Announcements, etc

Course Overview

General Comments

• You are expected to be here. Come to class -- attendance will be taken semi-regularly. If you miss class, come and speak to me. This WILL affect your grade.
• Participate, cooperate, and help others.
• You can expect a substantial amount of outside class effort for this course.
• This document will change over the course of the semester.
  You should check here at least once a week.
• Periodically you might be asked to take a survey or some other in-class activity. These will not be graded, but they will be a form of taking attendance.

The principal project activity will revolve around the evaluation, redesign, and implementation of an educational game: TBD. Class members will be assigned to groups working on different parts of the project: graphics, client-side implementation, server-side implementation, and web-site modules. We will begin with a structured analysis of the existing system, and then design our solutions as a group. Everyone will be expected to participate in this process, which will entail interactions during class time, and both among and between the working groups.

Course Structure

To do this, the course will be organized along more business-like lines with:

1. a student organized project plan
2. a student managed schedule of milestones, and
3. regular and frequent peer review and evaluation

Details

1. The project will be organized more-or-less like a consulting engagement. The overall parameters will be set by the CEO and managing partner
2. There will be a more-or-less democratic process for electing a hierarchy of management
   • Project Manager
     coordinate between groups; set schedules; establish global milestones; monitor progress; write evaluations and reports; facilitate teams
   • Java Team Leader
     good programming skills; mentor team members; assign jobs; set schedules; establish local milestones; monitor progress; arrange "training"; write evaluations
   • Server Team Leader
     same as above
   • Graphics Team Leader
     same as above
   • Web-site Team Leader
     same as above
   • Scribe/Chronicler(s)
     ability to write clearly; well-organized; good note-taker; basic HTML knowledge; will maintain class record
3. Evaluation of student progress will by peer review and student committee. Evaluations will be frequent, and will be the primary factor in determining semester grades
   CEO/Managing Partner will have oversight and final word.
   NOTE: student privacy will be protected in grade postings.
4. A special job: Scribe/Chroniclers, who will process the reports, post design documents and schedules, design evaluation forms, take minutes, record decisions, and take notes. These persons will also be the authors of the 15-page paper describing the semester experience, co-authored by everyone in class, and submitted to a conference.
   Don't believe me?
   • See Rushing Headlong into the Past: the Blackwood Simulation (2001) Proceedings of the Fifth IASTED International Conference on Internet and Multimedia Systems and Applications (IMSA 2001). Honolulu, HI, August 13-16, pp. 318-323.
   • and/or Learning by Earning: the Dollar Bay Project (2003) Proceedings of the 36th Midwest Instructional Computing Symposium (MICS): April 11 - 12. College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN.
5. The process:
   • Resumes: you say what you know
   • Candidacy: students are presented as leadership candidates, the slate is determined by the CEO
   • Election: candidates introduce themselves, and an election is held
   • Draft: teams are assembled by the team leaders, based on resumes
   • Progress Reports: every few weeks, an online form is filled out, enumerating goals and progress
   • Peer Evaluation: each team member evaluates team member progress
     • team members evaluate each other
     • team members evaluate team leaders
     • team leaders evaluate team members
     • team leaders evaluate project leaders
     • project leaders evaluate team leaders

Required Reading: