LSDD Program of Study
The Learning Systems Design and Development curriculum is structured into four categories: core, design, development, and electives. These categories reinforce the LSDD program competencies and feature dynamic courses with topics ranging from support systems and collaborative work to mobile applications and web development. A LSDD program of study is made up of 30 graduate credit hours.
My program of study is listed below, alongside course descriptions and examples of my work.
Core Courses
9474 Needs Assessment for Learning and Performance
Needs Assessment is founded on the idea that instructional design cannot occur before it is clear what students need in order to learn. Determining those needs starts with analysis. Learning or performance problems are identified and explored for gaps between what students currently know, actuals, and what they need to know, optimals. Understanding the potential causes behind these gaps leads to meaningful solutions and effective instruction.
The goal of 9474 is to build the following competencies:
- To conduct a performance analysis to determine the causes of performance problems
- To select and utilize appropriate needs assessment tools to conduct a needs analysis in any instructionally appropriate situation
- To design, develop, and implement needs assessment data collection methods, including surveys, observations, and an appropriate group technique
CS2830: Curriculum and Delivery Analysis 2011
To demonstrate my understanding of needs assessment, I investigated a learning problem involving a computer science course at the University of Missouri, CS2830: Introduction to the Internet, WWW, and Multimedia Systems. At the time, CS2830 was undergoing major changes including a restructured syllabus, updated course material, and the introduction of a new content management system. These changes required a detailed analysis of CS2830's role in the Computer Science Department.
Conducting this needs assessment meant determining what should and should not be taught in CS2830 as well as reevaluating its delivery method. To accomplish this, I gathered evidence from a variety of primary and secondary data sources using appropriate tools and methods including extant data analysis, telephone interviews, subject matter analysis, observation, and force field analysis. Needs assessment provided me with a set of problem-solving skills, allowing me to think critically about performance problems and instructional design. Using these skills, I was able to identify gaps in student knowledge, evaluate content and delivery, and propose thoughtful recommendations.
9455 Formative and Summative Evaluation
Evaluation drives improvement. In the design and development of learning systems, it is a fundamental process in the short-term construction and long-term success of a system. In 9455, two major types of evaluation are explored, formative and summative. Formative evaluation is conducted iteratively during development. It provides feedback as a system is being built, allowing for adjustments to be made with the aim of usability. Summative evaluation reviews an existing system, determining feasibility, sustainability, and any changes that could help improve that system's long-term effectiveness.
9455 has the following course objectives:
- To define evaluation and its role in the instructional design of interactive learning systems
- To distinguish between the types and functions of evaluation
- To identify the essential components of an evaluation plan
- To prepare a plan for the evaluation of a learning system that includes both a summative and formative component
- To conduct a formative evaluation of an interactive learning system
Duolingo Formative and Summative Evaluation Plan
Samantha Geitz and I worked together on a plan to conduct a formative and summative evaluation of Duolingo, a free language learning software. We had two primary purposes:
- Identifying improvements to the design, development, and implementation of Duolingo's teaching and translating services
- Determining the effectiveness and feasibility of its education and business models
Each evaluation had its own subset of purposes, from proposing interface enhancements (formative) to gauging the long-term effectiveness of gamification principles (summative). Defining and investigating these purposes led us to a clear understanding of evaluation and its capacity to dramatically improve the design and development process.
To plan our evaluation, Samantha and I selected and developed a range of instruments including a focus group protocol, questionnaire, usability heuristic, standardized assessment, and review from subject matter experts. My role involved researching and compiling the heuristic, studying gamification, deciding on an assessment, and providing a subject matter analysis of Duolingo's German course content.
Duolingo Formative Evaluation Report
In 9455's final module, each group implemented the formative component of their evaluation plan. Samantha Geitz and I applied our instruments, collecting data through focus groups, questionnaires, usability analysis, and subject matter expert review. I worked on the usability analysis, specifically looking at Duolingo's gamification strategies, interface elements, organization, and flow. I also contributed my expertise in the German language to gauge the structure and content featured in each task, exercise, and assessment.
