15/5 #10

This week was a SUPER busy week for Global Solutions. Everyone has been working individually on their own assignments. Suhwa and I have been working to create the various animations and interactions, Ali has been working on putting the content together so that we can see exactly what text will be on each page, and Sunny and Suhwa have been working to edit existing videos and create storyboards for new videos. Since we are each working on different aspects it was a bit difficult to see the project as a cohesive, however, I have found that sharing with each other what as we develop helps us all to see the project as a whole. I am so excited that our group is able to produce great quality work independently and also that we are able to come together as needed and work as a team. For example, Sunny and I met with Dr. Powell and some alumni of the program to record some new videos. Tour expectations were greatly exceeded and we were able to get some great footage in addition to what we had initially intended to record.

Personally this week, along with the usual PM duties I have been working relentlessly on creating the some of the animations that we need for the project and the css style sheet for all the template HTML pages that we will need. This has been quite a tedious task, as I am also trying to prepare for the comprehensive exams; however, thanks to EDIT 7550, I kind of have a better handle on managing my time and resources. With that said, I am pleased to announce that we finally assigned some work to our consultants!!! We have Darin creating some really simple animations for us and Lisa doing a little research. It feels great to have the extra help and I just hope that in the next week or so, we will be able to put the rest of our consultants to work!

In the next week we plan to:
1. Wrap-up animation development
2. Finish content layout
3. Continue video editing
4. Begin creating transcripts for some of the completed videos
5. Input completed animations and videos in HTML pages
6. Upload HTML pages to russia.uga server
7. Upload completed videos to UGA streaming server
8. Get ready for dress rehearsal

As the showcase dress rehearsal lurks in the near future, Global solutions will be working around the clock to get as much of the product completed by that time, so that we will have sufficient time after the showcase to make revisions and also to conduct evaluations. However, as usual I have great confidence in our team and client and I can say without a doubt that we will be able to create a GREAT product.

15/5 #9

Finally, we are now fully immersed in the development stage. A few weeks ago this stage seemed so far out of reach. This week, the team has been working diligently to complete the flow and storyboard documents for the entire program we plan to develop. We have also begun the storyboarding, editing and development of the animations and videos that will be available in the site. Suhwa, I and Sunny are working on those and Ali has been working on arranging the content, splitting it up into the actual pages. The only thing we are waiting on now is the actual server space on which we will house the site. We have heard back from the client and will discuss this further in Thursday’s meeting.

As to what I did this week, apart from working on the animation development, I am also trying to get the videos sorted out, go through what we were given by the client and selecting those I think we will use in the main part of the program.

In the next week, we hope to continue working in the development phase completing the following tasks:

1. Continue animation development
2. Finalize content flow
3. Begin development on the actual server
4. Begin creation of new videos
5. Utilize consultants

For the first time, I think our team is a little bit concerned, as the reality of how much work we actually have to do set in. However, there is still that aura of confidence in ourselves that once we work together that we will get the work done.

15/5 # 8

Somehow I manage to keep forgetting to do these on Wednesday nights:-( I am really going to need to pay closer attention to that. Now on to the project, this week was a busy one for us, and we anticipate being busy for the weeks that followed. We are steadily entering the development phase of the project, where the REAL work begins. This past week, members of our team reviewed the initial flow we have developed a few weeks back. By the end of this process we intend to have a complete flow and storyboard for the entire program. This means we will have a layout of each screen, the content and the resources needed. We believe that this will help us in the future to stay organized and to also look at the project as a whole. We are hoping this will help to allow there to be a level of consistency throughout the entire program. We also identified the specific aspects that each member will be working on moving forward. We plan to have only one individual working on a main aspect with a secondary contact. We decided this would be best, instead of splitting up the program into different sections and having one member complete a whole section. We believe that the method we have chosen will reduce redundancy and therefore, help us to work in a more efficient way.

Personally this week, it was my job to get the flow we had verbally discussed some few weeks back down on paper for the rest of the team members to review and edit. I also completed the flash introduction page, and the HTML template page for the lesson screens.

For the next week, we plan to have completed the flow and storyboard of the site. We also, plan to begin the actual development of the HTML pages, videos and animations. We have already contacted the client to secure server space for us that will be able to host a program that is so heavily focused on video.

As we dive deeper and deeper into the project, I hope that the spirit of great team work will continue and that we will continue to work cohesively as a team and produce the best possible product that we can.

15/5 # 7

Time just seems to be going by so quickly, the good thing is though, that Global Solutions as a team has yet to feel overwhelmed. Hopefully, this feeling (or lack thereof) will last throughout the entire project.

This past week the team was able to accomplish and finalize a great deal of documentation. We met together on Sunday and then again on Monday night to finalize the documents that are due on the 9th. These documents include:

1. Learner Profile
2. Hardware/Software Specification
3. Treatment Rationale
4. Screen Design
5. Evaluation Plan

Once again this week, it was refreshing to see how well the team worked together and how efficiently we are able to get things done. Another important milestone that we met this week was that we were able to share the screen design with the client and she loved it. She also mentioned another group that would be interested in using the program we develop. So this was a great motivational element for the team.

Personally, my tasks for this week included completing the screen design and putting together all the elements for each document together and ensuring that they are correctly formatted. I also, put together the .ppt for this week's STUDIO presentation. Of course I did the usual PM tasks, such as hold meetings, update the client with the week’s activities, document control etc.

