This article critically examines the literature reviews of computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Its purpose is to synthesize what is known about CAI at all levels of implementation. Sixteen reviews, three traditional and thirteen quantitative, are compared and evaluated. Results of the synthesis indicated that typical effect of CAI is to raise outcome measures moderately by 0.42 standard deviation units. Thus, the effect of CAI is to place the average student using it at the 66th percentile of the control group distribution.
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