| Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) course material is widely developed at the primary, secondary, and collegiate levels, but is lacking in advanced professional training. Students in advanced professional training need assistance in organizing and synthesizing a complex knowledge base in an effective and efficient way. Successful cognitive strategies are important to students for their comprehension and achievement.;Two methods of presenting factual knowledge in an advanced professional topic were investigated and compared to determine which was more effective and more efficient. Course content presented by CAI was chosen as the experimental method, with conventional lecture as the comparison method. A comparison of cognitive learning strategies characteristics between the experimental and comparison groups was studied to determine if any significant difference existed when students received course material by these two methods.;The CAI program was developed on the MacIntosh IIci computer with HyperCard as the authoring language. Text and color images with course objectives and review questions were linked together in hypertext allowing either a guided mode or an exploratory mode of instruction.;The quasi-experiment was conducted during the 1991 Fall Semester. Volunteer subjects were third-year professional students in Veterinary Medicine at the Veterinary College at Texas A&M University. The 24 experimental subjects were paired with 24 comparison subjects by class ranking.;Paired t-tests were used to analyze the difference in means of the paired data. The comparison indicated no significant difference in achievement between CAI and conventional lecture. Comparison of the mean study times indicated a significant difference, with the experimental group using less study time.;Analysis of results on the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) found only one significant difference among fifteen characteristics of motivation and cognitive learning strategies between the experimental and comparison group of students: that difference was on the scale for elaboration.;It was recommended that professional courses, such as small animal dermatology, be conducted with CAI instead of conventional lecture. The CAI mode of presenting course material appears to be an effective and efficient method to study a complex knowledge base. |