The variety of data Samantha and I gathered, from target users (focus groups/questionnaires), standards (usability analysis), and subject matter experts, translated into a detailed and diverse assortment of recommendations. Just like needs assessment, evaluation works best when multiple tools are used to leverage multiple, different perspectives.
Design Courses
9461 Interface Design
Interface design focuses on usability, creativity, and interaction. It can be applied to technology as well as physical tools. 9461 is aimed at introducing students to the basic competencies, processes, and principles of interface design. This knowledge is applied to emerging technologies with the goal of supporting learning and performance.
By the end of 9461, students are expected to be able to:
- Identify the scope of issues affecting Interface and Interaction Design
- Apply appropriate principles to the design of interactive environments
- Observe users interacting with technology and diagnose problems using theoretical constructs
- Prototype and test user interfaces
Habitat
Habitat is a virtual learning environment that allows kids to interact with and learn about their favorite critters. It was designed by Marguerite Hussey, Garon Turner, and myself as a prototype demonstrating our competencies in interface and interaction design. My role in this project was to help with the design, documentation, content, and functionality of our application. I built Habitat using HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
Creating Habitat was a great learning experience for many reasons. First, it gave me an opportunity to dive deeper into jQuery and jQuery UI's API. Second, designing and developing a project with interface and interaction design at the forefront caused me to pause frequently and think critically about my design decisions. Finally, the iterative development process, including group, peer, and instructor feedback, led to numerous thoughtful changes that greatly improved the usability of our application.
9469 Designing Electronic Performance Support Systems
Performance Support Systems provide people and organizations with a technology-based foundation to improve the quality and effectiveness of some activity. 9469 analyzes the key constructs, processes, conceptual frameworks, and rationale underpinning PSS's. Students investigate human performance problems and work towards a meaningful solution.
After completing 9469, students are able to:
- Understand the key constructs of performance support systems
- Choose and apply appropriate design principles for performance support systems
- Prototype and test user interfaces
- Evaluate performance problems
The College Cookbook Mobile
This mobile version of my 7370 final project is completely redesigned to demonstrate the design principles and purposes of a Performance Support System. It provides multimedia assistance in creating, searching for, and following recipes.
The College Cookbook is based on the idea that students may not know what they want to eat, but they do know what ingredients they have in their pantry. The College Cookbook allows them to search for potential meals and multimedia instructions based on those ingredients. The resulting recipes are carefully designed to help guide the students through their cooking performance.
For an example, click on the "Link to Artifact Website" below and type "cashews" in the "Search an ingredient..." field. Select cashews and then the recipe "Cashew Chicken Fry". Doing this will pull up a collapsible ingredient list as well as a step-by-step guide for preparing this dish. Each step contains an image and text description of what needs to be done. In some of the steps, there is a filmstrip icon in the bottom right-hand corner that, when clicked, will launch a YouTube video for additional help.
I produced the College Cookbook Mobile in a team with Monica Carroll. I was responsible for the HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript used to develop the prototype.
9457 Designing Computer Support for Cooperative Work
Computer Support for Cooperative Work studies the way in which people communicate, interact, and work with one another, with the goal of providing computer support to facilitate that workflow. As part of the field of Human-Computer Interaction, CSCW combines a wide array of perspectives from computer science and interface design to psychology and organizational goals. CSCW systems are diverse and can differ by purpose (communication, sharing information, coordination) and flow (real-time vs. synchronous).
After completing 9457, students:
- Will become familiar with key applications, technology, studies, and community resources of CSCW
- Will know approaches for undertaking the forms of field studies commonly used in CSCW research and product design
- Will know approaches for designing CSCW applications
- Will apply their knowledge of CSCW field studies and design to the design and prototyping of a CSCW application
- Will know and practice methods of evaluation for CSCW
CSCW Sandbox: Multiplayer Coding
Sandbox is an integrated development environment targeted at open web technologies and designed to facilitate rapid, cooperative software development. The overarching goal is to provide developers, teachers, and students with a rich, interactive platform for learning and working through constant experimentation. The low fidelity prototype and usability evaluation linked below explore the primary mechanism for this experimentation, called multiplayer coding. Multiplayer coding features a mixture of community and development tools, allowing people to connect, communicate, and code together. Code is saved, executed, and managed by version control automatically. Just like a real sandbox, users are encouraged to play. Their changes are reflected in real-time, enabling them to test new ideas and easily recover from mistakes. Sandbox couples this exploration with community based support to foster creativity and simplify the process of troubleshooting.
