Foreword

When working within the artificial intelligence group at Control Data Corporation on advanced learning systems, a colleague questioned why we were using such powerful systems as Cray mega computers for adaptive learning programs and learning simulations. He understood why meteorology and military reconnaissance applications needed them, but why educational systems? Meteorology dealt with vast amounts of data and yet needed to predict future weather quickly. Airborne reconnaissance had to compare visual data from separate flights and perspectives to recognize which objects had moved and which hadn’t. But instruction?

Many people surmise yet today that instructional software can’t make much computing demand. How hard is it to present and score multiple-choice questions?