190 PART II Applying Technologies for Effective Instruction www.ablongman.

com/lever-duffy

TABLE 6.4 ACADEMIC SOFTWARE EVALUATION RUBRIC

SOFTWARE:
DESCRIPTION:
VENDOR: COST:
NOTES ON ITS USE:
Please rate the featues below for each piece of software. Next to each of the items in the rubric, check the box that best reflects
your opinion.

EVALUATION CRITERIA
1 2 3 4 5
Software Below Above
Feature Poor Average Average Average Excellent

Documentation Documentation is Documentation is Documentation is Clear documentation Very clear, easy-to-read,

excessively technical generally understand- easy to follow and that is logical and logical, and complete
and/or difficult to able but not very understand; includes easy to follow documentation
follow user-friendly all necessary com-
ponents

Site license No licensing available Site licenses are Site licensing available Special, low site Educators may use
available but limited at reasonable cost licensing pricing for for free without a
or expensive options education site license

Installation Complex to install; Installation somewhat Installation process Easy to install; clear, Self-installing; step-by-
poor installation difficult; instructions typical; instructions easy-to-understand step installation
instructions minimal fairly clear and instructions included
complete

Technical support No toll-free tele- No local support; Local support and Local tech help avail- Local help and toll-free
phone support phone support avail- phone support avail- able for modest fee; support readily avail-
available able for an hourly fee able for modest fee no-charge phone able at no charge
support

to return to the sections that have not yet been mastered before going on to the next
competency.
By contrast, tutorials that use a hypermedia approach allow students to explore
more freely the various content pathways available in the program. Using hyperlinks,
Tutorials can give the
student control of the pace students can move through the materials in accordance with their personal prefer-
and, sometimes, the path of inter- ences and interests. Of course, these hypermedia-style tutorials also include evalua-
action. tion and feedback components.
Tutorials of both types may be primarily text or a combination of text and multi-
media components, including graphics, animation, and audio and video clips. Some
may have built-in classroom management support components that track, record, and
report individual student progress on each included lesson. All are interactive, in that
the student must respond and interact for the tutorial to progress.
Tutorials give the student control of the pace and, in the case of hypermedia tuto-
rials, the path of instruction. Tutorials are limited by their ability to respond to stu-
dents’ questions or concerns outside their programming. Even the best-designed tuto-
rial software may not be able to respond to the divergent thinking of many learners.
For many users, tutorials are viewed as limiting and potentially boring because of
 Chapter 6 Academic Software 191

EVALUATION CRITERIA
1 2 3 4 5
Software Below Above
Feature Poor Average Average Average Excellent

Help features No online or text- A Read-Me text Both online and text Online help is Automatic online help
based help available file is included; no help available on CD content-sensitive and available for every fea-
online help provides clear assis- ture; supplementary
tance; text included text help included

Grade level Not suitable for Some features unsuit- Majority of features Most features appro- All features both suitable
intended grade able for intended suitable for intended priate and suitable for and appropriate for
level grade level grade level intended grade level grade level

Competencies Does not address Few competencies A majority of the Most of the desired All of the target com-
target competencies addressed; many competencies are competencies are petencies and others
ignored addressed addressed are addressed

Active learning Interaction is passive; Interaction mostly Interaction offers aver- Good active inter- Students are actively
no active learning passive; a few active age active learning action provided engaged during all
encouraged learning opportunities opportunities; some through a majority of components of soft-
included activities too passive the software ware

Save features Students cannot Student work can be Students may save Automatically saves Both automatically and
interrupt and save saved on an external their work to continue the student’s work manually, student’s
work disk but it cannot be working on it in the when the program work can be saved and
reused future is closed restarted at the same
point later

Hardware Works on relatively Works on several Will work on most Works on most Works on all machines
compatibility few available com- machines; requires machines with mini- available machines available without hard-
puters; requires upgrades to some mal or no hardware without hardware up- ware upgrades or
additional hardware available computers upgrades or additions grades or additions additions

Cost High cost relative Somewhat expensive Average cost for Reasonably priced Special low pricing for
to features relative to features features offered with numerous educational users for
features for the cost abundant features
Total the score for each piece of software. Compare the scores. The piece of software with the highest score
is your best choice.

their rigidity in the presentation of topics. Still, a

well-written tutorial that is programmed with mul-
timedia components in the presentation of materi-
als can be very useful for support or review of mate-
rial or even as an additional strategy in the
communication of content.

❙ Drill-and-Practice Software
Whereas tutorials may present new material, drill-
and-practice software is designed to reinforce previ-
ously presented content. Drill-and-practice software
is used to question learners on key content points,
giving them the opportunity to practice content by
responding to specific questions. This type of soft-
ware provides instant feedback as to the correctness Drill-and-practice software lets learners practice and review concepts as
of a response. Some drill-and-practice software often and as long as they need in order to gain mastery.