the user information in the form of pages of text only. As technology evolved, applications started to present information using a wide range of media formats, including high-resolution graphics, narration, and even interactive video (Marshall, 1988). Hence the combination of one or more electronic media is subsequently known as multimedia.
TopIn general, the production of an effective interactive multimedia CAL package requires subject expertise, computing, authoring and modeling, and teaching skills. In the early days, developers had limited computing/programming skills and hence the resulting packages were often useful for teaching and testing factual knowledge but not good enough to promote learning and understanding. Attempts to overcome these shortcomings have been resource intensive and there is a need for a cost effective way of developing interactive multimedia CAL packages. Although there are a wide variety of interactive multimedia CAL packages in the market, there is considerable discussion and concern on the suitability of these packages in various education settings (Cairnscross, 2002).