TC 310 The Computer in

Technical Communication

Dr. Jennifer Turns

Week 1, Day 2

Day 2

• By the end of class, students should be able to: – Describe how they fit in with the rest of the class

– Describe the members of their team

– Prepare a design rationale and learning reflection

– Complete assignment 2

• What we’ll do…– Review survey results

– Debrief assignment 1, Work on design rationale/learning reflection

– Go over assignment 2

– Explore PowerPoint / present teams

Results from Survey…

• Part 1: Experience – With specific tools– With software types

• Part 2: Thoughts– Course– Assignments– Learning technology

• Part 3: Open ended– Why TC– Unique about you– Interests– …– Describing designed stuff– Personal design process– Design in TC– Learning software tools– Learning preferences

Experience with Course Tools…

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Word

PowerP

oint

Visio

Photo

shop

InDesig

n

Robohe

lp

Dream

weaver

Flash

Software Tools

Lev

el o

f E

xper

ien

ce

Never heard of it

Confused novice

Unconfident beginning

Confident beginner

Confident novice

Competent user

Power user

Experience with Tool Types…

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Word

Pro

cess

ing

Prese

ntat

ion cr

eatio

n

Graph

ics

Diagr

ams

Page

Layo

ut

Help dev

elopm

ent

Web d

esig

n

Animat

ion

Type of Tool

Lev

el o

f E

xper

ien

ce

No experience

One tool

Multiple tools

Power user

Other Software Experience

– Wordpad

– Pagemaker

– Wordperfect

– Frontpage

– Visual basic

– Publisher

– Paint

– MS Project

• Illustrator

• GoLive

• Word Art Page

• Corel

• Quark

• Paintshop

• Jasc Animation Shop

• Claris works

In addition to software used for class, members of the class have experience with

• Keynote

• Omnigraffle

• Framemaker

• Fireworks

• Solidworks

• Apple Final Cut Pro

• Lotus WordPro

• PageMill

• …

Thoughts on learning technologies…

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

I want to learn newtechnologies

I am comfortable learningnew technologies

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Thoughts related to assignments…

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

I expect to beengaged (not

bored)

I like creativeassignments

I expectchallenge

I don't haveother concerns

I will be able tokeep up

I like working inteams

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Thoughts about course…

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

I expect the course tobe valuable

I am excited about thecourse

I am curious aboutcourse

I have heard goodthings about the

course

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

Students benefit in different ways(Results from Learning Portfolio…)

Best WorstLearned

MostLearned

Least

Goal: Use

software

Goal: Learn to

learn

Goal: TC

qualityPowerpoint 2 1 0 3 2 0 5

Word 1 4 0 9 2 0 3Photoshop 6 2 9 1 3 9 3

Vidio 3 4 0 3 2 1 0Indesign 2 3 1 2 4 2 3

RoboHelp 2 1 6 0 1 5 1Dreamweaver 0 3 1 0 1 2 2

Portfolio 2 1 2 0 4 0 2

Key: Values indicating number of students selecting the specific technology assignment as meeting the stated criteria

Assigning Teams

• Teams are assigned in order to– Group people with similar interests

– Distribute expertise

• The teams– A: Seth, Raina

– B: Brent, Michelle, Jana

– C: Brianne, Paul, Shirley

– D: Seamleng, Aaron, Kimberly

Design Rationale

• Overview: Why you did what you did

• Elements– Goals: What you were trying to accomplish– Alternatives: What you could have done– Decision: What you chose to do– Justification: Why you made the decision you did

• Why this framework?– Experts have reflective design capacity– Decisions are significant

Design Rationale: A framework

• Goal– My goal was to design ____. An effective ____ would

need to be ___, ___, and ___.

• Alternatives– In the context of _______, I needed to decide about

_______. I considered ____, ____, and ____.

• Decision and Justification– I chose to go with ____ because _____________.

Design Rationale - Example 1

• My goal was to design the syllabus for the spring 2003 section of TC310.

• An effective syllabus would need to address initial student questions about the course as well as their questions over time, be readable, be easy to use to find specific pieces of information, and be self-contained.

• When designing the syllabus, I needed to decide how to present the calendar/schedule. I considered two versions, an abbreviated calendar and a version with more detail. I chose the more detailed version because it is better for users over time (it is more useful because it has more detail) although this representation may be difficult to interpret for the first time user (learnability).

Design Rationale – Example 2

• My goal was to design a presentation to the TC faculty and students.

• An effective presentation would need to engage the listeners, impress them with my knowledge and insight, and embody effective visual design (in order to illustrate my awareness of TC design principles).

• When designing the presentation for my job talk, I need to decide which background to use in PowerPoint. I considered using the several of the customized backgrounds in PowerPoint because they seemed cool. I rejected them, however, because the graphics seemed to interfere with the letters, and thus to reduce readability. I ultimately chose to use a graded background (blue to black) with yellow and white letters, because blue and yellow represent an effective level of contrast for human readers. Could elaborate/be more specific here with information about human perceptual system.

Design Rationale – Your Task

Within your team…

• Share: Share your solutions to assignment 1.

• Discuss: Discuss decisions that each team member made (including the alternatives and justification for the final choice).

• Post: Post a single message to E-Post that describes one decision/alternative/justification thread for each team member.

