IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HUMAN, FACTORS IN ELECTRONICS, VOL. IHFE-8, NO. 2, JUNE 1967

The Development of Computer-Assisted InstructionGUSTAVE J. RATH, SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE

Abstract-Development of computer-assisted instruction (CAI)at the IBM Research Center, the Decision Sciences Laboratory ofHanscom Air Force Base, the Systems Development Corporation,the University of Illinois, and Bolt Beranek and Newman is re-viewed. This review covers the period 1958-1961.

INTRODUCTION

T HIS PAPER is directed toward covering the de-velopment of the general purpose high-speed elec-tronic computer as a teaching device. Teaching

may be defined as the process by which one more or lesspermanently modifies the behavior of a student. Teach-ing occurs through the presentation of material, withsuitable motivation, which contains information to addto or modify the student's measurable cognitive, affec-tive, or psychomotor behaviors. The behavior should bedirectly related to a set of previously establishedobjectives. Special purpose devices, as Pask's teaching de-vices, 151 or trainers and simulators,t1 are excluded asthey do not use computers of the kind specified.Between the initiation of the work at the IBM Re-

search Centert16] and the publication of Coulson'sbook,t81 the first efforts in using computers to teachevolved. Coulson presents five papers which represent theactive programs of the following organizations as ofOctober 12, 1961: University of Illinois, Bolt Beranekand Newman, the Systems Development Corporation,the IBM Research Center, and Ramo-Wooldridge. It isinteresting to note that all of these organizations, exceptfor Ramo-Wooldridge, are still very active in CAI. Moresignificant is that Coulson and Bitzer are still with thesame organizations and still pursuing CAI.This paper is concerned with revealing the sources and

the originators of computer-assisted instruction (CAI)in this formative period. It will discuss in sequence theevents at the IBM Research Center, the Decision Sci-ences Laboratory, Bolt Beranek and Newman, the Uni-versity of Illinois, and the Systems Development Corpo-ration. The order of presentation will be somewhatarbitrary, as all the events discussed occurred within avery short period of time of each other.

THE BEGINNING OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONAT IBM

Stemming from a challenge from Prof. W. McGill,then at Columbia University, to some members of theIBM Research Laboratories, the thought of using a

Manuscript received December 15, 1966; revised January 5,1967.The author is with the Dept. of Industrial Engineering and

Management Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.

general purpose digital computer to teach was probablyfirst conceived. Within the same time period, severalother important events occurred. R. Kurkjian, who wasthe head of the IBM Research Computing Center atOssining, N. Y., offered the IBM 650 for man-machineresearch. Within the Psychology Department an interestin using a computer as a real-time on-line device wasgrowing. The IBM 650 typewriter console was available(Fig. 1) without modification, for this type of applica-tion. The IBM Electric Typewriter Division had a con-tract with B. F. Skinner to develop a teaching machinefor him using his patents.Skinner developed this teaching machine to teach

arithmetic. It was an all-mechanical device in which oneentered characters through a series of sliders, and thenone turned a handle to enter them. This was subse-quently used by Miss Susan Meyer[143 in her researchwith Skinner. Members of the Psychology Departmentfelt that as the IBM executive office often requestedinformation directly from departments, this new areamight come under scrutiny. The decision to carry outsimulation of a teaching machine on a computer wouldlead to a better understanding of phenomena in casesuch an inquiry occurred. This led to the choosing of ateaching machine simulation instead of the humanprediction of Markov chains or the analysis of com-plex motor responses, both of which had also been underconsideration.Thus it came to be that the first computer teaching

system was programmed, designed, and conducted byMiss N. S. Anderson, R. Brainard, and G. J. Rath in1958. The first program was dedicated to teaching binaryarithmetic. The work was first presented publicly at theAFOSR sponsored meeting, run by P. Dittman at theUniversity of PennsylvaniaJ.':]Binary arithmetic was chosen for this teaching experi-

ment because it was usually the first step taught in com-puter programming courses. It was felt that teachingcomputer programming on a computer was a logicalapproach to the training of programmers. Delivering acomputer which would teach the user how to operate andprogram it seemed a worthwhile goal. An analysis ofseveral of the current texts showed that the first step ofteaching binary arithmetic was to teach the additiontable. Figure 2 illustrates this key table. Several methodsof computer teaching were simulated manually withKings College students. They were taught binary arith-metic by Anderson and Rath in individual sessions. Theexperimenter wrote on the blackboard the problems, in-structions, and reinforcements. It turned out to be avery difficult process because the students could not

60

BIRATH: DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION

1 1 0 1+

1 o 1 1

00

01

1

Fig. 3. The effect of the lack of backspacing on problem layout.

