COMPUTERS & EDUCATION, vol.59, no.2, pp.687-700, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
The main purpose of this study is to design a "Courseware Development Model" (CDM) and investigate its effects on pre-service teachers' academicachievements in the field of geography and attitudes toward computer-based education (ATCBE). The CDM consisted of three components: content (C), learning theory, namely, meaningful learning (ML), and multimedia (M). The CDM is designed to show the synthesis of the C and M components under ML In this study, an experimental design including pre-test and post-test groups is used to define the efficiency of the CDM. There are 31 pre-service teachers in thecontrol group, 28 pre-service teachers in the meaningful learning theory group-ML, and 30 pre-service teachers in GTC group that uses geography teachingcourseware-GTC based on the CDM. The results of the analysis indicate that the courseware is quite effective, improving pre-service teachers' academicachievements as well as their ATCBE scores. The results also suggest that the new model has an appropriate structure for courseware design. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.