The relevance of product tests in the construction of educational artifacts in professional master and doctorate degrees in Brazil

Although they are mandatory requirements for obtaining a master's or doctor's degree in stricto sensu postgraduate courses of a professional nature, educational products are still an area to be explored in terms of their literature at the national level. This study highlights the relevance of performance tests for evaluating educational artifacts. The conceptual bibliographic method was used, which consists of four stages. These phases are a) definition of research questions, b) data collection on scientific bases, c) organization and analysis of data, and d) generation of answers to the research's guiding questions. The execution of these procedures allowed the construction of the study's theoretical framework, which brings the conceptual scope of the terms "educational product" and "product tests." In addition, this textual production lists and describes the types of existing tests to measure the quality and effectiveness of educational products. The types of tests presented are related to: a) effectiveness, b) efficiency, c) usability, d) market, f) compliance, and g) reliability. The study concludes that for a prototype (initial version of an educational artifact) to be considered a product, it must pass all these tests before having its final version released to its target audience.