Student Use (and Non-Use) of Instructional Software

Abstract

After thirty years of failing to live up to the promises of its proponents, instructional technology has finally started to play an effective role in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education. Course web sites are routinely created with copies of lecture notes, multimedia supplements, and links to other relevant sites. Many textbooks now come bundled with CD-ROMs containing multimedia demonstrations, computational tools, and interactive tutorials, and texts that do not have such resources find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Students in courses delivered entirely with technology have begun to outperform students in traditional lecture-based courses, a trend that will most likely accelerate with time.