Evaluating courseware: A need for more context-bound evaluations

This paper reviews what different commentators have written about the evaluation of educational courseware, especially the recent suggestion that more 'context-bound' evaluations are needed. We draw on our experience of such an evaluation and hypothesise on the reasons for the lack of such evaluations. Examples of context-bound evaluations include an evaluation of the Climate courseware, developed by the Education Department of Western Australia some years ago, to illustrate the approach. This is contrasted by a desktop evaluation of courseware of the same name Climate, developed in the UK with a similar kind of context-bound evaluation of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago? Reviews of the courseware From Alice to Ocean, The Gold Adventure, of context-bound evaluations are provided for illustrative the value of context-bound evaluations. The case is made for using context-bound evaluations as a complementary and valuable addition to traditional forms of evaluation of educational courseware, such as checklists. Evaluating the quality of the instructional design remains an important consideration in evaluating courseware. Ongoing comment and dissent is invited from teachers and academics on the value of context-bound evaluations of educational courseware. In doing so, we hope to re-invigorate the debate over appropriate ways of evaluating educational courseware that will provide useful information for classroom teachers. Implications for web-based evaluations of courseware are considered. Principles similar for the evaluating courseware may be applied to evaluation of different mediums, such as CD-ROM, DVD and on-line learning material .