Design Rationale – Grading Rubric

Excellent (4.0): Describes two or more decisions. The decisions are fully described (goal, alternatives, decision, justification) and show significant insight!

Strong (3.5): Describes 2 or more decisions. The decisions are fully described (goal, alternatives, decision, justification).

Solid (3.0): Describes 1 decision. The decision is fully described (goal, alternatives, decision, justification).

Weak (2.5): A design rationale that is on the right track but lack full description of the decisions or requires editing/attention to detail before it could be made public.

Learning Reflection

• Overview: What lessons you gained from the experience

• Elements– What you did– (What you observed)– What you learned

• Why?– Promote self regulated learning– Acknowledge the range of learning outcomes possible– Prepare you for the learning portfolio…

Learning Reflection – Grading Rubric

Excellent (4.0): Describes two or more lessons. The lessons are fully described (experience, observations, lesson) and show significant insight!

Strong (3.5): Describes 2 or more lessons. The lessons are fully described (experience, observations, lesson).

Solid (3.0): Describes 1 lesson. The lesson is fully described (experience, observations, lesson).

Weak (2.5): A learning that is on the right track but lack full description of the lessons or requires editing/attention to detail before it could be made public.

Learning Reflection – Your task

In your group…• Analyze: Explore the assigned example. Identify strengths

and opportunities for improvement. What grade would you assign using the rubric?

• Share: You will be asked to share your analysis with the class.

You may notice these sentence structures… • From .. I learn .. about myself.• Some things I found puzzling were ... and from this I am learning that… • I was surprised to learn that ... • I want to learn more about ...• I discovered I have skills at ... • I would like to know more about ...• Challenges in developing this solution included ... I learned … from these challenges.

Example 1

From this presentation I learned a lot about powerpoint because it is a tool I hadn't previously used. I really liked it and found that all it took was time to experiment with and you could figure out how to do a lot of tricks. At the same time I noticed how that although these tricks are easy to do they are not always beneficial as they can be distracting and unprofessional looking. Key challenges I faced in this presentation were working with the charts and graphs. I was never able to figure out how to change the pieces of my pie chart and frustrated myself for some time trying. I also had a hard time when I tried to create my own layout option for each slide. I was surprised that I was so capable of doing this project since I had never tried PowerPoint before. I think it was a great project to do in the beginning as it has definitely given me a confidence boost and I actually enjoyed all the time I spent in the lab!

Example 2

Some things I found puzzling were: how to make a master slide out of a slide that somebody e-mails you. Also, some of the text would change sizes when reformated the text boxes. I want to practice more with power point, I liked using it once I got started on my project. I discovered I have skills at color coordinating a project so that the text is easily read but the color scheme is still pleasing.

Example 3

From this (and other TC assignments!) I am learning to more carefully consider my projects before beginning them. What I did differently than usual was write up a complete content outline before even opening PowerPoint. By first considering my audience, I found that writing the outline went a lot more smoothly than it has in past experiences. In contrast to this, I found the new PowerPoint XP user interface to be a bit cumbersome at times. Though I can appreciate the added features, and realize that I will learn to more quickly navigate them with use, I still found myself scratching my head about why they designed certain features the way they did, e.g., animation settings. Regardless, I found that my PowerPoint 2000 experience transferred fairly well, which was a nice discovery. Last, I was surprised to learn a new, *much* easier way to create backgrounds and, most importantly, how to use the Master Slide feature!

As with the last assignment with MS Word, I am always interested in learning more about PowerPoint. In particular, I would like to know how to override the Master Slide’s settings for one-time only exceptions. This is easily done in Word; surely, there is an equally simple method in PowerPoint.

Example 4

Working on this assignment, I found it difficult to create multiple screen presentation because the audience I chose I could think of only one motivating factor as content. It was also challenging to make this upscale because of the product verses the images I perceive visually to motivate the sales force audience.

Assignment #2: Presentation Design

• Software: PowerPoint

• Task: Use features of PowerPoint to create a presentation that introduces a product (that the team will select) to a specific audience: – General public– CFO (Chief financial officer)– Colleagues within the company

• Due: Monday (4/7), by the start of class

Powerpoint: Mini-Tutorial

• Slide layouts (format menu, palette on right)• Views: master, slide sorter, normal, slide show

(view menu, icons on lower left)• Master slide (view menu)• Background / Design Templates (under format)• Inserting graphics, etc… (insert menu)• …• Transitions and animations (slide show menu)

PowerPoint: Your task

In your team…

• Create: Create a presentation that introduces your team to the rest of the class. Your presentation should include– Team member names– Something interesting about the team members– Exactly 2 slides– Something “novel”

• Share: You will present these presentations, as a way for us to get to know each other.

Day 2 – Looking Back

• By the end of class, students should be able to: – Describe how they fit in with the rest of the class

– Describe the members of their team

– Prepare a design rationale and learning reflection

– Complete assignment 2

• What we’ll do…– Review survey results

– Debrief assignment 1, Work on design rationale/learning reflection

– Go over assignment 2

– Explore PowerPoint / present teams

Looking Ahead

• Due Dates– Assignment 2

• Monday (4/7)

• By class

– Includes: • Solution

• Key Features

• Design Rationale

• Learning Reflection

• Next Class– Debrief Assignment 2

– Move on to • Photoshop

• Assignment 3