Intermediate Milestones (Fall 2020)

During the project, you will submit two intermediate video milestones. These are intended to show off your progress so far, as well as to allow you to get feedback from your mentor and classmates.

Both milestones should be video presentations of your work so far. They are intended to replicate short mid-semester poster sessions or class presentations you might see in a traditional class. You need not be limited only to video, however; if you have prototypes to show off, tools to test or demo, content to preview, data visualizations to test, etc., you may also include those in your milestone document. Your milestone grade will be primarily based on the video presentation, though.

Within those videos, we do have some recommendations depending on whether you’re on the development track, the content track, or the research track.

• Development Track. If you’re on the development track, we recommend you use the first intermediate milestone to get some feedback on your preliminary prototypes and design ideas. Your first few weeks might be spent compiling low-fidelity prototypes, wireframes, or interaction designs. Show these off to your classmates and mentor. For the second milestone, ideally you will be ready for some previews or beta testing with potential users. The tool need not be complete, but enough interaction should ideally be ready to show off some real interaction.
• Research Track. If you’re on the research track, we recommend you use the first intermediate milestone to preview your research methodology to your classmates and mentor. Get feedback from them on the surveys you’ve constructed, the recruitment procedures you have in mind, etc. Then, use that feedback to improve them before sending them to your participants. For the second milestone, you will ideally have some preliminary data to share; share your early conclusions and observations, as well as your plans for ongoing analysis leading up to the final deliverable.
• Content Track. If you’re on the content track, we recommend you use the first intermediate milestone to preview your high-level lesson plans and materials. You may also have some early scripts or visuals for some of the earlier lessons you’ll be creating, or a plan for laying out the content in the interface you chose. For the second milestone, ideally you’ll have some content ready you can actually preview.

The most important thing is to get the type of feedback you need when you need it. Construct your milestones with the types of questions you want your classmates and mentor to answer in mind.

Submission Instructions

Complete your assignment using JDF, then save your submission as a PDF. Assignments should be submitted to the corresponding assignment submission page in Canvas. You should submit a single PDF for this assignment. This PDF will be ported over to Peer Feedback for peer review by your classmates. If your assignment involves things (like videos, working software prototypes, etc.) that cannot be provided in PDF, you should provide them separately (through OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and submit a PDF that links to or otherwise describes how to access that material.

If you are working on your project on a team, only one person needs to submit each assignment. Make sure to coordinate who is submitting each, however.

Late work is not accepted without advanced agreement except in cases of medical or family emergencies. In the case of such an emergency, please contact the Dean of Students.

Grading Information

As with all assignments in this class, this assignment will be graded on an 11-point scale (0 to 10), in accordance with the grading policy outlined in the syllabus. Resubmissions are not permitted on intermediate milestones; however, a poor intermediate milestone grade may be replaced by the final project grade, capped at 9. After all, the goal of the intermediate milestones is to give you feedback to improve your final project; if your final project grade is high despite weak intermediate milestones, then they still accomplished their purpose. Therefore, any intermediate milestone grade below 9 will be replaced by the final project grade, up to a maximum grade of 9.

Peer Review

After submission, your assignment will be ported to Peer Feedback for review by your classmates. Grading is not the primary function of this peer review process; the primary function is simply to give you the opportunity to read and comment on your classmates’ ideas. All grades will come from the mentors alone.

You will typically be assigned four classmates to review. You receive 1.5 participation points for completing a peer review by the end of the day Thursday following the deadline; 1.0 for completing a peer review by the end of the day Sunday; and 0.5 for completing it after Sunday but before the end of the semester. For more details, see the participation policy.