lelliot_group1_requirementsa

8/8/2019 lelliot_group1_requirementsa

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11Assignment 5.1

REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS

Online Learning and TestingWebsite for Howard University

Victor AndersonLawrence Elliot

Hector RodriguezMark Hoelzer

WNM 606 - OL2: MS:Principles of Usability


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22Assignment 5.1

1. Introduction

Out teams goal is to design an online learning and testing website for HowardUniversity that allows for the students and instructors to communicate and exchange

information. This online environment will come as close to a real classroom experienceas possible for optimal learning.

To do this, we must first discuss and explain the purpose of the website as well asthe features it will need to have in order to fulfill the needs of both student andinstructor. Our team will then profile and explore the target users of the environmentincluding a detailed description of the audience, their technical and platform attributes,and user scenarios.

Throughout the research and design process, our team will follow establishedguidelines with the goal of creating easy to use tools within a basic online browser. Thisincludes researching related standards and employing basic website conventions thatallow maximum accessibility as well as accountability and credibility for the usersneeds, problems, and questions.

2. Project Purpose

2.1 Problem to solve for user

Modern students feel comfortable and at home in digital social networking andcommunication forums. This has created a renaissance of online teaching andeducation endeavors for all levels of education. The problem is that Howard Universitystudents currently do not have access to this growing style of education. This restrictsthe variety of locations and schedules potential Howard University students can have inorder to successfully attend the University.

Creating an interactive online learning environment or learning managementsystem (LMS)that educates and evaluates university students using a variety ofsupportive media tools can solve this problem. A learning management system

(commonly abbreviated as LMS) is a software application for the administration,documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and onlineevents, e-learning programs, and training content. The project will facilitateasynchronous learning for the students that will allow far greater flexibility in theireducation. At the same time, the LMS will help to increase Howard Universitys impacton the community, expand its potential student enrollment, and facilitate exploration ofnew teaching techniques across the campus


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2.2 Description of the application/tool to be designed

This LMS will be based on a communicative theme with the users sharing andreceiving a large amount of information. Students will need individual accounts with

which they can log in and sign out, access classroom information and media, postassignments, discuss topics with classmates and instructors, and participate inevaluation such as tests or quizzes.

The site should also provide additional research resources as well as supportiveinformation and online help. The website will be a proprietary design with aninfrastructure that revolves around the goal of student communication andaccomplishment. Therefore, the students, faculty, and staff will all grow from anappreciating system that facilitates interactivity and group learning.

Expectancies:

What is the university? Howard University

What are their colors? Navy blue, red, and white

What are their goals for students and education?

The goal for students in the Howard University online program is to learnand be successfully evaluated within an html environment using supportivemedia. The students will need to give information, accept feedback, log in and

sign out, store session information, and use provided resources. This is aproprietary medium hence its infrastructure counterparts are revolved entirelyaround the goal of successfully educating the students for Howard University.

What is this course of study? Curriculum?

The available degrees include Arts and Sciences, Business,Communications, Dentistry, Divinity, Education, Engineering Architecture &Computer Sciences, Graduate School, Law Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing & AlliedHealth Sciences and Social Work. Each of these courses will require anindividual and unique set of course requirements and materials to prepare

students for each unique field.

What will the students be able to accomplish?

Students will learn the necessary skills for their given degree andprofession through the LMS. They will need to be able to log on the system, read


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the curriculum and assignments, upload assignments, submit questions, receivefeedback, take tests and quizzes, and see grades on assignments, tests, andquizzes. Students will be able to receive curriculum delivered to them as text toread, video, or audio. Streaming media may also be developed to allow a unifiedclassroom feel to the educational theme.

What will the Instructors and Faculty of the University be able toaccomplish?

The instructors for each class will need to be able to easily post up and editlecture material, assignment information, and supplemental media for each classand project. They will also need to be able to leave both public and privatefeedback for each student's work as well as comments and feedback for the classas a whole. This feedback ability should include reporting grades and critiquingthe large variety and volume of work students will be submitting.

3. Target audience description

3.1. Detailed target audience specification

Howard University is a large institution with approximately 15,000 total studentsincluding an influx of nearly 3,000 new college students each fall. On site classes havean average of 150 students that are lead by an instructor who provides the informationand posts the curriculum. The online educational environment will target both theseon-site students who are interested in exploring some more flexible classes online aswell as distance learners from across the country who are interested in working towardsa degree from their current location.

Demographic Summary:

Location: Howard University - Washington, D.C.

Any location across the country

Age: 18-30

Gender: both male and female - with a slight majority being women

Education: High school some college


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Primary occupation: student

Secondary occupation: introductory level jobs from 5 30 hours per week

Income: $0 - $20,000

Possible disabilities: vision, difficulty using hands, hearing, learning disability

3.2 Justification for audience specification

The average traditional college student workingtowards a bachelor degree ranges in age between 18and 25 years old while the average age for mastersdegrees range into the thirties and forties. Because

our goal is to provide a digital learning forum for alldegree students, our target audience will be mostly 18to 30 year olds, but we will have to assume some olderstudents outside of that range will need to beconsidered.