Fig. 1. IBM 650 with typewriter.

+ 0 1 10 110 0 1

O 1 10 11

1 1 10 11 10010 10 11 100 101

11 11 100 101 110

Fig. 2. Binary addition table.

inductively learn that as 1 + 1 is 10 and then generalizeto 10 + 10 is 100. After analysis and observation of theirresponses, it was determined that the main problemconsisted of not knowing the positional notation. Onceit was understood that the problem was the positionalnotation, the concept of teaching it by shaping countingresponses was developed. The procedure started withcounting in decimal, eliminating one digit at a timeuntil they were counting in binary. It seemed to workwell in the trial practices. It was therefore adopted as

the key technique before computation was taught. Hav-ing been taught to count in binary both upwards anddownwards, the rest of the steps followed easily. Thedetails of how this was taught are described in Rath,Anderson, and Brainard.['6]One of the more significant features of this program

is that all the material was stored in the computer anda large number of the stimuli were generated. The al-gorithms for generating problems used were very simple.For example, the general form of A + B = C for part ofthe addition sequence was used. A was pseudo-randomlypicked within a certain range of values and B was

picked within the same on another range. A and B were

added, the C stored, and A + B presented to the student.Then, when the response was processed, it was comparedto the computed answer C. The response was analyzedas correct or incorrect. Appropriate feedback was givento the student and another problem was generated withthe algorithm. If the student met the advance criterionor fell below the minimum criterion, then an appropri-ately harder or easier set of problems was chosen. In this

Fig. 4. The IBM 1510 console of the IBM 1500 system.

manner, many students working simultaneously maynever have the same problem at the same time.The computer teaching system had severe man-

machine problems because of hardware limitations. Thelack of a computer backspace made computation likeaddition very awkward (Fig. 3). The subsequent devel-opment of adequate man-machine interfaces like CRT,light pencils, and communication keyboards have solvedmany of these problems. It is interesting to see a lightpencil, keyboard, CRT, slide projection, and head set ofthe IBM 1500 shown in Fig. 4. It is also amusing to notethat a bi-quinary machine was being used to teach bi-nary arithmetic.

Starting in 1958, a teaching machine was proposed byUttal for teaching arithmetic. An arithmetic tutor, ulti-mately built in 1960, was used in the sixth grades of theYorktown Heights school system to teach multiplicationskills. Results showed that in six weeks the group trainedmoved from the bottom group to the top group. Miss L.Cook was a major contributor, working with Uttal onthis project. This program became a major input to thenext phase at the IBM Research Center.

In 1960, E. Montroll, Director of the General SciencesDepartment, agreed to salvage an IBM 650 which wasbrought to the Mohansic Laboratories for work oncomputer-assisted instruction under the direction ofW. Uttal, W. Koppitz, and R. Grubb. These programswere on stenotyping, German, and statistics. Miss L.Selfridge developed the time-sharing system and was amajor contributor to the COURSEWRITER language.[12J Sixmultiple terminals were installed, including an audiorandom access memory and a 1000 slide projector. (SeeUttalU221 for system description.)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HUMAN FACTORS IN ELECTRONICS, JUNE 1967

THE BEGINNING OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AT

THE DECISION SCIENCES LABORATORIES (PREVIOUSLYOAL)' AT HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE

The development of SAGE, which involved one of thefirst major applications of a computer as a center of aman-machine information system, led to the needs forcapabilities of training and education. Since 1957, per-sonnel under the direction of Miss Mayer were develop-ing training techniques. A special purpose teaching ma-chine was constructed and used to teach operators in theuse of controls, displays, and handbooks of Semi-Auto-matic Ground Environment (SAGE) air defense systems.The concept of training within SAGE was important intwo ways: 1) system exercising, which has been de-scribed elsewhere,[41 deals with training teams to worktogether, and 2) using computers to generate and runthe problems. The latter does not follow the spirit ofcomputer-assisted instruction as it is designed accordingto operational, not educational, criteria. The LINKtrainer is a classic example of this class of training. Theinstructor, not the programs, runs the training. Theseare team-training processes similar to those first devel-oped for the Air Defense Command by the early workat the Rand Corporation by Chapman, Kennedy, Newell,and Biel. [7] Miss Mayer, after hearing about the IBMsystem in 1958, entered into negotiating to support IBMresearch. The work was to develop a CAI terminal de-vice. The proposal was ultimately rejected because a feecould not be negotiated.The first major computer teaching project at Decision

