Well almost there, there is still a bit of work left to do on the report. Just to confuse things I reorganized the project directory once more using and deleting some of the directories created by Hua. :) Everything except for the index.html should be in the content directory by the part of the project (according to our navigation widow) So put both your .htm(l), .doc and whatever else files there. For competitive analysis, I have created a page for each system using the template, so you basically just need to past your stuff in there. Use Hua's WebCt.htm for how to organize things.

So I think Nan and Xiajun need to coordinate their content. Hua will help me with professor needs assessment, every one will contribute to Competitive analysis. We should aim to have something for each section by Friday, regardless of whether things are good or not (I don't think Ray will be too picky as far as grading purposes, besides we did a great job on presentation). I probably will continue to do some more editing work on the report into next week, just because I think it's good to complete this for ourselves and more importantly, future reference for our "portfolio".

--Rosa

May 9:

Hi All,

Xiaojun, Hua and I agreed to have tomorrow's slide review meeting at 5. I have to go to a dinner at 7:30. That is my only constraint.

Also, I finally did an Assignment View Page. It is called the assiPublishView.jsp. The content that is relevant to the student side is in the table.

Since I was looking around the student side to figure out your color scheme etc, I noticed there are still some problems. Hua or Nan, one of you should really check all your links.

1) The archive link is dead. I would suggest don't make a real link if you don't have an interface, just do an underline or something to indicate it.

2) I don't think you need the separate link to get into the permissions since there is one from individual assignments. Also, in page for adjusting the permissions, since there is space, instead of using codes, just use the terms directly. The current table also look pretty squished and thus difficult to figure out what's going on. Having wider column titles and centering the radio buttons could help.

3) I don't know if you will have time to do an interface, but you should at least think about how people can get into the group member listings... Someone did mention that the people figures seem to indicate groups. Maybe that's a useful way of getting into the listing for group views. Then you can try something else for getting into the

4) Someone should fiddle with the column widths in overview, so the table is not as wide as it is currently now. This table is already pretty wide so any space saving can help.

Let's all try to go over the slides before the meeting tomorrow, so we can come with more ideas to the meeting.

--Rosa

May 1:

We did talk about meeting today to go over the interfaces and what other work may remain for the test sessions. A quick note about meeting time, Innovative Interfaces is doing a presentation today @ 4:30 and probably having informal gathering afterwards related to recruiting and probably finishing about 6 or so. So far Nan and I are interested in going to that. So hope meeting after that wouldn't be a problem for everyone. (At least they provide food :))

So far I feel that most of the Professor side of things have been revisited and even dramatically redesigned. The main areas are:
1) the process of specifying a new assignment
2) the views of documents organized by individuals or groups (like an individual's grade report)
3) the views of documents by a specific sumbission Both 2&3 allow profs to enter grades and add comments
4) the overview of all assignments by professors where a number of settings can be viewed and directly adjusted: grade scale, percentage of overall grade, due date, description

An issue that we may still want to double check is the management of groups: adding and deleting group memebers?

Other things are things for "future" work in our report: group comments, allowing professors more sophisticated manipulation of grades? Currently they can "use" the basic auto calculation or just export the date and do other things in there.

I have created a check list of interface items that should be done in the next couple of days for both the prof and student side, some should be done before the testings if possible. A few of the items I should take care of. But there are others that having help from everyone else would be good. Please sign up :)
-Determine which assignment views are necessary: make standard (Rosa)
-Verify Initial homepage elements, if they still make sense with all the other changes (Rosa, need comment from others)
-Review overall navigation (Everyone review)
-Double check groups, if need to do extra management issues (everyone review)
-Determine button v.s. text link, where they should be located. One person should go through and make the buttons that just open pages work. -Overall link check (One person can do this systematically)
-Overall style - heading, Upper/lower, use of colors where, icons... Again a page by page systematic check. (I volounteer Xiaojun)
-Overall language check (I should probably do this after the testing)

On Friday, I do agree that we should come up with an outline of our report/slides. Split up parts. Verify everyone's availablilty as far as time. And also think about what extent of interface changes we should make and what extent of implementation would be realistic to try.The studentList.jsp page is loaded with real data from our database. You can look at the code to see how it is done.

------

We never decided on a project name. Here're the vote results and other suggestions. My personal favorite at the moment is myHmwk@SIMS. Let's discuss on Friday.

