The CAI Software Development Of Engineering Thermodynamics And Its Application

A multimedia computer assistant instruction of "Engineering Thermodynamics" was designed with Authorware and Delphi,which are popular tools at present. Developing and applying of multimedia computer assistant instruction are one of the most primary of Computer Aided Instruction (CAI). It achieves the educational purpose by integrating words, figures, images, sound, animation etc. and interaction between computer and user, whose medium is computer. Arrangement of the course contents and the process of developing courseware are introduced in the paper in detail. The most important steps in developing the CAI includes: 1) to refine and generate the fundamental knowledge, the difficult and important points. 2) to chose appropriate multimedia to show these contents. It is proved that multimedia technology can display contents better. About the process of programming, the methods and ideas of "self-testing" program design are mainly introduced. In fact, this part is the difficult part to test the knowledge grasped by the user after studying. Here, the database and the connection of database and the main program are involved.The purpose of the courseware is to show the related contents with multimedia lively and immediately, according to the educational outline of "Engineering Thermodynamics" which can improve teaching and studying, initiating the study interest of the students, strengthening the understanding to master the contents more deeply, and finally enhancing the study efficient. Some important conclusions are made during the course of developing the courseware.