Evaluating a courseware

Everybody knows that technology is an essential part of today’s educational environment, however effectively implementing it into the classroom is another story. Evaluating these resources then becomes crucial. The technological resources used in class, which go from lectures to the latest educational software and telecommunications, are called courseware. In the next lines, you´ll find some important information to take into account about the evaluation of courseware.

There are several ways in which a courseware can be evaluated although one of the best ways is by studying the results it had on its users. An evaluation of a course can go from an informal interview made to the teachers to a big scale research including all the parts involved.  One of the most important elements of the collection of data is the question.  It is important to know what you expect to find out if you what to discover it. The question not only has to ask for what you are looking for but it doesn´t have to be answered by itself, as for example: Are books good for learning? 

Employing open ended observations and question will make the data collected more useful and trustable, since they disclose unforeseen issues. The investigator experience in the field is also another asset when conducting an investigation. The more experience on the field, the more knowledge about possible raising issues. Experience makes better questions and strategies. 

Getting a good courseware requires plenty of resources. These resources are time, money, experience, skills, etc. however the most important resources are planning and management. The evaluation of the course has to be plan in a way in which, it can be tested by its users before the final version is released.  This gives the opportunity to make any amendment needed to it. Testing it with its users is not only important with the creation of a new courseware but also for the implementation of an existing one.

Experts provide excellent feedback about courseware, as well as the feedback given by teachers. Yet a more instructive opinion can be obtained by the final users, the students. The best way to obtain the users feedback is in the spot with personal observations and interviews rather than by filling up a questioner.  Something to keep in mind when gathering the learners experience is to avoid asking for the way they felt by using the material. Although, it is important, it is not so important as to measure what they actually learned. The information gather, then has to determine how well and fast students can acquired the skills taught by the courseware.

The evaluation of a courseware can be made by systematic surveys or by surprise detection. In spite of being well plan and thought, a systematic survey can lack the surprise factor, which can lead to discover unforeseen issues. For this reason, it is recommended to include in an evaluation both elements: fixed measures, to evaluate data using specific questions and open-ended questions to detect surprises.

Evaluation classified by aim 

Evaluations are also classified depending on their aim. This classification is made in four categories, which are: Formative Evaluation, Summative Evaluation, Illuminative Evaluation, and Integrative evaluation.

Formative Evaluation is about helping to improve the design of the CAL. This means that the evaluation takes place while it is still possible to make any improvement to the courseware. Open-ended questions are used within this type of evaluation.

Summative Evaluation helps the users to choose the best option. This method uses the opinion of other users and reports the result to possible users.       In other words it tells potential consumers what to buy.

Illuminative Evaluation takes into account the opinions and feelings of                the teachers and students. It closely monitors the development of the courseware and what out for any unexpected issue. Making the correct questions will determine the outcome of the investigation.

The integrative evaluation, on the other hand, aims for the best use of a courseware. It evaluates what are the necessary tools to make the best of it.     

Choose the best approach  

The approach being used to evaluate will depend on the desire result. There are four of them which are the following ones: the checklist approach uses a set of well structure questions that help to develop a courseware based on good structures.

The participants’ feel approach looks to gather the users` opinions rather than an expert´s point of view; however it is too difficult not to collect the users` feelings in the process. This means that the actual learning evaluation could be neglected or less taken into account than the users` feelings. The users` feelings shouldn´t be ignore but they shouldn´t be the principal goal of the evaluation either.

Addressing the whole situation means that the evaluation takes into account the environment where it is being developed. What it implies is that an evaluation conducted successfully in one situation could not work in anther where the conditions aren´t the same.

The experimental approach evaluates the courseware against other reasonable alternatives. This approach has two characteristics. First, it is time and money consuming. Second the results of the interviews could depend on external factors, as for example, the enthusiasm the teacher gives to one or the other method. This makes the result subject of criticism.

The best approach could be, at the end, a combination of the above mention depending on the needs of the project. For further information about courseware evaluation visit this link

Source:  Draper S. -Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative -http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/implementing-it/measure.htm -First Published: July 1996. -Consulted on: Aug 27, 2013

Be creative in every task!

Being creative can be hard sometimes. We may lack the necessary inspiration to create something or simple considered ourselves not skillful at it. Creativity, nevertheless help as to improve our lives and learning how to boost it will give as a more enjoyable life experience. This blog intends to give you some tips to improve your homework appearance. 

This video shows what creativity is, however if you aren´t a very imaginative person, here you have some tips you can use to start doing some creative things with your university assignments.

•     Think in a concept for your homework related to the main topic.

•     Visualize how you would want it to look like.

•     Search for images and topics related to your idea.

•     Take as an example those ideas seen and combine them.

•    Don’t loose your focus, you can combine as many ideas as you want in a project but always watching for consistency along it.

•  Sometimes just imitating what others already did will give you the inspiration you are looking for. 

I Hope it works for you as much as it has worked for me.