EVALUACIÓN DE PARTICIPACIÓN EFECTIVA DE INDIVIDUOS EN TRABAJOS GRUPALES, AL USAR UN MODELADOR DE DATOS QUE UTILIZA UNA SUPERFICIE COLABORATIVA PORTABLE DE BAJO COSTO

Abstract

The present study describes a tabletop system for supporting collaborative database design in the classroom. Functionality and usability tests were performed to validate and verify the proposed system. Additionally, two experiments were conducted to measure how educators´ and students´ perceptions were affected in some aspects when they use this technology for database modeling. The aspects considered in educators where: workload equality; easiness of grading individuals as well as groups. The aspects considered in students were: workload equality; capability of tools to accurately reflect individual contributions; satisfaction with individual and group score. Ten educators and 22 students from a Computer Science Program from Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral participated in this study. The results show that the use of this technology impacted positively on educator’s perceptions about workload equality and easiness of grading individuals as well as groups. Additionally, students reported that this type of tools help them to accurately reflect their contributions to the group work. The results suggest that the proposed system does have potential to support a better group work assessment.