What are we doing this week?

I don’t know what you all are doing this week, but what I’m doing is grading, and hoping the semester ends soon!

I hope to have any/all work that’s currently in the grading slushpile turned around and sent back by Tuesday evening. Also, just a reminder, while we were originally slated to complete 10 quizzes and 10 exercises this semester, that pace was killing us. Those of  you who are playing along at home will notice that we’re not going to get to 10. I’ll try to find a way to hide the “empties” that are cluttering up your gradebooks and freaking some of you out.

Here’s the skinny on this week.

 

What do we need to accomplish this week?

The good news? We’re headed into the final homestretch.

Even better news? Once your team’s progress report is in, your team can proceed full steam ahead on your final usability report. No quizzes, exercises, or discussion from here on out.

 

What do you all think?

I’m considering scrapping the oral presentation component of the Usability Project, to give you all a little more time to work on your progress reports and on your final recommendation reports as the semester unwinds

 

What we need to do this week

You have two main objectives to accomplish this week.

1. Complete your usability testing and analyze your test data.Some of you come from majors where you do a lot of field testing and data analysis. If this area is new to you, might want to take a look at my lecture notes on how to do data analysis. (These are notes from the f2f class last summer, so disregard any comments in here re: timetables, due dates or work previously completed.) My notes: jms_usability_data_analysis Also available in Learning Module and WebCampus email.
2. Submit an informal progress report for your team by midnight Sunday (one report per team). You’ll find an assignment description for this report in the Informal Reports Learning Module. I’m also sending a back-up copy to your WebCampus mailboxes.

Before you start work on the progress report, you should read Chapter 17 in the textbook, but you don’t need to read the whole chapter. You can skip the rest, but you should definitely read these sections:

• Understanding the Process of Writing Informal Reports
• Writing Progress and Status Reports
• Writer’s Checklist

If you’re not great with visuals, you’ll want to check out Chapter 13 in the textbook for guidance on how to properly select, construct and integrate graphics.

No quiz this week — I should be able to tell whether you can apply the concepts from the readings by looking at your Progress Reports.

No discussion this week — you should be plenty busy discussing your usability testing and analyzing your test results.

If you have questions, post ‘em here.

Enjoy the windy day.

Dr. S.

 

 

Start your usability testing as soon as you can

Just a quick Monday morning update. Teams that have already turned in their final Research Design Plans and usabilit test materials are ready to start their usability testing! Yeah, teams.

A couple of teams are still wrapping up the final version of those documents. Get those wrapped up and turned in as soon as you can (bigger teams, I realize you’re at a logistical disadvantage here, and since you gave me healthy advanced warning, there’s no penalty for being late.) You don’t have to have your final design plan turned in before you start usability testing; once your testing protocols are in their final shape, you can start your user tests (even if you’re still putting the final touches on the design planning memo.

A couple of options for doing your user tests:

1. Get a couple people on your team together in a convenient location, bring in all five of your test subjects, and have them do the test one at a time. One of you moderate, the other one record. If you have three people doing the testing you can have a moderator, someone who records what the test subject says, and someone who records what the test subject does.
2. Distribute the testing burden and have each person on your team do the test a couple of times. If you use this distributed model, you’ll be much better off in the long run if you can coerce a friend into helping you. Have the friend act as the moderator, and you serve as the recorder/observer.

Remember the goal of your testing is to generate enough data so that you can analyze it, code it so you can spot trends, and then come up with recommendations for improving the website that are supported by your test findings and by any outside research you’ve done.

Once you’ve finished your user testing, you can analyze your data, and then write the informal progress report that is due at the end of this week. Because of our ongoing issues with the WebCampus assignment feature, I’ll send the assignment details for the progress report to you via WebCampus email later today.

In the meantime, if you have questions, post ‘em here.

Dr. S.

 

WebCampus may actually be killing me — New Game Plan

PLEASE EMAIL COPIES OF YOUR RESEARCH DESIGN PLAN DRAFTS, INSTRUCTION PROJECTS ASAP

All:

WebCampus is blocking my every effort to access the Assignment Tab and the Assignment Dropbox today. In light of the persistent and seemingly irresolvable problem with system errors and the assignment page, I propose that we simply stop using it. When you have a moment, please resubmit your final Instructions Project as an attachment in WebCampus email. If your group submitted a draft of the Research Design Plan and Usability Test materials for instructor review, please send them to me via WebCampus email. I will comment on them and get them back to you ASAP. 

As I noted on Monday, this is a slower week — no new readings, quizzes or discussions — and you should be using your time to recruit usability test participants and/or wrapping up/revising your Research Design Plan.

