Courseware Sere: Technical and Didactic Evaluation

Software packages for educational purposes are increasingly important for classroom use, because they are a valuable way to motivate learning. However, the resources available on the market, with the designation of educational software, often have dubious quality. This leads us to the constitution of a multidisciplinary team with different competencies (Science Education, Educational Technology and Design) aiming the development of educational software for teaching and learning environments and tools to properly evaluate the software quality. The resource that was developed for this purpose is called Courseware Sere The Human Being and Natural Resources. The system development was based on assumptions of the User Centered Design (UCD) and usability of computerized teaching resources, including the evaluation central role throughout the development process. Courseware Sere development was based on a rigorous evaluation process, based on finding answers related with issues like the positive and/or negative perceptions and suggestions, from a technical and educational perspective of experts, teachers and students. The answers gathered were used in order to improve the usability of this resource. In this paper we report the final results achieved in the software evaluation made by teachers of the 1 and 2 basic education cycles. The evaluation concerned the software technical (software and user's manual) and educational (guidelines for the Didactic Exploration – Teacher and guidelines of Records Student/User) aspects. With the data gathered and results achieved, it is possible to assess the usefulness of the end user’s evaluation of educational resources and the quality of the courseware. This evaluation enables to improve aspects related with the usability (navigation and interaction) and enables us to ensure the adequacy of the courseware to the target educational level.