Week 11 Project Manager 15/5 (10)

This week's 15/5 will be short and sweet for a couple of reasons. For one, I am writing this from school during my lunch break and need to do some last minute preparation for my Comprehensive Exams after school today. Secondly, there is not a whole lot of progress to report from Team ALIVe this week, due to, you guessed it- preparing for Comprehensive Exams. Our group was fully aware of where we would/would not be come this time this week due to the number of things on our plate prior to the next meeting. Although I have not spoken to Joy since Thursday, I do know that she was going to continue working on content this week since she was done with her exam (and we covered for her last week by contributing to content). Basically, after tonight, we all should be back on track and ready to go tomorrow night and beyond.

As far as specifically what I did this week to help out... I emailed Dr. Barbour the questions/clarifications that arose at our last meeting, and he got back with us with some good information/feedback. He is no longer confused about the purpose of Appendix D, he understands our thinking for the Alpha Test (we might be able to use some of his AP European History students for usability testing, or we might have to use 6200 Consultants), and he clarified the amount of teacher involvement that will eventually be a part of our IVHS course (none). We will have to think through some of the built-in interactivity we wanted to do at this week's meeting, since Dr. Barbour says that IVHS does not want to commit a faculty member to the course to check in on students, read journal entries, etc. So, we have some work to do.

It's a busy week ahead... and more to come. With only 2 weeks to Dress Rehearsal, we are really going to have to kick it into high gear post-Comprehensive Exams. I'm just hoping and praying that we all pass (including me!) so that we can turn our full attention back to our project. This week we have to produce a flowchart/storyboard, as we are now behind the schedule on this. We also need to seriously look into what exactly needs to be done in order for the group to be ready on November 13th. At this point, or goal is to have one of the four modules up and running in order to demonstrate what the whole project will look like eventually (i.e. three weeks later). Wish us luck tonight and over the coming weeks- we're going to need it!

Week 10 Project Manager 15/5 (9)

As I write this week, I am finding it hard to believe that it's already October 22nd. With just three weeks to Dress Rehearsal and six weeks until the Showcase, I, like the other members of my group, are getting a little nervous about where we're at at this point. I also know that this is the time of the semester where everyone feels like this, and I guess that does provide some comfort. Personally, I just know that things outside of this class are not going to let up until December... meaning that I will continue to have to work through adversity... work issues, things going on at home, my other class, etc. With that said, though, I think, despite the work slowdown to prepare for the Comprehensive Exam, somehow we will make it through and will achieve most (and hopefully all) of our original goals. We are currently developing our content for the modules and will be building a flowchart/storyboard this week in class. Granted, with implementation and evaluation coming up shortly, we need to keep on our toes. Now that I've had a couple of months to work with this group, I have confidence that we'll problem solve our way out of any current and future binds.

I completed my two Desk Crits due this week (one for Clayton and one for Rebecca) as well as three of my service hours (two in studio last Thursday and one at school this week assisting another teacher gathering data from a testing database). I made contact with Dr. Barbour and received more feedback on the Evaluation Plan, which I forwarded to Eun Ju and Jea for revisions and posting to the blog. In Joy's partial "absence" as Instructional Designer this week (due to studying for the exam), I have also posted a good bit of information to the group for content gathering and compiling. Although I have gotten little response from my team, I assume they are busy gathering information themselves (and I've reminded them twice via email that they should be gathering info for this week's meeting). We just need to be ready tomorrow night so that we leave with solid plans for content for each of the four modules: Organization, Self-Regulation, Responsibility, and Risk-Taking. I know Eun Ju and Jea are anxiously awaiting what will be in each of the modules so that they can jump into the graphic design side of things. Any little bit of help from any group member helps, though, especially since this coming week Joy will be the only person at full strength, so to speak. Jea, Eun Ju, and I will all have to carve time out of what would be project work in order to get ready for our exams next Wednesday. There's just no way around that... unless you can magically make more hours appear in a day! You could patent that technology! :)

Anyway, I think I pretty much eluded to what's coming up this week. In addition to gathering, compiling, and finalizing content, we also need to develop a flowchart and/or storyboard to guide our further development graphically. IVHS students will need a path to follow through our course, and we need to lay that path out. After we get through Comprehensive Exams, our productivity should increase nicely. On to another week!

Week 9 Project Manager 15/5 (8)

First of all, I apologize for this being late tonight. I had to stay at work a lot longer than originally planned. Anyway, this week we began moving forward on the development of Project ALIVe. We all began looking at exactly what content would go into each of the four modules. Joy found a few helpful articles and case studies on organization, responsibility, and study skills that gave us a starting point. Since Dr. Barbour's email indicated that filling in the content rests squarely on our shoulders (Jim at IVHS just wants us to follow the ESPRI as a guide), we plan to continue gathering and compiling information and sifting through it to find the right combination for our needs.

