[[alternative]]A Study and Evaluation on “The Atom Structure and the Periodic Table ” Web-based CAI System

[[abstract]]The main purpose of this study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the web-based chemistry teaching materials in the chapter of “The Atom Structure and the Periodic Table”. Some differences between web-based material and traditional textbook are discussed in this research. The development the hypertext courseware was based on the scheme of the instructional hypertext and the suggestions on the “The Atom Structure and the Periodic Table”. Empirical research was carried out in order to evaluate its effectiveness. 175 private senior high school students were selected by purposeful sampling, and joined the pre-test, self-study on the chapter and post-test. In addition, the students who studied the hypertext courseware were questionnaire their opinions about the software. The result of the pre-test showed that the controlled group and the experimental group didn’t have significantly outperformances with each other. Otherwise, the students' prior knowledge level was classified according to the pre-test. The result of the post-test indicated that the students who study the hypertext courseware didn’t outperformed those who study the lecture text significantly. Only the students of high prior knowledge made significantly outperformance in the hypertext courseware than in the lecture text. The empirical research result suggested that students with higher prior knowledge get high benefits in the hypertext courseware. The large amount of pictures in hypertext courseware could raise the interesting in learning this chapter. However, some misconceptions such as “ H atom structure” and “Ionization energy” still rooted in students. In addition, the questionnaires revealed that the students who study the hypertext courseware responded positively to the program and considered it a great deal aid in learning this lesson. However, they suggested more efforts should be made to increase the interaction and in the perfection of the appearance design.