As more courseware becomes available, choosing the right functionality for a particular e-learning community is becoming more problematic. Systematic methods for evaluating courseware functionality components in their context of use are required. Of many general methods for ICT evaluation it is unclear how to assess their applicability in the context of courseware. We outline a practical method for courseware evaluation. We experiment with the method by evaluating the courseware functionality used in one core e-learning activity: the making of group assignments. One interesting finding is that the usefulness of an application to a large degree depends on the particular activity being supported, much less on the particular functionality used. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.8 [Software Engineering]: Metrics – performance measures, product metrics, software science. General Terms Measurement, Performance, Design, Economics, Experimentation, Human Factors Keywords Courseware, ev...