Week 14 Update

This past week, our group accomplished a lot. With our level two flowchart finished, we were able to start working through level three. We spent a lot of time this past weekend getting two of the different math concepts (money and time) completed. We were able to work through both of them and begin to see patterns between the different pages, which made our work go a little smoother and quicker. After finishing 2 of the 5 areas, we broke and decide the split up the rest of the work. Patrick took the responsibility of finishing the other three areas (measurement, fractions, and probability). Angela was responsible for getting a final draft of the critique ready to hand in and produce a screen layout to paste into our level three pages. Ryan was responsible for finishing any of the scripts that would be needed and be ready to label them in reference to what is written on our level three. We are seeing an end in sight to all our hard work this semester. We have another week and a few days to finish everything up and get it in our binder.

Health Status: We are feeling good. We are in the homestretch of completing our binder and got a lot of the work out of the way this past weekend.

Week 13 Update

In the past week, we finally finished and updated our level 2 flow chart. From there, we took our level 3 template and began to set up the pages with the navigation IDs and page titles. This will make it easy for us to find our place on the level 2 flow chart when going back and forth between the two levels. We took one chunk of the level 2 flow chart and created 37 different level 3 slides in PowerPoint, using one file. This made it easy for use to see the number of slides we will need in each section. The next step was to copy that file, with all of the navigation IDs and page titles, and change them to reflect our next section. Since all five of our sections are consistent with each other, the task of creating the slides was fairly easy. We also began writing scripts for the different testimonials and advanced organizers that we are going to use. Again, because each section is very similar to each other, except for content, our script writing went very smoothly. Our next step is to create the rest of the level 3 templates and start filling in the rest of the needed information over the weekend. Here is the template that we will be using for level 3:


Health Status: We have a lot of templates to fill out and at this point is seems very overwhelming. I think that we have a good plan on how to accomplish this, and hopefully it will go very smoothly. Since most of our scripts are written, we feel comfortable with the work we are doing.

Week 12 Update

This week we continued planning. We met with Dr. Abed to look over our level two and take suggestions and comments to incorporate into our design. We were able to map out a flow that would be beneficial to the viewer. This would help them navigate in a way that they had some control our viewing the content, but at the same have to view each topic in order. We came up with a way to incorporate a password in our flow chart that would block students from not going in the order we wanted them to. Another piece that we changed in our level two flow chart was the process of obtaining the password to move onto the next topic. Instead of having the choice of scenarios to choose, they would be required to complete the first one, followed by the second one, and then come to a screen to wrap up the content and congratulate them with a password.
Our logo has been completed and has been placed in our level 3 template. Today the level two flow chart will be updated to reflect our changes and coded in a way that we are able to match up the level 3 with the level two. When we meet later this week we will begin to create files for level 3 and start to place our information. We have some scripts for our videos that we will be using and are ready to start putting our binder together.

Health Status: We are anxious and nervous about going into level 3. We see a lot of different elements that need to be placed, but at the same time see things that certain pages will have in common. We have a big task ahead of us.

Here is our company logo that will be used on our level 3 template:

Week 11 Update

We have a level 2 flow chart ready for inspection. Much of the last week was spent mapping out what we felt was a good structure for our program and converting it into a flow chart form. Much of what we can up with is consistent throughout the program with each of the five different concepts. They will be broken down into the four sections that we came up with and each section and concept will be preceded with an advanced organizer (video) to help the viewer understand what they are supposed to get out of each section. This is very important for a motivational program because it will let the view know the important points to pull out of the content they will be viewing. We also spent time creating a Gantt chart for when we are ready to put our binder together. We have also begun to review a past project and go over the list in the syllabus to critique it.

Health Status: We are doing okay. By getting the small pieces out of the way (critique and Gantt chart), we can focus on level three after level two has been checked and marked up.

Week 10 Update

This week we split up the responsibilities and planned on coming together during class to discuss and put our information together. Ryan was in charge of looking at levels one and two for our project. During the processing of the flow charts, it was decided that we should compare and contrast our flow charts with other groups to see how theirs were laid out. Angela was responsible for creating a sample script to bring to class so that we can keep our content consistent throughout our program. With the sample script, we will be able to maintain a certain length and focus within the different categories. Much of our content has been collected and is now beginning to be planned for use in our program. Videos, text, and animation are being planned so that we can really take a look at where our content is being used and how. Patrick has been working on a template for our level 3 so that once our content is ready and the flow charts are made, we can begin work on our binder. Patrick also has been working a Gantt chart template so that we can plug in information when we are ready.

Health Status: Still alive and going. We are working hard to get our content useable and our plans laid down.

Week 9 Update

After meeting during the week, our group has hatched out a good instructional sequence that will motivate students to see the importance of math in the real world. Our plan is to have advanced organizers in place to introduce the each piece in our sequence. These organizers will get the viewer ready for each different category. Once our instructional sequence was developed, we began to look at our content and continued to build and collect information. We thought about the best ways to deliver the content and decided on a few things that will be consistent throughout the program. Each math concept will have testimonials about how this particular math concept has become important in maintaining a job, a definition and real world application, examples of positive occurrences and negative occurrences, and scenarios for the viewer to apply what they have found. Over all, we are making good progress and are going to continue to build content and start placing it appropriately within our program.

Health Status: Doing well. We are working hard and continuing to make progress on our planning and data collection.

Week 8 Update

This week we started to do a lot of the planning for both our level 2 and level 3, as well as completing our design plan. Much of our time in our last class was spent looking at the binders from previous semesters to get an idea of how to come up with a template and make our flow chart readable. We tried to navigate through another project by following their flow chart to see the connection between the two. We also took a look at how the other groups stayed organized by looking at how the level 2 and level 3 compared to each other. We came up with some good ideas to organize our planning and drew a rough draft of our level 2 to be checked. Our level 3 template is completed and we are ready to begin utilizing it once our level 2 is finished. We are still collecting content and sorting through what will be useful to us. We also have to take a look at what content would motivate students and raise their level of interest. It is important that students are able to make several connections to our content in order for our program to be successful.

Health Status: We are doing all right. No major problems or road blocks yet. We are building content and doing some rough planning to see where things will begin to fit in.

Week 7 Update

Most of the past week was spent preparing our design plan in hopes of fine-tuning it this week and having it ready next Tuesday. Each of us has taken the responsibility of getting specific information from each of our schools about the learners that will be using our program. This data will be combined to depict an overall view of the learners. We also spent time looking at all the various media that our project will utilize and began to plan out where that media will be used. We created a media strategy grid and began to plug in all the different types of media and which of those we will use and where. We rationalized the fact that students will have limited choice in our program. Although they will be able to have choice within the sequence of subtopics in each category, however the categories must be viewed in a particular order (concrete to abstract). Since our program is motivational, the way to test success would be through a Likert Inventory to test student behaviors both before and after. We are still working on both the treatment and interfaces. It was decided that the overall mood of the program would deal with searching out information and having the program set in a detective agency. This would cause our treatment to lean toward a Carmen Sandiego-like appearance with each aspect dealing with searching for clues. The interface will also reflect our decision.

Health Status: Stable. We are still moving along well. There is minor pressure on getting all the information together for our design plan next week.

Week 6 Update

This week we began to think about how we need to chunk our content for maximum effectiveness. We needed to figure out what different categories and main headings would fit best within our program. For example, the focus of motivating students will take place in five different categories; money, time, measurement, fractions, and probability. We arranged these topics in this order because it shows a natural progression from concrete to abstract thinking. In order to have consistent media, we began to think about what we want to have in each category, whether a testimonial will precede each page as an introduction or how text and video will play a role. Our next step is to map the whole project out by working on our media strategies and how they will fit into our flow chart consistently. Since our project is one that is motivational, we need to come up with a plan on how to measure whether or not the students’ motivation has been increased. We will need to begin researching motivational strategies and how researchers have measured whether or not students have become more motivated.

Health Status: Although we are still itching to work on our theme and treatment, we are still gathering content and moving along. No major problems or difficulties have occurred yet. Stress levels are low, but as the planning and development stages begin, we will have an increased workload that may push the stress level up.