Courseware "Courseware" is a term that combines the words 'course' with 'software'. It was originally used to describe additional educational material intended as kits for teachers or trainers or as tutorials for students, usually packaged for use with a computer. The term's meaning and usage has expanded and can refer to the entire course and any additional material when used in reference an online or 'computer formatted' classroom. Many companies are using the term to describe the entire "package" consisting of one 'class' or 'course' bundled together with the various lessons, tests, and other material needed. The courseware itself can be in different formats: some are only available online, such as Web pages, while others can be downloaded as PDF files or other types of document. Many forms of
educational technology are now covered by the term
courseware. Most leading educational companies solicit or include courseware with their training packages.
Classroom aids Some educational software is designed for use in school classrooms. Typically such software may be projected onto a large whiteboard at the front of the class and/or run simultaneously on a network of desktop computers in a classroom. The most notable are SMART Boards that use
SMART Notebook to interact with the board which allows the use of pens to digitally draw on the board. This type of software is often called
classroom management software. While teachers often choose to use educational software from other categories in their
IT suites (e.g. reference works, children's software), a whole category of educational software has grown up specifically intended to assist classroom teaching. 'Wordshark', for example, was first released in the mid nineties with multi-sensory games to support students learning to read and spell. Branding has been less strong in this category than in those oriented towards home users. Software titles are often very specialized and produced by various manufacturers, including many established educational book publishers.
Assessment software With the impact of
environmental damage and the need for institutions to become "
paperless", more educational institutions are seeking alternative ways of assessment and testing, which has always traditionally been known to use up vasts amount of paper.
Assessment software refers to software with a primary purpose of assessing and testing students in a virtual environment. More recently, numerous
Large Language Model-based tools have also emerged to support educators by automating assessment and feedback processes.These tools are designed to help educators save time by providing structured feedback and grading suggestions for students’ text-based work. However, a study of a german equivalent of these tools, the
ChatGPT-based "AI Grading Assistant" from the company Fobizz has found significant shortcomings with this LLM-based implementation. It reveals that the tool’s feedback and grading suggestions are often inconsistent, even with repeated submissions of the same text, suffering from randomness in grading and a lack of transparency in scoring mechanisms. Additionally, the tool fails to reliably detect nonsensical inputs, allowing flawed or AI-generated submissions to achieve high scores. Crucially, the authors note that many of these issues may be inherently tied to fundamental properties of LLMs, suggesting these deficiencies may translate to LLM-based grading tools more generally. Based on these findings, the authors emphasize the risks of over-reliance on AI as a “techno-fix” for systemic educational problems.
Reference software Many publishers of print
dictionaries and
encyclopedias have been involved in the production of educational reference software since the mid-1990s. They were joined in the reference software market by both startup companies and established software publishers, most notably
Microsoft. The first commercial reference software products were reformulations of existing content into
CD-ROM editions, often supplemented with new
multimedia content, including compressed video and sound. More recent products made use of internet technologies, to supplement CD-ROM products, then, more recently, to replace them entirely.
Wikipedia and its offspins (such as
Wiktionary) marked a new departure in educational reference software. Previously, encyclopedias and dictionaries had compiled their contents on the basis of invited and closed teams of specialists. The
Wiki concept has allowed for the development of collaborative reference works through open cooperation incorporating experts and non-experts.
Corporate training and tertiary education See also: •
Educational technology •
SCORM •
Virtual learning environment, LMS (
learning management system) •
Training Management System •
Web-based training Specific educational purposes using
Pinyin. There are highly specific niche markets for educational software, including: • Designing and printing of
card models for use in education – e.g.
Designer Castles for
BBC Micro and
Acorn Archimedes platforms
Video games and gamification Video games can be used to teach a user technology literacy or more about a subject. Some operating systems and mobile phones have these features. A notable example is
Microsoft Solitaire, which was developed to familiarize users with the use of
graphical user interfaces, especially the
mouse and the
drag-and-drop technique.
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is a largely known program with built in mini-games to keep the user entertained while improving their typing skills.
Gamification is the use of game design elements in nongame contexts and has been shown to be effective in motivating behavior change. By seeing game elements as "motivational affordances," and formalizing the relationship between these elements and motivational affordances. == Effects and use of educational software ==