Customer Reviews

Formative Evaluation for Educational Technologies

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a good introduction and overview of formative evaluation for educational technologies. It discusses the role of evaluation in the development of an educational technology, presents five case studies of various technologies (somewhat dated), discusses methodology and measurements to use, and spends one chapter each on measuring user-friendliness, appeal, and learning. This book raises many pragmatic issues such as low budgets and when not to bother with formative evaluation (!). The book emphasizes the need for evaluation throughout the development cycle, and the case studies examine each part of the cycle in detail.

Many of the methods presented lack statistical rigor (small numbers of data points) and are not always quantitative measures. However, these are not always possible to achieve due to the pragmatic concerns mentioned in the book.

Although the examples cover dated technology (the reason for 4-stars), the methodology presented is still good and useful. While not a pure how-to textbook, it is an excellent guide and presents a good framework for the topic.