Sciences Laboratory (DSL) involved the development ofan inquiry language for the 473-L system. This involvedredesign and a demonstration of a program instructioncourse for the teaching of the inquiry language. For rea-sons beyond the control of the education personnel, thisprogram has not been subsequently implemented; AIRwas the major contractor on this activity.The central DSL mission involved the study of infor-

mation systems of all types. Computer instruction in-volved one application of these general techniques. Otherapplications involved Bayesian decision making, infor-mation displays for computer control systems, decision-making studies, audition, and other problems of humancommunication.The development of software, the acquisition of a

PDP-1 computer, and the assistance of Bolt Beranek andNewman led to the establishment of an experimentalprogram to study the learning process with the use ofcomputer system instruction. This work which involvedJ. Baker, W. Organist, Betty Nichols, E. Shuford, and,again, Sylvia Mayer, developed software, CRT-light-pentechniques, and other products which will ultimately beappearing in computer teaching.

Operations Applications Laboratories.

THE BEGINNING OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONAT BOLT BERANEK AND NEWMAN

At Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), under thedirection of J. C. R. Licklider, E. Fredkin worked on thecomputing system., D. Pew on the programming, withT. Marril, P. Dittman, and J. Silvers also participatingin this project. They were all concerned with studyingcomputer teaching because of their educational and aca-demic interests. The parallel BBN interest in time-shar-ing and computer systems interacted very strongly withthese interests.

In 19,59, BBN got an LGP-30. Licklider suggested thatthis computer could be programmed as a teaching ma-chine, and Fredkin programmed on it a foreign languagevocabulary teaching program. He modified a compiler towork with a sophisticated software system in which,depending on the improvement of the learning, reinforce-ments were chosen from a table. Motor responses wereused. The first public discussion of this activity was in aproposal submitted to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.A summary of some of this work is in LickliderJ.131

This led J. Swets who was interested in the recognitionof sounds, to apply it to sonar detection. 211 Using a parttask approach, he programmed the PDP-1 to generatesounds. In this approach, the student would first listento synthetically generated sounds, then he would be pre-sented a sound and have to identify it, and finally hewould hear the sound he had picked followed by thecorrect sound. This gave knowledge of results in a novelway. The generation and evaluation of behavior usingdigital to analog converter was an important factor inthis work.

THE BEGINNING OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AT

THE SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONThe Systems Development Corporation's (SDC) mis-

sion has been programming air defense training systemsfor SAGE and other systems. In 1958, they were con-cerned with systems training for the Air Force. L. Carter,head of the training group, thought R & D for programinstruction should be important. H. Silberman(171' [18] andJohn Coulson et al.['0° started work in program instruc-tion. Their visit to IBM accelerated the conversion oftheir research to computer-assisted instruction, whichwas natural because of the training techniques that hadbeen used with the SAGE system. Systems training hadinvolved the use of the computer to generate and displayproblems. The original work they had done was on asequence dependent on student responses, which leads to,obviously, a computerized structuring. This was done ata Santa Monica School using a wooden screen and anexperimenter to simulate a computer. By this manualsimulation they studied a teaching computer capable ofanalysis and branching. CAI was looked into and soona Bendix G-15 was used for the system. Bushnell joinedthe group that developed the CLASS computer whichhas been well documented.J5, 19]

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RATH: DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION

THE BEGINNING OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTIONAT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

In 1960, a committee to look into the possibility ofusing computers for teaching involving psychology-edu-cation-engineering was established at the University ofIllinois. Twenty or thirty participants meeting once a

week for six weeks were involved. This committee con-

cluded that nothing could be done or should be doneabout using computers to teach because of the widedisagreement between its members. This report was sentto D. Albert, before being forwarded to the Dean ofEngineering. Albert then called in D. L. Bitzer and P. G.Braunfeld giving them two days to comment on thisproposal. They in turn suggested that there was some-

thing to do, especially in the area of sorting and track-ing student behavior. They suggested that the computerwould cover some key student behavior in the lesson andthat the lesson taught should be technological. The firstproposal was to teach computer programming. The firstwork on the PLATO system by Bitzer and Braunfeld 2]

was under the supervision of C. Sherwin, with one

technician and one programmer assisting. In the middleof the summer of 1960, for two months, the first terminalconnected to the ILLIAC I was operating and teachinghigh school mathematics. In October, six months afterthe original meetings, a time-sharing system was in-stalled for a two-month demonstration.

