Generative CAL and courseware abstraction

Courseware abstraction is an approach to CAL whereby the lesson author creates a general parameterised CAL lesson that is then applied to many concrete examples. This approach has the following advantages: • it provides a powerful framework within which to adapt tuition to a student’s knowledge and aptitude; • it encourages the development of detailed treatments of the subject matter; • it reduces the cost of lesson development as a ratio to student lesson time; and • it enables large numbers of examples to be made available for individual students. Generative CAL is an example of courseware abstraction. It is argued that the advantages of generative CAL do not arise directly from the generation of the examples to be examined but rather can be directly attributed to the use of courseware abstraction.