Evaluating Collaborative Web Tools

By Rizkyharis (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

There are many things to take into consideration when evaluating online collaboration tools in education. Although many of these concerns often fall on the IT side to address, I believe teachers should be aware of them nonetheless because they could be potential reasons why a product was not installed and/or approved by the district. I chose to include this artifact to illustrate the importance of evaluating online tools. The paper includes a rubric that can be used to evaluate online tools. I also dive deeper into further evaluation of two online collaboration tools – Quizlet and Socrative.

Three criteria I feel are important to consider when evaluating online collaboration tools include security, usability, and overall effectiveness. The most important for me to consider is security. Safety of students is the number one priority in schools. With the wide spread of online tools, many teachers and students use apps or websites that may not have gone through the wringer and thoroughly tested from the district. As a result, there could be loopholes and/or potential security issues that put both the students and the teacher at risk. Some security things to consider are:

• Accessibility - who has access to it?
• How are things shared? 
• How is information protected?
• Are there ads? If so, are they elementary-age appropriate?
• How does it protect the privacy of its users?

After safety, one should consider the learning goals for students. After you determine what you want your students to learn, discuss, explore, research, think about, etc., it is important to look for a tool that will help you achieve those goals. A good online collaboration tool should be effective in measuring results so data can be further analyzed to assist teachers in adjusting things accordingly to meet the needs of students.

Lastly, another factor to consider when selecting online tools is usability. Training is obviously crucial for any new tool used in the classroom; however, the time spent trying to learn it should not outweigh the time using it with students. I’m not implying you should spend less time on training, if it’s taking an extraordinary amount of time or it is rather complex, just think, how that will trickle down to your students. So with that said, some things to look at for usability include: 

• How user-friendly is it?
• Is it intuitive?
• What is the learning curve?
• How is the support level - tutorials, tips, etc.?

I hope you find my Evaluating Collaborative Web Tools paper helpful when choosing the best apps or programs for your classroom.