Extension educators are increasingly using online resources in their program design and delivery. Usability testing is essential for ensuring that these resources are relevant and useful to learners. On the basis of our experiences with iteratively developing products using a testing service called UserTesting, we promote the use of fee-based…

Just as with print resources, as the number of Web-based resources continues to soar, the need to evaluate them has become a critical information skill for both children and adults. This is particularly true for schools where librarians often are called on to recommend Web resources to classroom teachers, parents, and students, and to support…

Studying pervasive games is inherently difficult and different from studying computer or board games. This article builds upon the experiences of staging and studying several playful pervasive technology prototypes. It discusses the challenges and pitfalls of evaluating pervasive game prototypes and charts methods that have proven useful in…

Web-based presentation tools are sometimes referred to as "next generation presentation tools" (EDUCAUSE, 2010). At the most basic level, these tools are simply online versions of traditional presentation software, such as Microsoft's PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote, but some services offer features like web-based collaboration, online presentation…

The paper proposes a contingent, learner-centred usability evaluation method and a prototype tool of such systems. This is a new usability evaluation method for web-based learning systems using a set of empirically-supported usability factors and can be done effectively with limited resources. During the evaluation process, the method allows for…

This article discusses best practices for evaluating open source software for use in library projects, based on the authors' experience evaluating electronic publishing solutions. First, it presents a brief review of the literature, emphasizing the need to evaluate open source solutions carefully in order to minimize Total Cost of Ownership. Next,…

There is a pressing need for an evaluation rubric that examines all aspects of educational apps designed for instructional purposes. In past decades, many rubrics have been developed for evaluating educational computer-based programs; however, rubrics designed for evaluating the instructional implications of educational apps are scarce. When an…

Computer-based assessment of exams provides teachers and students with two main benefits: fairness and effectiveness in the evaluation process. This paper proposes a fully automatic evaluation tool for the Graphic and Virtual Design (GVD) curriculum at the First School of Architecture of the Politecnico di Torino, Italy. In particular, the tool is…

The "emerging educational institutional decision-making matrix" is developed to allow educational institutions to adopt a rigorous and consistent methodology of determining which of the myriad of emerging educational technologies will be the most compelling for the institution, particularly ensuring that it is the educational or pedagogical but…

Model-based testing is one of the best solutions for testing object-oriented software. It has a better test coverage than other testing styles. Model-based testing takes into consideration behavioural aspects of a class, which are usually unchecked in other testing methods. An increase in the complexity of software has forced the software industry…

How can the average educator who teaches online, without experience in evaluating emerging technologies, build on what is successful and modify what is not? Written for educators who feel ill-prepared when required to evaluate e-learning initiatives, "Evaluating e-Learning" offers step-by-step guidance for conducting an evaluation plan of…

Training professionals to design and produce interactive systems requires the use of well thought-out training scenarios. Indeed, it is essential to consider pedagogical forms whose objective is providing learners with field experience. It is also necessary to motivate learners to learn about subjects that sometimes seem distant from their…

This article, "The Web-Savvy Urban Teacher," addresses the question of what educational technology educators and scholars can do to close the pedagogical mismatch, which exists today between "digital native" secondary students and their predigital educators. The infrequent use of the Internet as a resource in urban schools is detrimental for…

Currently, e-learning systems are mainly web-based applications and tackle a wide range of users all over the world. Fitting learners' needs is considered as a key issue to guaranty the success of these systems. Many researches work on providing adaptive systems. Nevertheless, evaluation of the adaptivity is still in an exploratory phase.…

Quality assurance in instructional development demands an exhaustive formative evaluation effort and applied testing. Unfortunately, this process is expensive and requires large numbers of user testers with characteristics similar to the intended audience. This article presents a procedure for increasing the efficiency of quality assurance efforts…