A dialogue-based approach for evaluating educational software

This article offers a perspective on evaluating educational software based on users' dialogue as they engage in interaction with a particular program, rather than on features of the software per se. Building on analytical constructs and techniques of Conversation Analysis, we suggest an evaluative approach that identifies gaps or breakdowns in users' dialogues and maps the mismatches between users' actions and software behavior. The article presents two case studies to illustrate this dialogue-based approach, and discusses ways of integrating this perspective with more traditional guidelines for software evaluation based on features such as interface design and feedback types.