week12

Testing and Evaluation Lesson

Testing 
       
               This section covers the testing of the template. It deals with concept testing, software testing and the testing of the courseware itself. Figure 8.1 shows the chronology to the testing phase of the project. CALL testing, as with any testing, is an iterative process. Bugs in the software and errors in the courseware (text, audio and image data) are detected and corrected and the modified courseware is retested. The combination of the waterfall and evolutionary prototyping models adopted in the development of the project (see section 7.2, p116) meant that the development and testing occurred in parallel and were closely intertwined.

Concept Testing 

                 At the highest level, the project had to be tested at the "proof-of-concept" point of view. That is, does the concept of creating a template for developing a CALL program for ELs actually work? The template developed was tested against its original specification: given the EL (Nawat) language specific components in the form of XML data files, audio files with the recorded conversations and the image files with culturally specific images, can it create language learning courseware for the EL (Nawat)? Using these source files, the template software was able to convert them fully automatically into the complete set of web pages that make up the language learning courseware. The fact that the lessons were prepared and conversations were recorded in advance of the template software development (and were not structurally changed) indicates that the template functioned for the Nawat language learning program.


Evaluation

                  This section covers the evaluation phase of the project. It reviews the objectives and requirements of the project and evaluates the implementation of the template. It answers the question as to whether the system works. Furthermore, it discusses the software and user evaluation of the project.

Other Objectives 

              There were two other objectives to this project. One was to show that Nawat could be put on the computer - it could be online, on the Internet, part of the digital age - to show that it was not just a language of the old people. While the mere fact of putting Nawat on the computer will not automatically raise its esteem, it might make a contribution to the process. The objective has been achieved.                                   

CALL Implementation 

                    There are three CALL implementations (in the Hubbard sense (1996), i.e. deployment) of the courseware. The first and most important is with the EL community in Santo Domingo de Guzmán. The community can use the printed version of the courseware until they have access to a computer. It may also be possible to bring interested members of the community to the nearest big city, Sonsonate, to access the software in a local secondary school that has computer facilities.

                    This chapter covered the testing and evaluation phases of the project. It discussed the testing of the project from several different points of view. The "proof-of-concept" testing was the most fundamental testing that was necessary for the project. As with any software development, the program had to be tested from a software point of view.