History of
RegionalCommissions
in Georgia
Team 15/5's
A 15/5 is a short progress report. Taking about fifteen minutes to write and five minutes to read it keeps everyone up to date on the weekly going's on with the project. These reports will be written both for team progress and for individual progress. Check out the team members' pages for their individual 15/5 reports.
Second 15/5
January 26, 2016
I spent this week working on our Need Assessment document. I had volunteered to do it then quickly realized that Tracy had most of the information required to do it properly. So she and I did it together. I enjoyed reading the Performance Audit of the Commissions. It reminded me of the District Manager and Loss Prevention Audits we used to get at Office Depot. Those were monthly - I'm sure the RC's are glad they aren't audited monthly! Anyway there was a ton of information in there while it wasn't all favorable, it really helped shed light on why this training is so important. Many of the council members turn over every two years, the appointed ones. Those are the ones least likely to know what laws govern their actions. If we can make this training relatively painless while still being efficacious it will be very helpful for everyone.
It was very helpful, of course, that all of this work had already been done for us. I'm not sure how we could have done a full blown Needs Assessment on our own with collecting data and all. Fortunately, the data was there and the state auditor had already determined the need. I'm a little disappointed because I would like more practice doing Needs Assessments. Hopefully I may get one more chance next semester.
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First 15/5
January 18, 2016
This is my first post. I've been working on this website so far. I'm curious to see how my post will appear. I'm not including an image and want to see the layout of a text only post.
I've read all of the documentation sent out both by Tracy and Dr. Clinton. Initially it all looks very intimidating but when it is broken out among 5 people it should work out well. I worry a little since I'm joining an established group that I might let them down or not fit in with their vibe. They have all been very nice in my previous interactions so I'm sure we will be able to work it out.
Today I started looking at the Needs Assessment requirements. We also had a team meeting and went over quite a lot of things for getting the project rolling. Tracy and I decided we would work on the Needs Assessment together. It is a huge document with a lot to cover plus she already has a lot of the information gathered.
I think we're off to a great start.
Fourth 15/5
February 9, 2016
This week was extremely busy. I worked on the curriculum maps for our Task Analysis document. Tracy was doing the task break down and Megan was doing the Assessment strategy. Unfortunately, there was a brief time when we weren’t all working on the same document. We got that straitened out, and I’m pleased to say, I don’t believe we will have any more issues going forward. Our workload is quite heavy this week due to the additional assignments from the other class, a heavy reading load, and I’m also preparing for the Chapter presentation with Chris and Lechuan. Everyone is feeling the stress. I found the Case assignment instructions to be rather confusing and only having 1 week to research it seemed a little short. We got it done in the end. I think our Task Analysis has turned out really good for having three of us looking at it and talking about what actions we can get out of these verbal objectives. Next, we need to come up with some creative ideas for presenting the content.
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Fifth 15/5
February 16, 2016
In our meeting last week, we split up the writing duties for the multitude of documents which are due on March 2. I’m all for contributing to the greater good. I got tasked with the Design and Development Framework and the Instructional Model. We decided we’d use ADDIE for our framework which is great. However, we didn’t discuss what model we planned to use. I started thinking it over in light of Dr. Clinton’s instructions that we not present a strait tutorial for verbal goals. It became increasingly difficult to visualize a model decision being made without the input of at least the Designer and Developer (Lana and Cheri). I did some research and came up with a couple of possibilities that I thought I could argue a case for and sent out an e mail. We are not yet in agreement, but Cheri did send back some other research she found with a few different ideas I plan to check out. My concern is we won’t use a model as a tool to enhance the development of the lesson. I don’t want to “cop out” just because verbal goals are difficult.
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Third 15/5
February 2, 2016
This week I primarily spent working ahead so I would be ready when the real work hits. My major function for the project as Audio specialist will not be called upon until after others have developed more of the lessons. I am more than willing to help out with this lesson development should it be required but until then, I’m just reading ahead for our Evaluation class and doing what I can to be ready. Don’t get me wrong, I want to understand what goes into our lesson also. The content really isn’t complicated – lots of verbal information. Its going to be tough to make it interesting. It is pretty important stuff though for the target audience.
