New Strategies in educational software

F. Gamboa, J. L. Pérez, D. Gálvez, F. Lara, A. Miranda, F. Cabiedes & A. Viniegra

Center of Applied Sciences and Technological Development, UNAM. E-Mail: gfer@aleph.cinstrum.unam.mx

Received: October 21^th, 2001.
Accepted: December 3^th, 2003.

Abstract

One of the main points in the development of Educational Software is how to trap, and keep, student's attention. This is a major problem because, unlike the classroom where students are supervised and controlled by teachers, on their computers, at home, they are free to use the software or simply close it and do anything else. The common solution to this problem has been the development of very showy materials, where students are presented to sounds, animations, and sophisticated interactions. Nevertheless, at the Centre of Applied Science and Technological Development we think that this approach might belie some important problems and that other factor must be reviewed and taken into account in order to create good-quality educational software. In this paper we introduce an approach that is based on a study of students, and the identification complete of their beliefs about physics. These beliefs are then used in the development of our software. We present the obtained results; as well as future works perspectives.

Keywords: Educational software, Distance learning, User centred design, User analysis.

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