NICHE-BASED SUCCESS IN CAL

In reflecting on which pieces of computer-assisted learning (CAL) stan d out as strikingly successful, this paper argues that there are no ge neralizations about what features of technology or software type makes a piece of CAL successful, but that on the contrary the most definite successes seem to come from a close fit between a piece of courseware and its situation of use that is specific to that niche. These are us ually cases where a teacher analysed what was particularly weak in an existing situation and thought of how technology could be used to addr ess that bottleneck. Often the technology is not particularly innovati ve, but it is a close match to the needs of that niche. This paper dev elops this argument by reference to a number of pieces of software whi ch have little in common with each other, but all of which have proved to promote learning powerfully. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.