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Sixth 15/5
February 23, 2016
It’s been a slow project week for me. We completed the project documents last week and everyone agreed to review them all before I combine them into one doc to be turn in. I think they look good. Once we all agreed on the Instructional Model things really started to fall into place which is why we needed to agree on it. I’m glad I started the conversation because going backwards would have been painful. Now it feels like we have a tool that will help us. I should really thank Cheri since she is the one who came up with it in the end. She should be deep into storyboarding and Megan turned out the Evaluation Plan for everyone to look over.
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Seventh 15/5
March 1, 2016
Its been a busy week for the team more so than me personally. I assembled all of our individually created documents which are due on March 2 into one doc to be turned in. It actually creates a nice cohesive design doc. It contains the learner profile, treatment rationale, design and development framework, instructional model, screen design, and hardware and software specifications. When we show it to the client it will deliver a lot of information about how and what we are doing with their project.
Also due on the 2nd is the Evaluation Plan. Megan did a great job of pulling that together and we’re just finishing the final edits on that document. I think our plan will do a fairly good job of evaluating the worthiness of what we’ve developed. We’re including an expert review to look at our content for correctness and completeness so that is a plus especially considering how little time we actually have to pull it all off!
Finally, Cheri submitted her first draft of the Storyboards! She pulled those off in record time. I know Lana appreciates being able to get started. We had a very valuable discussion about whether what we were doing we going to be creative enough to engage the learners. We’ve gone pretty much with a strait tutorial despite the advice Dr. Clinton gave us. After much consideration, we decided that it would best suit the expectation of our client. Lana is going to incorporate more creative elements in the slides as she puts them together to “spice things up”. We feel that Carl Vinson is pretty conservative and won’t necessarily take to us deviating very far from what they’ve typically done. I’m disappointed because I was hoping for the chance to create something more innovative. None of my previous projects have lent themselves to much in terms of creative information presentation. I guess I will just have to save my ideas for the next time.
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Eighth 15/5
March 8, 2016
Last week did not involve me working on the project directly. Lana has started on the development of the module itself which means I will be called upon to start working on the audio as soon as she has some portion finished. I am looking forward to some solid contribution. I think doing the audio is a good way for me to do that. I feel I do quality work and it will stand the test of time.
We received good feedback on most of our 3/2 documents from Dr. Clinton. I even got a small compliment on how I framed the ADDIE framework as a design and development framework. I was pleased! The only thing we did not do well was the treatment rationale. I went back and read the instructions and had to agree with a lot of the criticism. I suggested Cheri be the one to rewrite since she was responsible for the storyboards. I felt she had the best handle on her design choices and her own rationale for making them. Tracy and Megan submitted partial rewrites that covered some of what needed to be said. I think we are still a little unclear on exactly what we need to be explaining about the treatment. When you put the two of them together, though they aren’t too bad. Hopefully they will be satisfactory for Dr. Clinton since we have ignored his advice about not doing a tutorial.
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Ninth 15/5
March 15, 2016
The only project work I was required to do over spring break was some document management work. I edited our Assorted Document with all of the items due on 3/2 to update the treatment rationale and instructional model then reposted it to the website. I also posted the Flowchart and Storyboards which are due this week on the 16th. We did revise the Storyboards slightly. I had a question about one of them when I was going through Lana’s content she’d completed so far. I didn’t understand what it was showing in relationship to our objectives. When I sent it out to the team, Cheri responded that she had been unsure as well and meant to ask for Tracy’s help. Tracy revised the content. I will wait until I see what Lana does before I compose the final transcript but, ultimately Tracy understands how this all works better than the rest of us so I’m sure she did a good job.
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Tenth 15/5
March 22, 2016
Not a lot of project work to speak about again this week. Lana has been having some difficulties when she publishes the module from her Google Drive so I uploaded it and republished it from my Google Drive this week. I was able to get it working well. I am still not sure if the problem is the way she is publishing, how she is saving it, or Google Drive itself. We really need to figure it out or it is going to make it difficult to send it out to testers. I know it isn’t the size because the file I produced last summer is 3-4 times bigger than this one and full of pictures and audio. Besides that I spent a lot of time posting files to the website since each of us had three items that needed to go onto it this week. I asked everyone to put them all together on a word doc to make the management easier. Still it meant a couple hours of just moving stuff around. I like doing the website though. Now it is just study, study, study. I’m nervous but I think it will be ok. Researching the questions has turned up some pretty cool info.
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Eleventh 15/5
March 29, 2016
I finally got to start recording audio for the project this week. Unfortunately I found myself to still be confused by the content on “that one” slide. I sent it out to the team and Tracy offered up a fix that was partially good. Then I felt guilty that I kept complaining about something and not doing anything myself to figure out the problem. Which was that I just didn’t understand the point of the content. So I went and did some research on my own to make sense of it. Then I offered my own solution, which was admittedly a bit overkill. Cheri, who is our official ID came back with her storyboard version and I slept on it. After taking a step back, I realized that what we must cover was less about the specifics and more about the principle behind the content. I am glad I did the research though because it gives the content some needed context that helps it be understood better. So Lana will decide how best to put the slide together. Megan will rewrite the applicable evaluation item. I’ll make sure the vocals make sense and the lesson will be better. I am so lucky to have a team that works so well together.
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Twelfth 15/5
April 5, 2016
We had a brief team meeting and ironed out how the schedule would go for the rest of the project. We want to move up the testing so there is more time to make changes if they are necessary. With that in mind, I looked over the slides really carefully before I published this time and produced a list of edits, typos and question feedback that isn’t coming up right. It should save Lana some time later. I also have a couple questions about the last bit of audio I need to record. I may be able to get some input from our expert, Ron Wincek when we meet with him tomorrow. Everything else is pretty smooth sailing at this point. It was great to hear how the audio enhanced the lesson and really worked well with the content. I’m looking forward to hearing what the testers say. Even if they have suggestions, it will only make it better!
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Thirteenth 15/5
April 11, 2016
Tracy and I met with Ron Wincek on Monday and got a lot of suggestions for usability and 508 compliance. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of extra voice over and alt text in the module. We divided up the work so it wouldn’t all fall on Lana’s shoulders and went to town. I added the transcript to the doc and sent it back to Lana to same her that development time. Then I started working on turning my working transcript document into a doc we could use as a downloadable PDF in the module. It is still not quite finished but coming along nicely. It was a lot of work to think about what a sight impaired learner might want that doc to “look” like. Then I finished the audio I needed to record. I feel a little badly though. I do my work during the week and work for the theater on the weekend mostly. Everyone else works weekdays and does homework on the weekends. I needed feedback in order to finish the audio and hadn’t heard from anyone. I’m afraid I may have taken my frustration out on Lana just a bit. Patience is something I still need to work on.
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Fourteenth 15/5
April 18, 2016
With the exception of looking over work that other team members are doing, I haven’t had much to do with the project this week. Lana has done a great job of incorporating comments from our Alpha testers as well as Ron Wincek and just doing general fixes that needed cleaning up. We also had our second Desk Crit with our classmates and received some good feedback there. Tracy and Megan are primarily involved in writing the final documentation for class. I volunteered to help but sometimes too many cooks do spoil the broth. We still have Beta testers and some expert reviewers looking at content. There may be some tweaks that come out of those evaluations yet but we are definitely in the home stretch.
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Fifteenth 15/5
April 23, 2016
This past week, I reviewed the draft copy of the final evaluation report. It looked great and I only made 1 suggestion for improvement. We have our final team presentation on Wednesday. Then it is just a matter of making sure all the last documents are in place on the website and we are done. We have about 5 weeks off before we start our last classes. I really can’t believe it is nearly over!