Dr. Staggers

 

Quick update on Monday morning

Folks,

I’m back and catching up. If you have materials (your team’s Research Design Plan and Usability Test materials for optional instructor review and/or final draft of your Instructions) that you haven’t turned in yet that you plan to turn in within the next day or so, drop me a line to let me know what you have outstanding and when I should expect it.

I’ll work on getting you feedback on your design plans/test materials ASAP — I’m shooting for Wednesday evening; after that I’ll get your Instructions projects graded. I’m excited about seeing them; you have some interesting projects.

Once I see where we’re at, I’ll get a more formal game plan together for this week. Big picture, though, is this: If your team did not turn in materials for instructor review, you should use this week to finalize your Research Design Plan and Usability Test materials; all teams should also be rounding up participants for your usability tests. Each team will need to conduct all of their usability tests next week, so each team will need at least five test subjects.

If you’re looking to work ahead, you might want to get started on the textbook readings for the next phases of the project.

• Chapter 17 will help you write the Progress Report (due after you’ve completed Usability Testing)
• Chapter 18 will help you write the Usability Recommendation Report (the main final report for this project)
• Chapter 21 will help you write the Oral Presentation

That’s it for today.

Dr.  S.

 

What do we need to accomplish in Week 10?

Greetings from New Orleans!

I’m at a conference this week, but I’ll be checking in daily. Post questions here or send via WebCampus email in a pinch.

The skinny on the WebCampus chaos is this: Random individuals cannot access the Designing Research Learning Module or submit Assignments through the Assignments tab. This is apparently related to the problem we were having a week ago. WebCampus has a trouble ticket and is working on the issue. So far, I know that Mike S., Justin, and Kevin have had this problem. If you’re also experiencing difficulty, let me know via WebCampus email, so I can forward your name/issue to the troubleshooting team.

To cut down on the chaos and confusion, I will not post anything new in WebCampus this week. (So Mike S. and anyone else who is being driven crazy by the “new” icons in the system, feel free to ignore them. Unless you’re getting email or discussion posts from your teammates, there won’t be anything new in the system this week.) Also, feel free to submit any/all work via WebCampus email if you’re getting errors with the Assignment tab.

As for actual business… this is basically a work week. There are no new assigned readings, quizzes, or discussion. Here’s what you do need to get done:

 

Working on technical issues

Team –

We have roughly 16,000 problems with WebCampus at present. I’m working on resolving them or coming up with some work-arounds. I’ll have an update for you on Tuesday morning. In the meantime, your mission this week is to wrap up those individual Instructions Projects, and get a jump on the Research Design Plan memo and Usability Test for the group project.

 

Work-around for access problem

A couple of you have reported repeated “system errors” this week when you try to access either the Assignments tab or the Research Design Learning Module. That sounds suspiciously similar to what the WebCampus folks have previously described as a “Known Issue with No Work Around.” I’m forwarding your descriptions of the problem to the tech folks (thanks Kevin and Mike S. for submitting such useful and detailed descriptions of the problem). If you have trouble turning in any work using the Assignment link, feel free to submit things directly via WebCampus email. (I’ll be pretty relaxed about deadlines — that means hours late not days late — until we find out what’s going on.)

In the meantime, you all still need access to the materials for the Research Design Learning Module…

If you check your WebCampus email, you’ll find a message that has all of the files you’ll need for the Designing Research module. I’ve attached them to the email as a zip file. Just click on the zip file  to open it and download the documents to your favorite computer. You’ll find all of the readings, assignments, and samples you’ll need inside. The only things that are not included in the file are Quiz 6, (which you should be able to get to directly from the Assignments tab), and these links to some online resources you might find helpful:

• Excellent Example of a Test Protocol (test materials)
• Usability Toolkit (lots of samples/models here)
• Usability.gov (loads of samples, ideas for your own tests)
• Sample: An Online Usability Report by Jakob Nielsen

 As you wrap up work on the Instructions Project and start to turn your attention to the group project, you may find that you’re a little frustrated at first. Getting the group project off the ground is actually the hardest part of the whole class. Once your group is up and running, the project is actually kind of interesting, challenging and fun. Most students say they finish the project having learned a lot about how to work with an online team.

If your team is hitting snags or bumps at the getting up and organized stage, feel free to call on me. I have lots of tips, tricks, and strategies that have worked for other teams in the past, and I’m more than happy to help you troubleshoot/negotiate the process of getting the project off the launchpad.

Dr. S.