E-mailAbout the project
Early in 2010, Stanford plans to begin rebuilding the core functionality provided by Tests & Quizzes 2.x releases (aka Samigo) in the new 3.0 environment. However, we do not want to simply rebuild it based on the current design. Sakai 3.0 allows us the opportunity to make the functionality formerly associated with tools accessible in other contexts; in other words, the functionality of T&Q and similar tools can now be modularized so that users can create or complete activities without necessarily entering a specific tool. Working in 3.0 will also allow us to utilize Web 2.0 interaction styles that simply weren't around when T&Q was initially designed.
We plan to sponsor a 3-month investigation phase beginning in mid-September to help us understand the range of people who use Sakai to create, manage, complete, and assess learning activities and how they think about their work. We want to have a solid understanding of the historical issues, user types, and user goals before we begin designing in January. We believe that understanding how various users really think about their work will lead to new ideas for how workflows need to be structured and interrelate to each other. In other words, it should help us to understand the commonality between workflows that currently occur in multiple tools in multiple ways. Also, although we are not immediately integrating with the workflows of communication, scheduling, and grade reporting, we would like to know how and when users expect their work surrounding learning activities to integrate with those workflows.
This investigation will conclude with an analysis of our findings, including key user types and their functional needs; this phase will lead directly into recommendations for design. Therefore, we hope that a broad range of institutions will contribute to this investigation, especially by providing end-user profiles based on local interviews of instructors and students regarding the work they do with tests, quizzes, and other graded assignments. If you are interested, please read more about participating in the investigation and sign up for a kick off meeting in September 2009, Although it's likely that instructors and students at Stanford are similar to many users at other schools, it's also likely that other schools have different classroom structures (difference in class size, involvement of assistants or instructional designers, distance learning, and pedagogy) that will have implications for how their users need to work; we want to take these into account as well.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Keli Amann and Jackie Mai
User Experience Specialists
Stanford University, Academic Computing
Projected Timeline
| Investigation Phase: Sept-Dec 2009 | Framework Phase: Jan-Feb 2010 | Design & Development Phase: Feb 2010-tbd |
|---|---|---|
| This is the ideal time to get involved to make sure the needs of your users are represented. Learn more about the investigation phase and how you can get involved. This phase will conclude with the publication of a user and domain analysis describing the distinct types of users and their functional needs. |
Based on our analysis from the previous phase, we will outline screens to represent the functional needs of each type of user, the functional elements that need to be present on each screen, and describe, using scenarios, how a user would step through their screens. The Framework is not detailed design, it is a) a check-in point to see if we've managed to capture the needs of users b) a diagram to discuss how teams that might have worked on discrete tools in the past need to work together |
Stanford will prioritize specific screens from the Framework to design and develop; beyond that, no specific timeline, process, or resources have been established. Keep watching the page for detail as we approach this phase. |
This project is not
- a quick fix. If you have discrete issues, please continue to submit issues to JIRA so they can be considered for a future 2.x type release. But if you can describe why this issue is important to a specific person and are willing to talk to them about the context of their needs, we hope you'll participate in the investigation.
- a commitment from Stanford to solve every need that emerges from the investigation; our design and development resources our limited. We are, however, committed to creating a framework (see above) that enables teams to work together with a common understanding. This project is to encourage new people to get involved in describing and developing capabilities in a structured way.
- a technical discussion. We will begin sponsoring technical discussions toward the beginning of 2010 as the framework begins to emerge.