In the upcoming week, Global Solutions plans to:

1. Finalize the flow of each section
2. Begin working on a flow chart
3. Begin working on the prototype
4. Put together a list of all the videos/animations that must be created

‘Near’ Future Activities:

* Begin the first stages of HTML development

15/5 # 6

Another week, another 15/5 and as usual, our team has been working very well together. Last week’s meeting went very well, and we managed to develop an initial draft of each of the different sections that we plan to include in the project. We developed an initial flow and the various resources (video, graphics, and animation) that we will need to complete each section. We also, discussed in further detail the documents that we had split up among each other that is due on the 9th. So basically this week we each worked individually on our assigned sections.

Personally, this week I continued work on the screen Design. I am currently trying to do the flash animation for the main entry page of the program.

For the upcoming week, we plan to finalize the Evaluation Plan and the other documents in time to meet the October 9th deadline. The team has already been working on all the documents except for the Evaluation Plan, which we plan to discuss in tomorrow night’s online meeting. Also, in the next week, we hope to have developed a more definite storyboard for the project, so that we can begin working on the prototype in preparation for the Oct 23 deadline.

My hopes going forward, as we get closer and closer to the most crucial part of the Instructional Design phase, which is development, is that we can keep the great team dynamic that we have built and established over the past weeks.

15/5 # 5

Wow, sorry this is late:-( But for reason it slipped my mind yesterday and I didn’t remember until 1:00 a.m. as I was getting ready to go to sleep. It’s been a very busy week for me, as yesterday was my last day at my internship. I had about four projects to wrap up for this internship, which I was just given two weeks ago, so I have been laboriously working on getting those completed. I am just happy it is finally over and now I can focus solely on my schoolwork.

In regards to the project, we finally received the complete content from Dr. Powell on Sunday evening. In reference to this, we decided to cancel our usual Sunday meeting and review the content individually so that we can each become more familiar with it on our own and develop concrete ideas on how to move forward. We plan to meet tonight to share what we have found and collaborate to begin working on how the content will flow and what resources we will need. Also, last Thursday we decided to begin working on the upcoming documents that are due on Oct. 9 (User profile, treatment rationale, Hardware/Software and Screen Design). Each document was assigned to one person on the team, and we plan to work on these and discuss them in Sunday’s meeting. For the evaluation plan, which is also due that day, I did not assign this to any one person, as I believe we should discuss it as a team first, so my plans for this is to begin discussing it in tonight’s meeting. However, as I plan for tonight’s meeting, I don’t think there will be time enough time, as we will be trying to hash out other issues with the content, so I am thinking I will just leave it for our Sunday night meeting.

As for what I did this week, I continued working on the screen design from last week and was able to develop the first draft of our potential main interface. Personally, I am not sure if I like it, but considering that I have been staring at it on my computer screen for what seems like forever and day; I believe my feelings are not very rationale right now. I sent the design to the rest of the team and they seemed to like it a lot, so maybe I just need to take a break from it to see its true beauty:-) This week I also worked on reviewing the content and completing the project timeline documentation.

I hope we can get a lot accomplished in tonight’s meeting so that we can begin forging ahead and actually have tasks that we can assign to our 6200 consultants, before it is too late!

For the upcoming week we plan to:

1. Continue content review
2. Develop concrete ideas for the flow of each section of the project
3. Continue working on main page screen design
4. Begin working on HTML content page design
5. Continue working on the User Profile, Treatment Rationale and Hardware/Software documentation.
6. Begin initial discussions for Evaluation Plan

15/5 # 4

This week was not as stressful as last week. As I stated in last week’s 15/5 our Thursday night meetings are always very efficient and we always get so much covered. We were just about done with the Tasks Analysis then, but due to some confusion had to revisit them and make some necessary revisions (add performance objectives). However, we were able to meet on Sunday and get all of the documentation completed and to the client for review on Monday afternoon.

As for what the team did this week, there really isn’t much we could do without having the full text content in front of us. All we have had to go off of is an outline of the different topics and sub-topics that will be covered in the program. We have had our fingers crossed for a while now in hopes that we will receive something soon. I’ve sent many reminders (without trying to come off as a dictator/pest) to Dr. Powell about having the content to us no later than tomorrow’s class. It is a bit nerve wrecking because we have not heard from her since last week. However, she always seems to come through for us and with more than we need, so there is always some reconciliation that can be found in that fact.

The plan for tomorrow’s meeting was to review the content and determine exactly how we are going to present it to the client (determine the exact flow). However, in the event that we do not receive the content, I do have a backup plan for tomorrow’s meeting, I plan to have us go through all the video content and, based on the outline, determine the videos we will be incorporating into the system. This way we will not be wasting precious time. As for the plan to move forward with the project, I would have to send one final reminder to Dr. Powell that we would have to absolutely receive all the text content in time for our usual Sunday night meeting. So though we may seem a bit unorganized, I assure you that we do have a plan!

What I personally did this week, I have been longing to do from the beginning of the semester. We have had an initial idea of the design that we wanted for a while now. But this week I actually begun the process of trying to get concrete elements in place to begin the screen design, which I must say is my favorite part of system design! To develop our unique screen design, I went searching for other sites that have similar designs to the one we envision and other sites that were just plain cool. I have now narrowed my findings to about 10 sites, and what I plan to do is look at how others have designed these sites and then take elements from each of them, incorporate them with the ideas of the team and form our own unique design! This makes me very excited and I just cannot wait to see what we will come up with. The challenge, I believe we may face, is creating a design that provides the visual appeal of a flash site in Dreamweaver. However, I am confident that we will be able to find a common ground between functionality and design that both the team and client will love.

That’s all for now! The tasks we plan to accomplish in the upcoming weeks are:
1. Develop time line
2. Retrieve the full text content
3. Complete analysis of text content
4. Complete analysis of video content
5. Develop storyboard of the flow of content/site
6. Assign tasks to 6200 consultants
7. Begin initial phase of screen design