CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE

I.       Evaluating Instructional Content

1.       What are the goals and objectives of courseware?

·      Are they clearly stated in somewhere?

·      How will does the courseware meet them?

·      Do they fit into your curriculum?

2.       Is it good instruction?

·       Is the content will matched to the learner’s ability level?

·       Is it accurate?

·       Is it significant?

·       Does the lesson have clear and adequate directions?

·       If offline support materials are needed, are they present and significant?

·       If necessary, is there a teacher’s manual/handbook?

II.    Evaluating Programming characteristics

1.         Check basic screen displays

·       Are text and information clearly displayed?

·       Is everything easy to read? Are they in simple and understandable language?

·       Are on screen direction for using the program clear?

·       Is the program clear and logical in the way it presents information?

·       Is it easy to visualise where you are in the lesson at ant given point?

2.         Check graphics and other special features

·       Are graphs self explanatory?

·       Do they contribute meaningfully to instruction?

·       Are they animated? If so does that contribute to instruction? Does it take up too much time?

·       Is the graphic effect attractive and interesting till the end of the lesson?

·       Repeat the above for sound colour and any other effects?

3.         Check user friendliness

·       When you run the courseware, does it execute all the way through without errors?

·       Try to break it. Can u do it?

·       Does it require coded input of any kind?

·       Can a student get stuck?

What happens if u enters wrong answer several times in a row?