9 Homework Depot
1 Homework R'us
2 HomeworkDrop
3 AssignmentPost

SIMS classwork repository
Homework.NET
AssignMatie homeowrkspace, homeowrk hompage, (home)workspace
collaborase
MyHM, MW@SIMS, iSubmit, iPost
HomeworkBox, Etc.
PostSIMS
Homework Republic mango (I thought this is an anonymous survey)
homesub
theworkshop, porjectBase, knowledge Archive; interesting, you don't know who I am
myHW@SIMS
HomeworkBeGone
AssignmentBin
HomeworkBlues
PostBox, WorkPost
Dog-ate-my-homework-if-not-Anderson-shredded-it-anyways

--Rosa

April 30:

Hey, I am in the middle of some panic. two weeks from today, actually, for yesterady, we'll be presenting. we have not started the paper (we have some parts, but it takes time to assemble and tune), and we have not started the presentation! and, i am sure all of you have other things to worry about too, like finals, and final papers, etc, which means we won't be able to devote all the time we have to the master's project! i am terrified when i look at the calendar. i am not sure i want to do it when we are done with the interface, which could drag into next week.

so, i will start the paper tomorrow! and we need to get together this friday to get the slides layout, (the major pages, etc). how about that?

-- hua

April 26:

The studentList.jsp page is loaded with real data from our database. You can look at the code to see how it is done.

April 16:

Hua and Nan will continue to make some changes based on input from everyone today (Hua has the notes). Thuan is available on Thursday 1-2 (0ur regular free time :))

Someone needs to follow up with Luis or get another person. I'll check w/ Moryma tomorrow about her availability... or get someone else.

Xiaojun and Rosa will continue to work on two parts:
Specifying assignment -Rosa(almost there)
Displaying who has what file, individuals or groups
Displaying Groups/editing (Rosa)

Then we will look at other professor parts: Asking for permission Grades...

We also have a proposed navigation change we can talk about next time we meet in a group. Tomorrow it looks like Nan and Hua will meet again. Xiaojun and Rosa will work on their parts independently.

April 7:

Where we stand: we are in the process of prototyping and testing. This two weeks we plan to do the first round of testing, and the next two weeks, we will do another round of testing, after incorporating users feedbacks. Today, we finalized the interface for the professors' scenarios. The testing phrase will begin later this week.

To-dos: For the prototyping phase, Xiaojun is in charge of the htmls. Nan heads the usability tests. Hua will look at the student module. In addition, Rosa, Hua and Nan will start working on the final report, respectively, on needs assessment, system design, and prototype 1 section. Also, need to check with Kevin about handling accounts for students outside the department.

Meeting schedule: will talk about task 3 on monday at 5. On tuesday will do a final walk-through of the professor module. do testing with ray at 1, and marti at 2 on thursday. do another with david on friday.

April 3:

--> progress

finished the questionnaires for basic user information and performing three
tasks for both professor and student. Nan put the two files in
UsabilityTesting1 in our group directory. There are two parts remaining to
work on: the description of procedures and instructions for each task.

-->to-dos

1) We came up with a list of tasks for both professors and students and
identified the 3 highest priority ones for each group. (Nan has a
document call Tasks that is in UsabilityTesting1)

2) We are aiming to do a round of professor testing next week and have
identified professors and will start sending emails... at a minimum we
can catch Ray at our designated time and Marti during her Tues/Thursday
2-3 office hours. We will try to schedule one more professor for next
week.

2a) This means we need to have the testing kit documentation and html
pages needed for doing the high priority tasks ready, hopefully this
weekend. This will allow us to start preparing for student testing for
the week after once the professors are scheduled and their prototype

2b) Nan will do 2 sets of testing kit of all the document necessary for
Professor testing and student testing. I will help where necessary.

2c) Nan will also help XiaoJun determine if the html prototype is
adequate for the tasks and XiaoJun will make sure those parts are ready.

3) I'm starting to go through all of the documentation we have so far to
generate more appropriate documentation, including report write up and
start sharing things via the web...
(I may also need some help from XiaoJun to do some further analysis of
the student survey data. Right now we have basic frequencies and
averages, but some of the data, especially the preference ratings, may
be good to have some distribution analysis and perhaps analysis based on
demographics, such as gender and year at sims. XiaoJun, you can probably
import the StudentSurveyResults into spss and do some analysis on the
pure numberical fields. Take a look.)

4) Hua will continue with the backend hookup investigation and if
necessary help whoever...

5) If you have questions? concerns... don't be shy, email everyone or
talk to everyone esle. We are at a point where we need to do a bit of
work individually, together with one or two others... Each person has to
drive their own part and make sure things get done. And it's important
to make sure everyone is aware of what you are doing and if you need
help/input...

5a) Potentially we should also think about setting aside at least half a
weekend day to do work together even if we are not meeting. Right now I
suggest Sunday 11 - 2 or 3, which gives us sometime to meet, have lunch
and do some work... then go do some other work. This also leaves Sat
free for personal/fun stuff.

6) Finally, does everyone have an opinion on when to present? We don't
want to tell Phil too late or we won't get the spot we want. Send email
or say something!

