Agile development is traditionally used in software development, the format is to take an idea and quickly turn it into a working model and launched. From there it is updated constantly with changes and fixes to become the product it needs to be to function according to the needs of the user.
At Independent Study, we are using this same development model to create courses with the idea that they will change and morph according to students/faculty needs as they are being used.
The information below is from a document created for all members of the development group within Independent Study, but I have pulled out the information that I feel is important for our teams needs.
The Mission for the IS Development team:
We create middle school, high school, and university for-credit online courses for universities, schools, teachers, and homeschools so students can successfully achieve their learning outcomes in an affordable manner.
What does this mission mean?
It means the "We" is all of us, working together on the same time, trying to achieve our mission. We work together lending our expertise as a means to help the whole team in achieving this mission.
The "students" are our main audience, they are the users of our courses. We strive to understand who they are and how to serve them, remembering both their diversity and learning conditions.
Our courses enable students to succeed. Because of good design and aligned content. While we cannot ensure students will choose to learn, we "can successfully achieve" our part by influencing them with good design, support, feedback and by the quality of the courses.
Generally our courses fall within a unique market of lower price and high credit value. To maintain this low cost, we need to make a conscious effort to produce the courses in an "affordable manner". Our responsibility is to complete our tasks in a timely manner and of a quality that doesn't require frequent corrections or updates.
Agile Development Process
The process begins with approvals, from university and Independent Study administrators. Once approval has been granted for a course, the next stage is Design. During the Design stage, the author (teacher/faculty) member will meet with the Instructional Designer to begin outlining the course and all of the components. Once the design is set, the author begins to write the first lesson(s) and a scrum team is formed. A scrum team is made up of an Instructional Designer, art lead, media production lead, QC lead, editor, Instructional Design Assistant, programmer, and TA lead. That team will be together during the duration of the course and possibly longer. The Instructional Designer is the scrum team leader and all work and management of the team lie with them. The Development stage is where you as scrum team members begin and finish your work. Following the Development Stage of the course is the Release stage, and finally the Pilot stage.
Art Lead Responsibilities
The Art Lead is responsible for the overall aesthetic and instructional value of all the visual aspects of the course. The artist creates, finds, and adapts illustrations, graphics, images, maps, powerpoints, etc for the course. The artist works with the author to improve any presentations used in video lectures. The artist also ensures that all images are in the proper format, resolution, size so they display correctly in different devices and media. The artist works with the author and the designer suggesting ideas for how to best portray concepts, ideas, or relationships visually to enhance the course. As a graphic artist, I would ask myself, "How can I best help visual learners understand this content? How can I better represent these ideas?"
Sometimes the best graphical solution for visual artifacts in a course may be different from the style or artistic abilities of the illustrator assigned to the scrum team. In those cases, the Art Lead should consult and coordinate with the Art Director (Suzy) to delegate specific tasks to other members of the department's Art team (also inform the instructional designer about these changed assignments).
Friday, September 30, 2016
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Charts + Graphs
What is wrong with this chart?
Graphs, Charts, etc Checklist
- accessibility (color, readability)
- hierarchy of information (labeling to clarify information)
- sans-serif fonts preferable
- spell check
Colors will be difficult to distinguish for color blindness, but use of different line styles can be used as the identifier instead.
The original
The recreated
The original
The recreated
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