Designing Sandbox gave me the opportunity to develop the CSCW competencies taught in 9457. I focused on communication, interaction, and workflow as well as the power of real-time collaboration. I wanted to create a prototype that simplified troubleshooting, promoted experimentation, and ultimately provided an effective layer of support for cooperative work.
9085 Problems in ISLT: Serious Games Research
When I started researching serious games, I knew a couple of things. I knew that games have tremendous potential and that they can provide far more than just entertainment. I knew from my own experience that games can spark creativity, imprint knowledge, and motivate us to further explore. I can't remember much from the 4th grade, but I can tell you about the supplies and people we took with us on our class's Oregon Trail day. Growing up, games had a great impact on me.
So, in looking at serious games, the thing that struck me first was the title, serious games. It didn't fit. "Serious" implied to me that there was a concession being made: yes, games innately hold no value, but if we can just take them seriously, maybe we can trick people into learning something. That doesn't work; it's a gimmick, and not only that, it completely misses the wonderful potential that games have to offer. So, I set out to find new nomenclature and, while I didn't find a good replacement, I did find an amazing community of teachers and developers working hard to contribute to a young and exciting field.
Serious games are still growing. There isn't a standardized process or set of tools for incorporating pedagogy into games; however, there is an abundance of resources, suggestions, and examples available from individuals, students, teachers, developers, universities, and businesses. I learned about several organizations (such as the Serious Games Institute and Games and Learning Alliance) charged with creating networks for people to share ideas, papers, games, and more. Currently, the difficulty seems to be bridging the gap between teachers and developers, finding effective ways to combine instructional design with game design. I discovered a couple of interesting tools that attempt to accomplish this, including Wouter's Game Discourse Analysis, Amory and Seagram's Game Object Model, and Kiili's Experimental Gaming Model; though, they have limited experience in practice.
Conducting this research introduced me to serious game design and development. It allowed me to investigate the history, absorb the current literature, and explore the future of SGD. I used this research to compile resources for a new SGD course, create illustrative examples, and brainstorm potential course material.
Translating Game Research
The final product of this research was a document outlining a set of potential modules to be used in the new 9410 Designing Serious Games course. These modules included:
- Press X to Join: Introduction to Games through Gameplay
- Cut Scene: History, Terminology, and Culture
- Character Build: Instructional Design
- Skill Tree: Game Design
- Leveling Up: Game Development
- End Game: the Symbiosis of Instructional and Game Design
My main objective in assembling these modules was to design 9410 like a game. I argued that a course about game design should be based on game design. Doing so would give students the opportunity to experience, practice, and experiment with these design principles. I compiled an assortment of serious game examples, literature and community resources, instructional design theories and frameworks, design methodologies, and development strategies.
Included in the development module, I produced two mini-games demonstrating low-fidelity serious games that students would be capable of producing given their knowledge and skills in web development. These games were Denk An, a language-learning card game, and Match, a simple facial expression matching game.
9085 Problems in ISLT: Serious Games Design
In the spring of 2014, SISLT will offer a new course, 9410 Designing Serious Games. This course's objectives are that students:
- Will become familiar with the key applications, technology, studies, and community resources of SGD
- Will know approaches for designing SG applications
- Will apply their knowledge of SGD to the design and prototyping of a SG application
- Will know and practice methods of evaluation for SG
To help students reach those objectives, I have been working with Dr. Laffey and Joe Griffin to research and design course materials, activities, tasks, and demos for instruction. We've structured the course like a game, splitting modules into levels, directing students to explore and discover new knowledge, and awarding experience points for contribution and effort.