April 1:

--> to-dos of the week

-Xiao Jun (and Nan) is preparing our HTML prototype.
-Hua will use some of it to continue to test/learn JSP
-I will start a draft of our report
-Nan is also helping me coming up with the testing material. We'll be
meeting each other tuesday about 2.

March 18:

So the agenda for tomorrow:
-Brief look at the work that remains in the next month or so and how we need
to work together to get what done. Including discussions of who takes on
what responsibilities and more hours to be put in by each member on a weekly
basis... it's crunch time folks!

-Rosa will have have a list of potential scenarios for the different uses of
our system and we should prioritize them as far as basic interface design,
and the ultimate implementation
-Hua will report on her progress w/ JSP research, and Xiao Jun will add
anything she has learned as well
-Nan and XiaoJun will each present their "flow chart" of the professor side
of the interface and some html would be great.
-Someone needs to take over and be responsible for most of the html
implementation (and learn stuff if necessary!) Rosa needs to start working
on the report and get the first round of testing ready...

March 13:

Tomorrow:
-Hua and Rosa are meeting w/ Glushko thursday at 11 (sharp)
-The group is having a meeting w/ Ray 1-2, bi-weekly update (We should
verify what is needed in the progress report and who to submit to)

Survey Data (Should be done this week)
-Hua and Nan will do a bunch of survey data entry from last weeks
submission
-Xiao Jun should take care of the new ones in the mail box in addition
to the ones she had from last week.
-Rosa will take care of the three electronic ones
-Xiao Jun should help w/ final analysis, basic frequences and averages
and perhaps do some charts

Database Data (We should also aim for end of this week to finish this)
-Everyone has their assignments from Hua. Hua will continue to
investigate JSP

Interface Design
We have decided to use Dreamweaver to do the initial student interfaces
based on today's discussions. Where possible we want to stick as much
as possible to convention already used in mysims.
-Hua will take care of the main screen (check w/ Kevin about access tomysims by nonsims students)
-Nan will take care of the summary screen and potential view submitted
assignment screen
-Rosa will take care of the submission screen(s) and confirmation
screen/edit course screens
-Everyone should start thinking about the interfaces from a professor's
point of view
-We should try to get a round of lo-fi prototype testing next week,
before spring break.

Lets figure out if we should meet Friday. Think about it and perhaps
send email.

March 1:

Setting up mysql and load testing data. Here are more explanations.
The student surveys have been passed out. Keep reminding folks to do them and collect them. Rosa will make data entry spreadsheet and determine coding for answers. (Hopefully by Friday) Nan and Rosa will do most of the data entry.
Rosa will continue to try to get in touch w/ the BearTrak folks.
XiaoJun – BlackBoard
Hua will start looking at JSP
Aiming to do our first low-fi interface prototype next week. Start sketching ideas down!
Dr. Bob has some ideas for us, lets try to meet w/ him soon.

Feb 25:

Done interviewing Professor Messerschmitt. Initial note is done.
Contacted WebCT people for account set-up and interview arrangement
Nan has collected assignment information.

Feb 22:

Thursday 10:20 meet with 208 students.
Hua Schedule and talk to WebCt people sometime next week.
Rosa will take charge of building and testing student-version of interview.
Hua will work on initial to ER design.
Next Monday 3:30 talk to professor Messerschmitt.
Nan will collect course assignments information.
Examine requirement document

Feb 19:

Nan and XiaoJun will interview John on the 20^th at 2 pm. and enter their notes and ideas
Hua and Rosa will interview Peter Thursday and enter notes and ideas
Waiting to hear back from Mary and Steve for a review session on WebCt (and it's problems ) if schedule is an issue we could probably find out who else took Strategic Computing last term and talk to them.
It may be good to talk to Messerschmt as well, he's one of the few who has used WebCT to teach.? I can try to schedule him for next week
Nan is emailing Ray to update him with status and postpone our group meeting with him to next week
Hua, can you see if you can find the paper submission system that Nancy talked about for our competitive analysis?
XiaoJun, since Nan is busy being our PR person :), can you get the number of assignment/project milestone statistics from course websites? Just get the list of courses from last year or two and see if you can find the info off the course website.
Come up with basic version of the interview with student users. - Rosa will do a draft of student questionnaire and have everyone review
Nan can start scheduling a few students once we find out about Mary and Steve
Begin thinking about technical design and schedule to talk to Kevin about it afterwards.?I think we may be ready to schedule a meeting w/ Kevin towards end of next week to start discussing a few more design/technical issues (we can decide Thursday/Friday...)
Continue to come up with and edit requirements based on user interviews and competitive analysis

Last Modified: July 11, 2002