It really seems to boil down to how the software is used. I'm not sure how effective simply presenting the steps is, but some of the most well validated intelligent tutoring systems are built around simple algebra problems like these.

The big difference is that they test students on each step, and try to give useful feedback if they get a piece wrong.

(although, I just glanced at the wikipedia article for a tutoring system and it doesn't seem conclusive, so maybe I need to look again.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_tutor)