Um ambiente de apoio à seleção de software educativo

Abstract

Nowadays, because of the intense development of educational software (ES), the task of selecting these tools by professors for their use in the classroom has become harder. We argue in this paper that, even with the large number of evaluation strategies available, they are not effectively applied in the selection based on the comparison of the characteristics of such tools. Therefore, we present a new methodology for the evaluation of educational software that allows the selection of software with similar functional characteristics, using metrics defined by the evaluator himself/herself and based on the Conceptual Fields Theory with the use and formalization of the Use Case Points technique. This methodology will enable the comparative evaluation of ES, by taking into consideration simultaneously both aspects related to the product functioning as well as cognitive/pedagogical aspects. In order to achieve that, we quantify the evaluation through the adjustment of previously chosen metrics, along with the application of the Use Case Points technique in the generation of a score for each piece of software, in such a way to allow a more refined evaluation of a ES, providing to the evaluator the necessary set of conditions required for choosing the piece of software that is more adequate to his/her needs. In addition, in order to facilitate the use of the methodology, we propose a tool that will make the whole evaluation process automatic, making the application of our methodology accessible for everyone.