By relating its use to the phase of investigation that goes before Analysis in the Software Lifecycle, the students appreciate to a greater degree what actually goes on in the early stages of System Development. The MERMoTT system is designed to support the teaching of the area as it provides a highly structured tutorial, whilst allowing the review of the subject matter during more extensive problem solving. Student confidence is increased as the system allows them to refer to all the information that is pertinent. MERMoTT makes use of simple CASE technology, text and video and early evaluations as to its efficacy are extremely favourable. The combination of video and the tools of Entity-relationship modelling provides cognitive links between the stages of System Analysis and puts the whole process into context.
Students can progress at their own pace and get feedback about their use of modelling skills.
Future work will focus upon extending the environment to support other notations and approaches found within the Analysis stage, as well as seeking to get a more complete evaluation of the current system. The CORE guided discovery approach to acquiring programming skills. Computers Education, Vol 18. 4 Watson, Deryn.