Investigation Phase

This phase begins with research and ends with analysis of user and domain and is based on methodologies from Goal-Directed Design. At this point, we are hoping to gather the perspectives of people who

create activities (instructors, instructional designers)
take activities (students)
evaluate activities (instructors, TA)

whether that "activity" is homework, papers, tests, quizzes or some other activity you identify. In this way we can identify what they have in common and what they don't, regardless of the specific activity. However, the actual scope of the investigation will depend on participation; should we be so lucky as to attract an overflow of interest, we will discuss whether we need to narrow our focus.

Schedule for Investigation Phase

Meetings

February 8 and 9, 2010: Persona checkin
December 1, 2009
December 1, 2009(sharing your interviews), 9 AM Pacific (-8 GMT): third of three meetings to share and discuss your interviews
November 17, 2009(sharing your interviews), 9 AM Pacific (-8 GMT): second of three meetings to share and discuss your interviews

Research (6 weeks: Sept 14-Oct 23)

Stakeholder "interviews"

Stanford will seek stakeholder input between Sept 14 and October 2, either via direct interviews (less likely) or by correspondence on confluence or email - click below for details.

Get Involved!
We won't be able to speak to everyone, but if you've got thoughts to share, we'd like to virtually interview you

End-user interviews

To represent the range of institutions and users out there, we need profiles of instructors, assistants, instructional designers, and students.

Get Involved!
We'd like to recruit interviewers on at least 5-6 campuses and have them conduct "contextual inquiries" with 10-14 individuals by mid October. To learn more please visit this page and attend our kickoff meeting on Tuesday, September 29th from 9 -10 AM Pacific (-7 GMT)

Benchmarking

We need to be aware of other products used to create, manage, complete, and assess learning activities.

Get Involved!
If you have ideas for products or parameters for the benchmarking matrix, please add them, along with your name. When the matrix columns and rows are set up, we'll also need your help adding descriptions and possibly screenshots.

User and Domain Analysis and Writeup, Part 1 (8 weeks: Oct 26-Dec 18 November 23-Jan 29)

We will be using information gathered in end user interviews to create models of real users. These models, or Personas, will represent clusters of behavior patterns we identify in specific interviewees. These will be described in a User and Domain Analysis Part 1 Document. From there, we'll pause to check in about the persona.

User and Domain Analysis and Writeup, Part 2 (5 weeks: March 1-April 2)

After checking in about the persona, we'll identify the primary and secondary persona, describe context scenario for each primary, and identify their data and functional requirements .

Get Involved!
Now that Research and Modeling steps are done, it is time to identify the primary persona, create context scenarios, and describe the requirements that stem from those scenarios (not development requirements, but the data and functions our persona need to complete their work). Learn more about getting involved in the Requirements Definition phase