[Year 12 SofDev] Evaluation vs testing

[Mark KELLY]

I think I've worked out a meaningful example...

A company wants to increase their sales. They decide to create a fun website
to attract young people who may buy their products.

They create the website and test all of its links, menus, readability,
relevance, usability, accessibility.

They *test* every page in the major browsers and every test is 100%
successful.

They put the website online and wait for the money to pour in.


They decide to evaluate whether the site is successful in achieving their
aims of popularity and profit.

What *criteria* should they evaluate?  Popularity with young people.  Increased
profit generated by the site.

So they look at the site statistics: they find large numbers of young
visitors. They find zero profit.

They realise that none of these young visitors have credit cards or Paypal.

So *testing* showed that the site was fully functional and 100% accurate.

The *evaluation* showed it was a complete *failure*.


On 23 September 2011 11:18, Mark KELLY <kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au> wrote:

> Hi all.
>
> While marking U4O2, I am increasingly worried about kids' confusion of
> testing and evaluation. When asked for evaluation methods, many are
> basically doing testing again. It can be hard to get them to understand the
> difference between the two operations.
>
> I've made a handout that tries to distinguish between them (attached) but
> if anyone has a never-fail ripsnorter technique of getting it into kids'
> heads, I'd love to hear it.
>
> --
> Mark Kelly
> Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
> McKinnon Secondary College
> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
> Direct line / Voicemail: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253
> kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
> VCE IT Lecture Notes: http://vceit.com
> Moderator: IT Applications Edulist <http://www.edulists.com.au/>
>
> Want a good time? Call 0112358. Ask for Mr Fibonacci.
>



-- 
Mark Kelly
Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253
kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
VCE IT Lecture Notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IT Applications Edulist <http://www.edulists.com.au/>

Want a good time? Call 0112358. Ask for Mr Fibonacci.
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