CONCLUSIONS

The development of the high speed digital conmputerhas led to the development of hardware, software, andsome instructional sequences. The premises and problemsseen and reported in Coulson[81 [9] are relatively un-

changed. Major improvements, such as those reportedin Bitzer et al.[31 and the development of the IBM 1500,have occurred in the new languages, like APL which iscurrently being developed at SRA, and AUTHOR devel-oped by Stolurow, are among those projects makingheadway in the software area. Widespread application atan operational school system level, like the experimentalefforts of Suppes,'191 is just beginning. Whether com-

puter-assisted instruction will be an expensive toy or a

63

central contribution to education will be seen in thecoming years.

REFERENCES[1] W. C. Biel, "Training programs and devices," in Psychologi-

cal Principles in System Development, R. Gagne, Ed. NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962, pp. 343-386.

[2] D. L. Bitzer, P. G. Braunfeld, and W. W. Lichtenbergh,"PLATO II: multiple student computer-controlled automatic teach-ing device," in Programmed Learning and Computer-Based In-struction, J. E. Coulson, Ed. New York: Wiley, 1962, pp. 205-216.

[3] D. L. Bitzer, B. L. Hicks, R. L. Johnson, and E. R. Lyman,"The PLATO system: current research and developments," thisissue, page 64.

[4] R. Boguslaw and E. H. Porter, "Team functions and train-ing," in Psychological Principles in System Development, R.Gagne, Ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962.

[5] D. D. Bushnell, "Computers in the classroom," DATAProcessing Magazine. Detroit American Data Processing, Inc.,April 1962.

[8] D. D. Bushnell and D. W. Allen, Eds., The Computer inAmerican Education. New York: Wiley (in press).

[7] R. L. Chapman, J. L. Kennedy, A. Newell, and W. C. Biel,"The System Research Laboratory's air defense experiments," inSimulation in Social Science, H. Guetzkow, Ed. EnglewoodCliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962, pp. 172-188.

['] J. E. Coulson, Ed., Programmed Learning and Computer-Based Instruction. New York: Wiley, 1962.

U9] , "A computer-based laboratory for research in develop-ment and education," ibid., pp. 191-204.

[10] J. E. Coulson et al., "Effects of branching in a computer-controlled autoinstructional device," J. Appl. Psych., no. 46, pp.389-392, 1962.

[M] E. H. Galanter, Ed., Automatic Teaching: The State of theArt. New York: Wiley, 1959.

[12] IBM 1401 or 1440 Operating System Computer-Assisted In-struction, Form C24-3253-0, Endicott, N. Y., 1964.

[13] J. C. R. Licklider, "Preliminary experiments in computer-aided teaching," op. cit.,[8] pp. 217-239.

[14] S. R. Meyer, "A program in elementary arithemetic:present and future," op. cit.,[P] pp. 117-130.

[15] G. Pask, "The control of learning in small subsystems of aprogrammed educational system," this issue, page 88.

[16] G. J. Rath, N. S. Anderson, and R. Brainard, "The IBMResearch Project," op. cit.,[11] pp. 117-130.

[17] H. F. Silberman, R. J. Melaragno, and J. E. Coulson, "Con-firmation and prompting with connected discourse material,"Psych. Repts., no. 9, pp. 235-238, 1961.

[18] H. F. Silberman, R. J. Melaragno, J. E. Coulson, and D. P.Estavan, "Fixed sequence versus branching auto-instructionalmethods," J, Educ. Psych., vol. 52, pp. 166-172, 1961.

[19] P. Suppes, "The uses of computers in education," ScientificAmerican, vol. 215, pp. 206-223, September 1966.

[I] , "The computer and costs," Saturday Review ofLiterature, p. 48, January 14, 1967.

[M] J. A. Swets, S. H. Milliner, W. E. Fletcher, and D. M.Green, "Learning to identify non-verbal sounds: an application ofa computer as a teaching machine," J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol. 34,pp. 918-935, 1962.

122] W. R. Uttal, "On conversational interaction," op. cit.,U]pp. 171-190.