Adaptive Program vs. Learner Control Strategy on Computer Aided Learning of Gravimetric Stoichiometry Problems

The present study was designed to determine the relative effectiveness of two control strategies: learner control (LC) vs. adaptive program control (PC), in computer aided learning (CAL). The LC strategy allowed learners to decide on the learning sequence of the four tasks and the number of practice examples to work on their own. The PC strategy allowed them to work on an easy to difficult task sequence with the number of examples prescribed. A set of four CAL tasks developed and used involved four conceptual rules of converting (a) mole to mole, (b) mole to mass, (c) mass to mole, and (d) mass to mass units in gravimetric stoichiometry. Thirteen LC and 13 PC grade 11 students worked on the four tasks. LC students attempted significantly more practice examples for longer time than PC students, but less successfully. The less than optimal learning performance seems to be most likely due to the undisciplined sequencing of the tasks. The general and specific self-rating intended as indexing learners’ metacognitive skill did not predict any learning performance except for the actual problem solving. PC students significantly outperformed LC students in terms of accuracy on the immediate post test. Further, on the delayed-test, PC students got more items correct, but generally took longer than LC learners. It is concluded that LC is less effective CAL control strategy than PC.