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

15/5 # 3

This past week turned out to be a great week for Team Global Solutions. It all started last Thursday, when our client Dr. Gwynn Powell, visited one of our meetings and as usual provided more assistance than we needed at the time. Her drive and charisma motivated the team so much, that we almost forgot about the tight stretch of a week that lied ahead of us and the nightmare of the Needs Assessment that lied ahead. Yes, my choice of words is clearly just for dramatics, but the point is, we had a busy week ahead of us. Thursday night’s meeting motivated us and as a result we were able to achieve a lot this week: We met twice this week: On Sunday night and Tuesday night. On Sunday we were able to accomplish two important goals:

1. Defined the scope of the content
2. Finalize plan for completing the Needs Assessment Document by 9/11/08

On Monday night we were able to put our plans into full swing and met with one of Dr. Powell’s classes to administer the survey. Also, due to tremendous teamwork we were able to get the results tallied and analyzed by our next meeting on Tuesday night. Tuesday night was the final meeting we had in preparation for the Needs Assessment document. We all left the meeting feeling quite good about what we accomplished as we were able to finalize all the areas needed to complete the document, and in less time than we thought we would. Come to think of it, most of our meetings do not run for more than an hour to an hour and a half, but we always seem to cover so much. This efficiency may be attributed to a teammates that come prepared and that contribute all they can when it is needed and as Project Manager I must say it makes me very happy:-)

In the next week we plan to:

• Receive FULL content from the client
• Complete review and thorough analysis of the content
• Complete the Task Analysis
• Begin formulating concrete design ideas for the project

As we move forward, we as a team are working very well together and I can’t wait to see the progress that will occur as the program we plan to develop begins to take shape.

15/5 #2

At this stage, we as a team are still just attempting to stay as much ahead of the game as we can. Regretfully we were not able to meet all the goals we had set for ourselves last week. However, we were able to get a lot discussed during our second meeting and as a result completed the following tasks:

• Finalized 6200 consultants
• Reminded client that the entire content must be received for initial analysis
• Developed a plan/timeline for completing Needs Assessment documentation

We had hoped to receive most of the content early after we returned from Labor Day; however, this turned out to not be a feasible task. Consequently, we have discussed this with the client and plan to receive the content in its entirety tomorrow. Once we receive this we will be ready to forge ahead at full speed. We have altered our original schedule to reflect this change and the entire team has already expressed their willingness to follow this new timeline. As a project manager, I am confident that we will accomplish all that we plan to in the next week.

Things to do in the next week:

• Analyze entire content and determine instructional goals.
• Perform needs assessment and begin Needs Assessment documentation
• Begin formulating ideas for the design approach.

The remainder of this week and the upcoming week is a critical week for Team Global Solutions, as we will be analyzing and defining elements that will be critical to the success of this project as we move forward.

15/5 # 1

This week was an important week for Team Global Solutions and we managed to complete the following core tasks:

• Finalized team members and roles
• Chose a team name: This process turned out to be a lot easier than anticipated. We decided on the name Global Solutions because our team is made up of students that represent 5 different countries. Hence, we believe that we are able to approach Instructional Design from a “global” perspective.
• Chose a project: For half the members on our team, choosing a project was not a difficult task, as we have had the opportunity to work with one of the clients before: Gywnn Powell, who proved to be a superior client. However, the project description on the STUDIO site was also a great help in helping the team make its final decision. Just in general, the main aim of this project is to provide students that are interested in the Russian Summer Camp Program, with the necessary skills to have a successful learning experience abroad.
• Met with the client: Our first meeting with the client was held on 08/26. This meeting was a very successful one, as the client went beyond our expectations and provided answers to many of our questions before we even had the opportunity to ask them. As a result of this meeting, Global Solutions now has a deeper understanding of the task at hand and how to move forward.
• Created Project Management Site: We have decided to use a blog as the central project management site. This blog can be found at: http://6210project.blogspot.com/
• Determined 6200 consultant roles: Having met with the client, we now have a better understanding of the project and the resources that we will need to be successful. Therefore, we have begun the process of describing job descriptions for the areas we will require the most additional resources.

In the upcoming week it is important that our team complete certain tasks that will be imperative to the successful completion of this project. These tasks include:

• Hold first team meeting: Our first collective meeting as a team will be held on 08/27 @ 8:00 p.m. In this meeting we plan to establish protocols that will be of dire importance to the success of the project as we move forward. We intend to finalize communication, meeting and document revision protocols.
• Continue further review of the content and develop a concrete understanding of the project and the goals that we intend to achieve at the end of the semester.
• Develop a plan for initial learner and content analysis.
• Develop a timeline and begin assigning tasks to different personnel.
• Hire” the necessary 6200 consultants.

As a team, we are working very well together and are trying to focus on building a stable platform upon which we will find success during the entire semester. At this point, there are no anticipated red flags and Global Solutions is just eager to forge forward.