COGNITIVE STYLES AND FEEDBACK IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED-INSTRUCTION

Feedback during student practice is considered a fundamental component of well-designed computer-assisted instruction (CAI). This project focuses on the appropriate applications of feedback in a CAI lesson which teaches knowledge bases and concepts. The student's learning style/characteristics are a factor in the process. The project follows a 4 x 2 design which includes a pretest, intervention, posttest, and delayed posttest model. The factors of the design are feedback (KCR, KCRI, KOR, KORI) and learner characteristics (field dependent, field independent). The learners, freshmen cadets at the USAF Academy, were assigned to treatment groups via stratified random sampling. Stratification was based on pretest scores of prior knowledge and learner characteristics. The results of the primary intervention, level of feedback, were statistically significant, favoring increasing levels of information feedback. This article also provides instructors, instructional designers and authors of computer-assisted instruction useful methodologies for implementing the results in instructional products.