EducAval: Towards Assessment of Educational Robotics Softwares

The main goal is to perform an analysis of Educational Robotics softwares. For that, a simple, practical and reproducible approach for assessment named EducAval has been devised, which is also introduced. The key contribution is the proposal of some homogeneous and universal criteria for software evaluation in this área. Basically, simple assessment steps are followed including survey application and data collection and analysis, with specific questions about didatic and technical issues that are formulated separately for professors and students. After questionary application, data are collected and mapped into verification, qualification, and validation parameters. This strategy makes it simpler to evaluate some Educational Robotics software verifying if they attend the requirements of the users and if they can be used as well by schools or other Institutions interested in the application of such methodology. Softwares used in the finals of Brazilian Robotics Olympiad have been verified, qualified, and validated using this methodology and the results are presented.