Software Review

The software review will be 3-5 pages in most cases. You may either review discipline-specific software or general purpose software. The discipline-specific software need not be in your discipline although in most cases you will be better able to review the software if this is the case.

The review should address the following questions. In most cases, you will want to address these questions as part of a narrative rather than listing the question and the response.

1. What is the general category in which this software belongs? What are other leading software examples in this software? Why did you choose to review the particular competitor you did?
2. How might this general category of software or the program you reviewed be used in teaching?

3. General and academic pricing of the software, availability of trial versions
4. Website of the software
5. What operating systems is the software available for?
6. What did you like and dislike about the software? Provide some specific examples.
7. Extent of your use of the software, version of the software you used and the operating system(s) you used for your tests

It is OK to review software we have discussed in class.

Although your review is necessarily subjective, try to write it in a way that the reader will believe what you say.

Your review should be linked to from your Mason website.

Revised: November 5, 2003