A Computer-Aided Management System in Distance Education.

This article describes the project known as CAVA, or Computerunterstiitzte Analyse und Vergabe von Aufgaben (‘computer-assisted analysis and assignment of tasks’) which is being promoted both by the German Federal Ministry of Culture and Science and by the government of North Rhine Westphalia. As well as constituting a model study of the possibilities of using the computer in distance learning, CAVA is also a model project of research into computer science in education. On the one hand, the problems of computerization at the micro-, intermediate and macro-levels are observable and, on the other, there is a clear demonstration of the methods of computer science in education, comprising the four stages of systems analysis, model construction, objectification and evaluation [i]. Furthermore every system of distance study, irrespective of its size and degree of complexity, can be regarded as a miniature model of the entire educational system, as is illustrated in Fig. i. Since each form of such study is highly organized, and arguably, represents an industrialized form of teaching and learning [2], one can find in it a strong pressure towards objectification of almost all processes, with the sole exception of the elementary learning in private study (including reading of the correspondence and the development of personal study techniques). This pressure to objectification is manifested by such typical characteristics of distance studies as a fixed sequence of study materials (clearly defined courses), new courses only after achievement of an intermediate goal, standardized correction and so on. As the computer is a universal and objectified simulation carrier and therefore capable of performing the individual functions of an objectified system, either completely or in part, the possibility of applying the computer in distance studies is a highly relevant topic for computer science in education.