IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO. 3,AUGUST 2005 531 Investigating the Presentation and Format of Instructional Prompts in an Electrical Circuit Analysis Computer-Based Learning Environment Jana Reisslein, Robert K. Atkinson, Patrick Seeling, Student Member, IEEE, and Martin Reisslein, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—Research has shown that providing instructional prompts in computer-based learning environments designed to support example-based learning fosters learning. In computer- based environments, where learners interact only with a computer and do not have access to direct support from a teacher, learners need to be provided with instructional prompts or just-in-time help intended to encourage more active example processing during learning. This study investigated whether it was more beneficial to provide the learners access to on-demand (self-reg- ulated) help after they committed an error in problem solving or for the learning environment to regulate the presentation of instructional help externally. Furthermore, two different presen- tational formats—textual and pictorial—of instructional prompts were examined. This study was conducted with a computer-based learning environment that introduced high school students without any prior content-specific knowledge to the principles of parallel and series circuit analysis. Textual prompts facilitated practice problem solving notably better than pictorial prompts. Overall, textual-based prompts produced a large effect on near transfer. A significant format of prompts by academic ability interaction was discovered on near transfer. In particular, lower-ability learners scored significantly better when given textual prompts; whereas, their higher-ability counterparts performed equally well with both formats. Moreover, learners provided with externally regulated prompts reported significantly more positive attitudes toward the prompts in general compared to learners in the self-regulated con- ditions. Finally, continuous motivation was significantly stronger in learners who viewed textual prompts than in their counterparts in the pictorial prompt groups. Index Terms—Backward fading, computer-based learning envi- ronment, electrical circuit analysis, external control, high school, instructional prompts, learner control, pictorial format, textual format. I. INTRODUCTION AND RELATED WORK T HE computer-based instruction of electrical circuit anal- ysis techniques has received a significant amount of in- terest over the last decade (see [1]–[7]). This literature contains Manuscript received July 13, 2004; revised May 3, 2005. J. Reisslein and R. K. Atkinson are with the Division of Psychology in Educa- tion, Arizona State University, MC 0611, Tempe, AZ 85287-0611 USA (e-mail: jana.reisslein@asu.edu; Robert.Atkinson@asu.edu). P. Seeling and M. Reisslein are with the Department of Electrical Engi- neering, Arizona State University, MC 5706, Tempe, AZ 85287-5706 USA (e-mail: patrick.seeling@asu.edu; reisslein@asu.edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2005.852602 a wide variety of computer-based instruction and tutoring sys- tems with the aim to teach circuit-analysis techniques and to provide opportunities for practicing circuit analysis. Many of the developed systems interact with the learner to aid in im- parting the knowledge of the circuit analysis techniques and to provide feedback on learner input to practice problems. In the case of incorrect solutions the feedback is often accompanied by instructional prompts (help). These learner–program interac- tions are in the form of text and/or graphics and are controlled (presented) by the learner or the system. To the best of the au- thors’ knowledge the impact of both the format and the control (presentation) of the instructional prompts in circuit analysis tu- toring systems have not been previously examined in detail. This study extends the existing literature on computer-based instruc- tion of electrical circuit analysis in that it examines the impact of the presentation and the format of the instructional prompts in electrical circuit tutoring systems. This study is conducted in the context of a computer-based instructional module that introduces learners without any prior content-specific knowledge to the basic principles of parallel and series circuit analysis. The module is well suited for ex- posing and introducing high school students to electrical circuit analysis. The module’s pedagogical features (i.e., the presenta- tion and format of instructional prompts) are evaluated with high schools students. This evaluation is motivated by the increasing need to expose high school students [8] and home schooled stu- dents [9] to engineering in an effort to attract students to engi- neering programs at universities and colleges. Following recent research [10], [11] on the structure of com- puter-based instructional modules, a backward fading structure is employed, which has been demonstrated to have a positive ef- fect on learning. With the backward fading structure, the learner is initially presented with a fully worked-out example and in the next example all but the last of the problem sub-goals (so- lution steps) are worked out, and the learner is required to solve (anticipate) independently the solution of the missing problem sub-goal. In the subsequent example all but the last two problem sub-goals are worked out, and the learner is required to antici- pate the solutions to the two missing problem subgoals, and so on, until the learner is required to anticipate the solutions for all problem sub-goals (independent problem solving). Recent re- search has also found that instructional prompts in computer- 0018-9359/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE