AbstractComputer-assisted instruction (CAI) has long been used to facilitate teaching and learning in academic institutions. The slow growth in the use of CAI can be attributed to a number of factors. Paramount among these are the lack of intelligence in most traditional CAI, and the lack of very high-level programming tools which allow experienced teachers to develop quality courseware quickly and comparatively inexpensively. This paper describes a prototype expert system construction environment for developing CAI programs having an expert system architecture. With such an environment, the development of a CAI program would entail merely the construction of a knowledge base for a subject domain. Examples are used to highlight certain features of the underlying CAI. Such an expert system approach to CAI development is cost-effective, and the underlying CAI has innovative applications in the educational arena and can forgo some of the drawbacks of traditional CAI.