Computer-Assisted Instruction, Research, and the Writing Process: 'Well, It Looks Good, But Can It...?'

A successful program of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in composition will require collaboration between writing teachers and computer experts. Although programs can be carefully evaluated prior to their purchase, the effectiveness of a composition CAI program can be judged only after conducting empirical research with specific student populations, and until substantial research on the CAI program used in a writing program is conducted, instructors cannot know what its ultimate value will be. Such research must answer the following questions: (1) Does this CAI program guide students through the composing process? (2) Does it provide a useful supplement to classroom instruction? (3) Does it have an effect on students' writing attitudes? (4) Is the program more effective in teaching some rhetorical tasks than others? and (5) Will it encourage students to write more? Each school or university must develop its own set of test instruments to answer these questions. One college used four types of instruments for collecting evaluative data on its own CAI program--questionnaires for teachers and students; a survey of student attitudes with pretests and posttests and a control group; student narratives of their experiences with CAI; and a limited collection and an analysis of protocols comparing the composing processes of students who have used the CAI program with those who have not. (HTH)