The ratio of men to women in colleges today is approximately 57% women to 43%men. Because Howard University falls into this average, our demographic proportion ofmen and women should reflects this ratio, with a slight majority of women over men.

The education level for our projects target audience is based logically on thecollege educational requirements. Because the online learning environment will beginat the bachelor degree level, at least a high school education can be expected. HowardUniversity is a relatively prestigious school and so a high achievement in high school canalso be assumed. The online environment will also have to factor in continuingstudents who are working towards master degrees and who already have bachelordegree education in addition to their high school education.

The primary occupation of our target audience is the roll of students. However,most of these users will have secondary occupations to help pay for their education andliving expenses. These jobs are usually introductory positions and can range anywherefrom 5 to 30 hours per week.


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Because their primary focus is education and most employment is secondary andintroductory, the target audiences income is relatively low, ranging from $0 to $20,000per year.

Disabilities such as vision problems, difficulty using hands, hearing problems,and learning disabilities must also be factored in when considering the target audiencefor our project.

Although the percent of users whowill have some of these disabilities will belower for younger audiences, they are still

statistically significant and will need to befactored into the design. The website alsowill need to be successfully used andaccessible to both older students andinstructors.


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3.3. Research on target audience:

Some of the research on our target audience has already been discussed insection "3.2: Justification for audience specification", but can be supplemented by a

variety of useful sources. Some of these sources include:

Statistics from Howard University's admissions office, instructors, andfinancial office:

This information, available directly from the Howard Universityadmissions and financial aid offices, will help key in on the common attributes ofcurrent Howard University students. From this resource alone, we can determinethe average student course load, student age, the specific degree programs andcourses that will be required, common assignment types, professor suggestionsand teaching techniques, as well as instructor needs.

It may also be possible to use the current Howard University students andstudent databases to conduct surveys and other tests to help fine tune our targetaudience's attributes.

Since this is a hypothetical project for the sake of a classroom assignment,we will not actually have access to Howard University's admissions and financialstatistics and will therefore have to rely on more general statics from othersources about all college students.

National Center for Educational Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov):

This government organization has a plethora of research on collegestudent statistics, learning techniques, and evaluation techniques. The siteincludes information on common learning techniques and evaluations of variousonline learning projects that have already been tried across the country.

Facebook.com:

It is a widely known fact that our target audience is at home on social

networking sites such as Facebook. Reviewing these sites and exploring commonlikes and dislikes, along with fan groups and other trends, will help better usbetter understand our target audience.

A number of institutions and websites (such as Digital Buzz orCheckFacebook.com) have also collected and compiled statistics on Facebookusers. This information can further help define our target audience's hobbies,education, employment, and community ties.


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Other "Competitor" Sites:

Competitor sites or other resources focused on successfully creating onlinelearning environments are an excellent place to explore in order to help

understand how students interested in online learning think. Some of the mostuseful sites to examine include:

www.elearners.comwww.academyart.edu/ www.stat.tamu.edu/dist/www.worldwidelearn.com/elearning-industry/index.html

4. TARGET PLATFORM DESCRIPTION

4.1. Target browsers and platforms

Some browsers that our project will account for:Internet explorerNetscape,

Firefox (and all Gecko-based Mozilla browsers)OperaCamino

Some of the platforms our project will account for:Windows-based PCMacLinux

Some of the internet connectionspeeds our project will account for:

Dial upDSLCable modem connections


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4.2. Justification for browser and platform targets

The target platform will be difficult to specify simply because there are a widevariety of technical platforms being used by our target audience. The goal should be

maximum accessibility that factors in and accounts for the largest variety of webbrowsers, operating system platforms, and internet connection speeds possible.

5. User scenarios

5.1. Scenario one

Name : Aric Morgan

Age : 20

Gender : Male

Location : Chicago, IL, US

Education : 1.5 years

Family : Father, Mother, 1 sister, 2 brothers

Hobby : Drawing, Reading, Video Games

Security Feelings : High

Design Tastes : Futuristic, Modern Styles

Occupation : Student

Computer : High end PC at home


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Major : Systems and Computer Science

Income : No monetary income

Work Hours : Not Applicable

Disabilities : None

Level : Sophomore

Browser : Mozilla Firefox

Browser Settings : No Cookies, Highest security settings

Network : Cable Modem

Tech Skills : Java Programming, 3D Modeling, Web Developing

Favorite Movie : Pulp Fiction

Typical Day:

9:00 am- Breakfast before logging on to 10:00am class.

9:40 am- Checks online class email to see if grades posted.

10:00 am- Does online class work.

12:00 pm- Breaks for Lunch. Eats at home or possibly goes out for lunch

1:00 pm- Continues online class work

3:00 pm- Takes some recreation time video games, net surfing etc.

