Educational Software Development in Ecuadorian Universities: A Systematic Mapping Study

Context: Ecuadorian universities to guarantee a quality higher education, contribute to the country’s growth and train student researchers, allow to develop undergraduate theses as final career work to obtain their professional degree. Objective: In this paper, we present a systematic mapping study of the educational software development in the undergraduate theses done in Ecuadorian universities. Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted with a set of six research questions to analyze the undergraduate theses considered as the primary studies, dated from 2000 to 2017. Results: From a total of 522 undergraduate theses retrieved by an initial search string, 42 undergraduate theses were selected. This research classifies, quantifies, and qualifies the educational software development that has contributed to the education of Ecuador. We observe that 54,76% of the software developed is applied in elementary education, most of them are the tutorial type, and the pedagogical objective that has been mostly covered is to improve teaching-learning. Conclusions: Although universities are interested in developing educational software, there is a declining interest in the last two years analyzed. Also, it is necessary to develop educational software that covers other little attended pedagogical areas.