Dr. Barbour and I spoke via email a couple of times this week regarding the documents I sent to him last Thursday (Learner Profile, Treatment Rationale, and Hardware/Software Specifications). We got some good feedback on our Screen Design, so we'll be sure to incorporate that right away. We also got a chance to play around with our new "course" in IVHS. There are so many things we can do with our tutorial... so many interactive components to incorporate... it's almost overwhelming! In addition, I just sent our final version of the Evaluation Plan to Dr. Barbour for his review and sign off. I am currently looking deeper into the information Joy found so as to be ready for tomorrow night's meeting. The information gathering seems to be a tedious process. I know we all wish we had a little more direction from IVHS and our client... but we're pressing forward, nonetheless.

Coming up this next week is the Flowchart/Storyboard. I personally have never done one of these, since I completed an Implementation project for 6200, although I have a pretty good idea of what we need to do. I'll be sure to get on the same page with my group moving forward beyond tomorrow night. We will also be ready for tomorrow night's Project Day. Not only will we get a chance to do some service hours, but it will provide the perfect opportunity to do our first two Desk Crits, as well. So... another busy week ahead! See you tomorrow night!

Week 8 Project Manager 15/5 (7)

Here we are... halfway through the semester. Can I honestly say we're halfway through our project? No. More importantly, do I feel good about where we're at right now with regards to the whole picture? Yes, and no. While I think we're in good shape when it comes to the documentation side of things (so far we've met each deadline and will be close again this week, with a few minor exceptions), we really need to get to developing as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there are more roadblocks ahead, though; the biggest being the Comprehensive Exams. Team ALIVe will have to set aside time to prepare for this eventually, meaning that development time will be lost and will have to be made up somehow. One way we could scale back on our workload so as to allow some study time would be to begin asking 6200 students for more involvement. So far, we really haven't utilized any of our consultants other than Lenrose, who has graciously chimed in on grammatical and formatting issues a couple of times. We'll need to do an even better job of managing our time in the coming weeks. Asking for more help would be one good way to do exactly that.

After briefly meeting on Wimba last Thursday night, our team set out and just about finished the Learner Profile, Treatment Rationale, Hardware/Software Requirements, and Screen Design. The Evaluation Plan is still a work in progress, therefore some of our time will be spent shoring this document up tomorrow night. We also quickly put a slideshow together for tomorrow night's presentation. That kind of caught all of us off guard... although I now see it is/was posted on the IT Studio website. Oops. So many things to keep up with! Jea and I were able to put something together, though, and we'll be ready to present where we're at.

This week was a busy one for me outside of this class. I was out of town for the weekend and then had things to complete for school and my other class once I returned. Last night I carved out some time to alter the Learner Profile according to Dr. Barbour's email which contained updated enrollment numbers and ethnicity break-downs for IVHS. I also added in Eun Ju's feedback from last week.

As far as this week is concerned, and as I've indicated above, we really need to get beyond all the documentation and actually start working on the project itself. We have a good start... we know where we're going. We even have an idea of how to get there. Jea has done a fabulous job laying out what she thinks the interface and therefore usability should look/feel like. This week we just need to make some decisions about which version we'd like to go with. I know we also have other studio time constraints approaching, as well, such as EDIT 6190 mentoring, etc. We'll just have to do our very best to stay above water over the next month or so while things are extremely crazy otherwise. I feel that once we finally make it past the documentation, Comprehensive Exam, and other distractions (maybe in November!?!), we'll be able to lock in on actually working on and completing this project. Good luck to us!

Week 7 Project Manager 15/5 (6)

Well, another week has passed and Team ALIVe continues to plug along. This week we set out to begin work on and inevitably complete the Learner Profile, Treatment Rationale, Hardware/Software Requirements, Screen Design, and Evaluation Plan by the October 9th deadline. We split up duties and devised a plan to stay on track over the next week (according to our timeline), and so far, we've stuck to it. With the exception of the Hardware/Software Requirements (which we finished in class), we made a plan to pull the jobs apart and reassemble everything prior to next Thursday. I took the Learner Profile, Jea took the Treatment Rationale, and Eun Ju took the Evaluation Plan. We will all look at the Screen Design in further detail during our meeting tomorrow night. Speaking of that meeting, and this is just a reminder, we will be meeting via Horizon Wimba in EDIT 6210 Room 2 tomorrow night at 5 PM. With Joy just getting back in town (welcome back, Joy!) and me leaving town tomorrow night, combined with the fact that it is not a "required" class, we all decided it would be sufficient to meet online this week. Also, since we left last week's meeting with a pretty good idea about what the next two weeks looked like, we felt confident that this would work just fine. We obviously checked with Dr. Clinton to clear this.

As far as what I've done this week, I've been in constant contact with Dr. Barbour in an attempt to get the necessary information I needed to complete the Learner Profile. After several interactions with Jim at IVHS, along with a lot of online research, I was able to combine data sources (including our survey results) and produce what I think is an effective document. I also coordinated things for our meeting this week.

Up this week... continued work on the above mentioned tasks. I will be out of town (going up to Pennsylvania to visit family) Friday through Monday and will check email daily. Once I get back, I will obviously jump back into everything head first. Joy just emailed us that she was back, so she will be assisting Eun Ju and Jea with the remaining tasks due the 9th. I just had to get mine knocked out this week due to being gone. According to our timeline, the Prototype, Storyboards, and Flow Chart are coming up shortly (due on the 23rd). We'll look at these in further detail tomorrow and next Thursday nights. Have a nice week!