Educational Software Evaluation

From 1980 to 2000, there were many articles written on the subject of software review and evaluation. Upon initial investigation of educational software methodologies, it appears that there are as many evaluation methodologies as there are authors presenting them. Several articles (methodology analyses) have been written describing these evaluation techniques (Bryson & Cullen, 1984; Eraut, 1989; Holznagel, 1983; Jones et al., 1999; McDougall & Squires, 1995; Reiser & Kegelmann, 1994, 1996; Russell & Blake, 1988). Each of these articles describes various methodologies and presents the most current evaluation methodology available, but fails to provide a complete history of the types of evaluation methodologies. These analyses of evaluation methodologies focus on the individual methodology, but refrain from putting individual methodologies into a greater systematic context.