In helping to design this course, I've had the tremendous opportunity of imagining and investigating a variety of SGD topics. I've looked into the history and culture of game design, the various storyboarding and development techniques used to make games, and I've explored examples of multiplayer games for class participation.
In addition to online materials, I've explored the following texts to support this research:
Development
7370 Intermediate Web Development
7370's objective is to improve students' understanding of advanced web design and development skills. XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript are used to produce interactive, highly usable web applications. Students learn the following:
- The rules, syntax, elements, and properties of XHTML
- Adding interactive effects with JavaScript
- Troubleshooting JavaScript errors
- Styling web pages with CSS
- Designing layouts according to usability principles
Assignment Portfolio
My assignment portfolio contains a collection of mini-projects, each demonstrating a different skillset. Completing these projects gave me a greater understanding of XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They also led me to investigate deeper into topics such as code validation and browser compatibility.
The College Cookbook
When searching for recipes, you traditionally need to know what you're looking for. Cookbooks and recipe cards are often organized alphabetically or by cuisine type. You concentrate on what you're making; then you look at the ingredient list. But what if you wanted to search the other way? What if you wanted to ask your cookbook, "I have a clove of garlic and an avocado... what can I make?"
That's the question my roommates and fellow cooks posed and it's the inspiration behind the College Cookbook. The College Cookbook allows you to search by ingredients. You can drag and drop a clove of garlic into the "mixing bowl" and the College Cookbook will pull up every recipe that calls for garlic. You can search again for an avocado, drag and drop that into the bowl, and it will constrain your search based on those two ingredients.
From a web development standpoint, the College Cookbook provided me with a wonderful opportunity to design a unique user interface and play with an experimental searching strategy. I worked heavily in XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript including jQuery and jQuery UI. I learned a tremendous amount about JavaScript, JSON, dynamically built interfaces, and interaction design.
7310 Mobile Application Development
Technology is increasingly mobile. In recent years, this has had a dramatic impact on design and development. This is especially true for web development, which has shifted its focus towards concepts like mobile optimization and responsive web design. Even this portfolio was built using a framework, Bootstrap, which is designed to be "mobile-first".
7310 provides students the knowledge needed to create mobile-optimized web applications using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. After completing the course, students are able to:
- Understand the basics behind mobile application development
- Differentiate between web, native, and hybrid applications
- Demonstrate mobile interaction and interface design principles
- Perform the mobile design cycle including a formative analysis
- Build a web-based, mobile application prototype
uReport
uReport is a mobile application that turns ordinary users to into news creators. When a noteworthy event happens, people are often nearby with their smartphones. This application allows users to take pictures of an event and upload them to a variety of sources. Users may wish to share their news privately on Facebook, publicly on Twitter, or globally by sending their pictures to a news outlet. With any given event, news outlets would have an instant repository filled with first-hand accounts and perspectives.
I built uReport with my team, Amanda Stafford, Dawn Sovanski, and Sheila Cook. My role was to contribute a technical perspective to the group. I worked on our wireframes and content flow diagrams, developed the front and back-end code behind uReport, and filmed a video demonstrating our app. In building uReport, I learned how to work with web development in the mobile context, how to use jQuery Mobile, and how to deploy our app natively using Apache Cordova.
9085 Problems in ISLT: Serious Games Development
Developing serious games requires a wide skillset. They are a product of computer science, information technology, psychology, storytelling, music, art, and much more. All of these backgrounds intersect and are combined within a development environment. To explore this environment and build technical competencies, I worked with Ryan Babiuch, Joe Griffin, and Justin Broccard in the iSocial Lab.
I learned how to work with the Unity Game Engine, including the following skills:
- Editor Basics: how to navigate settings, assets, and controls in Unity's editor
- Graphics: how to use meshes, textures, materials, lights, and cameras
- Physics: how to work with colliders, triggers, rigidbodies, forces, torque, and joints
- Scripting: how to create and use C# scripts to interact with the game engine
- Audio: how to play 2D and 3D audio and set up listeners
- Assets: how to navigate the asset store and import resources for in-game use
Additionally, I completed two Unity projects, including Roll-a-Ball and Stealth.
Roll-a-Ball
Stealth