Xavier: um software educativo para avaliação de mapas conceituais

Abstract

Due to the technological and pedagogical revolutions that have occurred since the last century the teaching and learning processes have been changing at a fast pace, however the same is not so evident with the forms of assessment. For example, in Brazil the main instruments of education assessment at national level are objective, such as SAEB, Prova Brasil, ANA, ENEM, ENADE and others. Considering the universe of 18 million high school and college students in 2018, this is an understandable strategy. But it should not be replicated within each individual classroom, whose private universes are much smaller, with only dozens of students. In this context other forms of evaluation may be used, such as subjective evaluations. Considering this, concept maps have already been established as an appropriate pedagogical instrument for visualization and subjective assessment of learning. Within the evaluative perspective, it is common in institutions, including the IFRN, locus of this work, to establish three main forms: diagnostic, formative and summative. Concept maps are often used as diagnostic and formative tools, but hardly as summative tools because they are considered qualitative rather than quantitative. Although there are already computer programs that allow the creation and manipulation of concept maps, there is a gap to be filled: software that assists in the summative evaluation of concept maps. There are criteria used to evaluate and correct concept maps, but there are no digital tools to use them properly, or to allow teachers to create their own criteria. From this need, this work arises, which is an applied research that aimed to develop the Xavier software, following the software engineering process proposed by Sommerville (2011). Methodologically, the specific objectives of this work are: to describe criteria for evaluation of conceptual maps and their computational application; establish methodology for the use of the software; conceptualize, design and develop the educational software. To produce the software artifacts of the conceptualization and design stages, the Lucidchart and Astah Professional 8.1 tools were used. In the construction phase were used the tools Apache 2.4, MariaDB 10.4, PHP 7.3 and phpMyAdmin 4.9, resulting in the availability of the software in the domain www.xavieredu.com.br. The theoretical perspective needed to support the educational aspect is based on the conceptions of Luckesi (2011), Moreira (2015), Novak and Cañas (2010) and Viana (2016). With the availability of Xavier, it is expected to spread the use of concept maps and their application as a learning assessment.