Uma metodologia de avaliação automática para aulas de robótica educacional

Abstract

The process of teaching educational robotics involves not only the creation of a robot, but also the use of it for conducting an interdisciplinary activity. The use of robotics in the classroom raises an issue: how will students be evaluated in the concepts that involves educational robotics topics? We developed a methodology used to evaluate students on educational robotics classes. Based on researches with robotics teachers and the knowledge of this research team about the area, we raised evaluation criterias relevant to this area of education, considering the topics of an educational robotics class that should be evaluated: robot assembly, robot programming and the resolution of the interdisciplinary proposed activity. In addition to these criteria, there are points about social relationships that are also relevant in educational robotics classes, such as social interaction, teamwork, concentration, creativity, participation, among others. With this objective, we defined six evaluation criteria that can be applied in the evaluation at the teacher’s discretion. However, we recognize the challenge of applying an evaluative methodology in educational robotics classes, because it requires a lot of time and e↵ort from the teacher, who must be attentive to all the steps of the robotics class, and apply the evaluation criteria to all students. With the objective of assisting the teacher in this task, we inserted this evaluation methodology in an educational robotic simulator, allowing the simulator to perform the evaluation automatically, providing the teacher with the results. The teacher is still responsible for defining all the evaluative criteria, but the simulator is responsible for analyzing the student as he performs an activity and assigning grades to the student considering the criteria defined by the teacher. Finally, to validate the evaluative methodology, tests were performed with robotic teachers, in which teachers should register the evaluative parameters of some activities and analyze the results provided by the simulator as the students performed these activities. The results show that teachers are interested in using this methodology and believe that the proposed evaluation criteria are of great importance for an educational robotics class, allowing the teacher to carry out changes in the teaching process if it identifies difficulties by students.