For group projects, each team member must submit his/her own paper. You may share illustrations and screen shots with your team-mates.

In your paper, your job is to convince me that you know how to evaluate the educational value of software. You will be evaluated on the theoretical grounding, thoroughness, and honesty of your evaluation. Do not be afraid to find fault with your software.

In your paper, please discuss:

• What methodology(s) did you chose for your evaluation? Why?
• What did you hope to learn from your evaluation?
• If your evaluation was done by a team or group, please include a chart outlining what parts each person did.
• Did your evaluation uncover any user-interface problems? How would you remedy those problems?
• Was the software educationally effective? In what ways and in what ways not?
• What about your data surprised you?
• What questions have you been able to answer?
• What questions are you not able to answer?
• What flaws did you uncover in your evaluation methodology?
• Are there topics that merit further research?
• Based on what you now know, how would you change your software?
• Do you feel that the basic pedagogical approach of your software is sound?
• Can you draw any broader conclusions about how to design effective educational software?
• Can you draw any broader conclusions about how to evaluate educational software?

Often it's difficult to tell the difference between interface problems and pedagogical problems. If users had significant problems with the interface, you may not be able to tell if the software could have been educationally effective. If that is the case, detail how you would improve the interface. Are these minor usability problems, or do you question your basic design? If there are questions you can't honestly answer, say so.

Do not be afraid to find fault with your evaluation process. I am likely to notice significant flaws. If you point them out, they won't count against you as much. Better to say, "we realize now that it would have been better to test the software on more than two people," than to say "based on the fact that 100% of our sample (2 of 2) loved it, we now know that we can save the world."

Exact length of the presentation depends on the number of students in the class--to be announced. In class on 2/12 I'll give a short talk on how to give a short talk. I expect you to use that talk as a guide, and give a talk using overheads. In your talk, please address the key points of your paper.

If you have more than one team member, you may do both talks jointly or each do one. One team member may not do all of both of the presentations.