5:00 pm- Gets back to studying online what he stopped working on at

3:00 pm or begins working on new assignments.

Aric typically uses the online learning website at Howard University several timesa day. He logs on several times to complete work for his online classes in ComputerScience III, Physics for Science and Engineering II, Technical Writing, Pre-Professionaland Intro. to Digital Systems and Calculus III. Aric checks the assignment links for hisgrades and reviews the associated feedback from the instructors and class peers to makeimprovements based on their observations. The online environment is used by Aric tocomplete his undergrad credits towards a Bachelor of Science in Systems and ComputerScience.

5.1. Scenario two


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Name: Edward

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Location: Washington DC

Education: English Major

Family: Single

Hobbies: Poetry Lounges

Occupation: Freelance Writer

Income: $30,000 / year

Work Hours: 9 5

Computer: Macbook Pro laptop he carries with him everywhere.

Monitor: 17 in

Network: Wi Fi at work and home

Tech Skill: Intermediate web user

Favorite Movie: Slam

Typical Day:

7:00 am - Edward gets ready for work. He travels only 30 minutes to work

and usually arrives on time. He makes sure he doesnt forget hisclass books and his laptop since they are crucial to him following upwith his busy class schedule.

11:00 am - Edward gets his first break and usually logs into his onlineclasses to checks emails, give and receive minor class feedback, andalso checks if there are changes to his assignment work load. Hiswork load consists of weekly reports given from his onlineinstructor. To fulfill the requirements he has to research daily forthe subject online and offline so he plans his time accordingly byjotting things down in his Blackberry notebook to remember.

6:00 pm - Edward arrives home. After a quick bite to eat, he logs back intohis online studies to finish up his homework schedule. He checksfor changes and feedback once again and follows up with questionsand comments he receives from the online student system. Heattempts to find as much research he can for the current writingtopic and begins first by using the student research catalog system


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which is a general library database which covers broad ranges of themany subjects he will be addressing in his English classes.

Edward frequently checks the online learning website at Howard University

during breaks throughout work as well as in the evening. His evening sessions areusually longer and facilitate the bulk of his homework and classroom participation.Edward is balancing his full time employment with part time enrollment with the goal ofa degree in English and writing.

5.3. Scenario Three

Name : Jenny Simpson

Age : 23:

Gender : Female

Location : Washington, D.C.

Education : High school graduation with honors

3 years towards an undergraduatedegree

Family : Father, Mother

Hobby : Drawing and violin

Security Feelings : Moderate

Design Tastes : Classic and clean

Occupation : Student

Computer : High end PC at home and older laptop for traveling

Major : Architectural drafting and design

Income : $10,000 per year

Work Hours : 10-15 hours per week

Disabilities : None

Level : Senior


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Browser : Internet Explorer

Browser Settings : Default security settings

Network : Cable Modem

Tech Skills : intermediate web user

Favorite Movie : Animated Alice in Wonderland

Typical Day:

7:30: wake up and prepare for the day

9:00: On-site class at Howard University

11:00: lunch

12:00 homework in the library including checking online class status

3:00 leave school and prepare for work

3:30-7:30 afternoon shift at Target

8:00-11:00 log in to the online class and work on homework

Jenny is working part time at the local Target store while also taking a number ofon-site and online classes at Howard University. She often has large blocks of time to

work at the campus library where she focuses on both her on-site class homework andlogin on to her online courses. Several days a week, she leaves campus for short shifts atwork for a total of 10 to 15 hours a week. Jenny often checks her online classes for aperiod of time before bed each day.


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RESOURCES:

http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/04/16/does-internet-explorer-have-more-than-a-billion-users/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/education/09college.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-cover_x.htm

http://www.howard.edu/

http://www.taftcollege.edu/newtc/Community/demographics.htm

http://blog.edvisors.com/online-education/the-average-age-of-students-is-on-the-upswing/

http://collegecandy.com/2010/09/20/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-college-student/

http://www.brockport.edu/career01/upromise.htm

http://www.bates.edu/x56802.xml

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=intern&l1=milwaukee&tm=1

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/bw/0605/

http://nces.ed.gov/

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-facts-figures-for-2010/

http://www.checkfacebook.com/

http://www.elearners.com/resources/


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Team Roles:

1. Introduction: Text compiled together by Victor, Hector, and Lawrence. Finalformatting and further editing by Mark.

2. Project Purpose: Summary text created by Hector and supplemental text providedby Hector and Lawrence. Expectancies created by Lawrence. Additional research andfinal formatting by Mark.

3. Target Audience Description: General text by Hector and Victor withsupplemental text by Lawrence and Mark. Research and graphics, as well as finalformatting by Mark.

4. Target Platform Description: Summary text by Victor with input from rest of theteam.

5. User Scenarios: First scenario created by Victor, second scenario by Lawrence, and

third scenario by Mark. Final formatting by Mark with input from the rest of the team.

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