The main purpose of this study is to design a "Courseware Development Model" (CDM) and investigate its effects on pre-service teachers' academic achievements 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 the control group, 28 pre-service teachers in the meaningful learning theory group-ML, and 30 pre-service teachers in GTC group that uses geography teaching courseware-GTC based on the CDM. The results of the analysis indicate that the courseware is quite effective, improving pre-service teachers' academic achievements as well as their ATCBE scores. The results also suggest that the new model has an appropriate structure for courseware design. (Contains 7 tables and 4 figures.)