Ed Tec 452: Educational Multimedia
Design
Fall 2000
Thursdays, 4:15-6:45, 102 South Campus Computer Building (SCB)
(with selected meetings in the E. Desmond Lee Technology & Learning
Center)
Instructor: Joe Polman, Ph.D
Office: E. Desmond Lee Technology &
Learning Center, Suite 100 Marillac Hall
Office Hours: Mondays 2:30-4pm, Thursdays 9-10:30am, or by appointment
Phone: 516-4804, Email: polman@umsl.edu
Web: http://www.umsl.edu/~edujpolm (follow
link to “My courses” for materials)
Students will learn principles and techniques for the design of functionally and visually effective multimedia educational resources. Emphasis will be placed on techniques for the computer-based production of materials incorporating text, graphics, and video. Rapid prototyping and evaluation techniques will be incorporated.
There are four main activities associated with the course:
1) Attending class weekly and actively participating. These sessions will be devoted to development work and activities, as well as presentation and discussion of readings and other assignments, led by the professor and students. You should notify me before class if you know you will not be able to attend, and as soon as possible if something unexpected arises. Missing more than two class meetings will require makeup work.
2) Making a presentation of key points and leading the class in discussion of one reading during the semester. The signup for these will be in week 2.
3) Occasional short reflection papers and assignments. These will relate to the readings and serve as preparation for class discussion.
4) Completion of a design and development project that will span most of the semester. This will include numerous graded interim versions of design sketches and plans followed by a prototype and 2 revisions of a multimedia educational web resource. Students may work alone or in pairs on the project. In order to make the projects meaningful and concrete, as well as enable us to better share our work, all projects are expected to relate to the Center for Human Origins and Cultural Diversity (CHOCD) on the campus of UM-St. Louis. Their programs are interdiscinary and geared toward both children and adults, so developing an idea that relates to your core interests should be possible. At the end of the semester, CHOCD will publish on their web site any of the resources we develop that meet their approval. (Interim project files are here!)
Grades for the course will be based on work in class and out as follows:
Norman, D. A. (1988). The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday. (Referred to as “Norman” below)
Baecker, R. M., Grudin, J., Buxton, W. A. S., & Greenberg, S. (1995). Readings in human-computer interaction: Toward the year 2000. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufman. (Referred to as “Readings” below)
Note: The assigned selections from the Baecker et al. “Readings” book will also be available on reserve in the Ward E. Barnes Library, so you don’t need to buy the book unless you wish to own it (it is a good general resource if you are interested in computer system design).
1. Aug 24 Introductory Class: Designing for Learning
Assignments, due in class next week (these will be discussed in class on Sept 7):
2. Aug 31 The context for our project: CHOCD
For class today, read Norman: Prefaces and chapter 1: The psychopathology of everyday things.
Class will meet at the Center for Human Origins and Cultural Diversity’s (CHOCD) Human Origins Lab in Clark Hall 406.
Assignments, due next week in class: Note aspects of the CHOCD experience that you think could become part of a multimedia educational web resource you design and create.
3. Sep 7 Designing for every day
For class today, read Norman chapters 2 (The psychology of everyday actions) & 3 (Knowledge in the head and in the world)
Class today will be held in the Technology & Learning Center, Suite 100 Marillac Hall. We will have discussion, brainstorming, and you will begin the Dreamweaver tutorial.
Assignments, due next week:
4. Sep 14 How do we know what works?
For class today, read Norman chapters 4 (Knowing what to do) & 5 (To err is human) as well as pages 681-683 of your Readings book (Human error and the design of computer systems).
Class today will involve comparison and evaluation of the design of educational and some other web resources, including the ones you have collected.
Assignment, due next week: Pick a partner if you wish to work with someone, and write a paragraph proposal for your educational multimedia design project (a web resource for CHOCD)
5. Sep 21 Designing for Use
For class today, read Norman chapters 6 (The design challenge) & 7 (User-centered design)
Assignment, due in two weeks (Oct 5): Preliminary written/graphical specification of your design.
6. Sep 28 The Design Process
For class today, read “Case A: Iterative design of an information kiosk” (pp. 23-34) and pages 71-121 on the Process of Developing Interactive Systems in your Readings book.
7. Oct 5 Designing for users
For class today, read pages 122-141 (“Getting to Know Users and their Tasks” and “Tools and techniques for creative design”) in your Readings book.
Assignment, due in two weeks (Oct 19): Prototype.
8. Oct 12 Metaphors and usability inspection
For class today, read pages 147-151 (“Working with interface metaphors”) and 170-181 (Usability inspection methods) in your Readings book.
9. Oct 19 The context of design
For class today, read pages 187-196 (Considering work contexts in design) and 215-224 (Cooperative design) in your Readings book.
Class today will be held in the E. Desmond Lee Technology & Learning Center. You will be demonstrating your prototype.
Assignment, due in two weeks (Nov 2): Working version 1 of your web resource.
10. Oct 26 Designing for interaction
For class today, read pages 399-424 (Interacting with computers) of your Readings book.
11. Nov 2 Visual Design: Color, Graphics, and Fonts
For class today, read
12. Nov 9 Hypertext and Multimedia
For class today, read pages 833-853 (on hypertext and multimedia) in your Readings book. You may also want to read more about web design at
Assignment, due Nov 30: Heuristic evaluation (per Nielsen's criteria in handout), small user test (2-4 users) and plans for redesign for version 2.
13. Nov 16 Psychology and Human Factors
For class today, read pages 571-602 (on psychology of human factors) of your Readings book
Nov 23 Thanksgiving Holiday
14. Nov 30 Final Class Meeting
Evaluations and Interactive Symposium in the TLC.
Version 2 and reflection paper on process are due by the assigned time of the final exam, Thursday, 14 December, at 5:30pm.