They use the Internet for e-mail and the Web to gain access to rapidly changing information. Almost everyone uses them for word processing, and many will admit using them to play games. Perhaps the optimum way of using computers with students is to use them as productivity tools, the way we use them. Studies of student use of CBI programs suggest that students often get lost, or disoriented, while navigating their way through the program. This isn't surprising because the author has watched a number of individuals get lost while demonstrating software they have written.
Navigation problems are often the result of programs that try to do too much.
Because they can link many topics, developers of software programs often believe that they should link these topics. Because of the time and effort that goes into writing a CBI program, they often have a stronger resemblance to the first draft of a textbook being considered for publication than they do to the third or fourth edition of a popular text. Imagine that you had a choice between software packages. Suppose that you could buy a program on organic substitution reactions that allowed the student to choose the substrate for the reaction, the entering group that attacks this substrate, the temperature of the reaction, and the solvent in which the reaction is run. The program then analyzed this information and helped the student decide whether the reaction was more likely to involve substitution or elimination.