Promotional Material (Conference Poster): https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/30458672/32039720-08b8dd14-ba72-11e7-8fc5-b5c0b09c826a.png
Our zone: https://lornasfanbois.uqcloud.net/
Target Audience: Young teachers who have been in education for fewer than five years.
The dilemma that is being addressed by this project is the issue of low retention of new teachers in education, specifically teachers who have been teaching for less than five years. This issue impacts on factors such as the quality of education students receive, a shortage of teachers with increasing student numbers, and an aging teacher population that is not being replaced or passing on skills. While this is not an issue that can be directly addressed and solved here, tools can be developed to help mitigate factors that contribute to this issue. This project aims to develop an application that will enable teachers to establish a community, and seek and provide support and resources to one another.
The first factor this aims to mitigate is the large amount of additional planning work teachers are expected to do outside work hours. This is an issue that has been directly attributed to new teacher attrition. With the introduction of the national curriculum, many teachers are delivering similar lessons and content, and are expected to plan each lesson they deliver, without being given time within work hours to do so. TeachHub allows teachers to share lesson plans, content, and advice on effective teaching methods. This will help new teachers develop skills, and reduce the amount of additional work teachers much complete outside work hours. Additionally, it will help teachers find mentors, and develop a sense of community, which is another factor that impacts teacher retention.
Many new teachers who leave education identify a lack of support and mentorship as a heavy contributor to their choice. New teachers are not given adequate support and guidance in order to develop necessary skills to succeed. This issue stems in part from teachers not having spare time to take on additional roles as they are occupied with their own workload. Through TeachHub, new teachers will be able to connect with each other and more experienced teachers, and develop a support network where they can seek guidance and mentorship, as well as reduce their considerable workload.
TeachHub aims to create a community in which teachers can communicate, share and discover teaching methods and resources, new technologies and how to use them. The application will mainly focus on asynchronous distributed interaction where teachers will create, post, reply in forums. The web application will allow teachers to create and share lesson plans and use ready-made plans across a range of subjects. Lesson plans will have a rating system included which will allow teachers to see how effective the plan is and whether or not it will suit their circumstances. Teachers will also be able to get advice on teaching methods and how to deal with troubled students through a forum provided by the website.
The project began with groups forming around a concept within a domain. The original concept our group formed around was aimed at mitigating factors that contribute to teacher attrition in teachers who had been teaching for five years or less. This is an issue that is beyond the scope of this project to address directly, so we aimed to address symptoms of this problem that have been identified through research and interaction with teachers. Our solution spans both the Education and Active Community domains, with an emphasis on Active Community, with the original application intended to be a space where teachers could go to share and collaborate on resources. This has been the basis from which our idea has developed.
We began the project by undertaking discussions with teachers, performing preliminary literary research, and then examining our findings to generate user requirements that would guide the development of early prototypes. Each group member created a paper prototype for the purpose of user testing, and performed testing. Each of the prototypes was tested with either members of the target audience (teachers), or surrogate users where members of the target audience were inaccessible.
The feedback received from these sessions assisted us develop a concrete design direction for our concept, and as a result we were able to generate the Minimum Viable Produce (MVP) and begin development on an electronic prototype. From the feedback we received we created a minimum viable product and then started the process of creating our web application through PHP, html, CSS and JavaScript. Once we had a basic layout, we tested it again with our target audience. From this we figured that the Lesson plans part of the web application should not be the focus of it. Instead we shifted to the forum feature of the application, and began exploring ways this could be used to facilitate teacher collaboration and sharing.
| Member | Student Number | Course Code | Course | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Judah Bennett | 43955871 | DECO3500 | Multimedia Design | Moral support,Front end, Logistics |
| Ihsaan Mahomed | 44054191 | DECO3500 | Multimedia Design | Designer, UX/UI, Content |
| Digby Tilse | 44351434 | DECO3500 | Multimedia Design | Designer, User Testing, Programmer |
Group meetings: 12pm, Wednesdays in Hawken Engineering Building (50)
The team will work collaboratively, and employ a diplomatic approach to decision making and idea generation and development. Trello will be used to list tasks that require completion. Group members will nominate tasks they wish to complete, and may employ their own work style in order to complete that task, providing the task is complete by the required deadline to a high standard. Underperforming group members member will be notified of their underperformance and reminded of their responsibilities towards the group. If this does not resolve the issue, course teaching staff will be consulted in order to resolve the issue.
The project will utilise a user-centred design approach, and as such most decisions will be made based on feedback received from users. Where decisions must be made by the group, a diplomatic majority approach will be adopted. Group members will vote on a desired solution, and the majority vote will decide how to proceed. Conflict will be resolved by trial by combat.
The primary method of communication for the project will be Slack, with Google Docs and Drive used for collaboration and filestorage. File names will be meaningful (e.g. explain what the file is) and named in camelcase. These platforms have been chosen due to their familiarity (Google Drive), and integration with the course (Slack). Slack is a centralised service that is convenient for sharing many different types of media, and offers functionality that facilitates group collaboration (e.g. pinning important information, integration with Google Drive, real-time chat). Trello will be used to keep fellow team members informed of what is being worked on. Tasks will be posed in Trello, and team members will indicate when they are working on that task. This will increase the efficiency and communication of the team.
| Project Phase | Milestone | Date | Week | Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research | Milestone 1 | 08/09/17 | 7 | |
| Requirements and User Testing | Milestone 2 | 15/09/17 | 8 | User testing performed. (Standup.Tuesday 12/09) |
| Development | Milestone 3 | 22/09/17 | 9 | |
| SWOTVAC | 23/09/17 - 01/10/17 | - | - | |
| Milestone 4 | 06/10/17 | 10 | (Tues 03/10) Standup. | |
| Milestone 5 | 13/10/17 | 11 | ||
| Testing and Finalisation | Milestone 6 | 20/10/17 | 12 | (Tues 17/10) Standup. |
| Milestone 7 | 25/10/17 | 13 | (Wed, 4pm) Social & Mobile showcase | |
| Milestone 7.5 | 27/10/17 | 13 | (Fri, 5pm) Final submission |
Project Phase: Research
Concludes: Friday, Week 7 (08/09/17)
Milestone 1 will be the research phase of the project, and result in foundational research that will inform the teams early prototypes, and assist the project team compile a list of pain points and gain generators for the target audience. These assets will inform the development of early prototypes.
Key deliverables:
- Solid foundational research from which to begin developing low fidelity prototypes for user testing.
- Pain points for target audience identified.
- Gain generators for target audience identified.
- Begin defining an MVP.
Project Phase: Requirements and User Testing
Standup: Tuesday, 12/09/17
Concludes: Friday, Week 8 (15/09/17)
This milestone will include the project team presenting their progress in a standup. Currently, Milestone 2 is intended to be a rapid iteration of low-fidelity, horizontal prototyping and user testing. The goal of this milestone is to generate a design direction to begin development of an electronic prototype, and begin defining the MVP of the final system. Through this approach, the project team plans to allow enough time to produce a complete model of a functional system for the Digital Showcase.
Requirements will be drawn from interviews and research performed in Milestone 1.
Key deliverables:
- User testing results from performing paper prototyping.
- A design direction that provides the project team with a starting point to begin development of an electronic prototype.
- Wireframe drafts of the web application interface.
- Finalised definition of MVP
Note: Requirements and User Testing will continue throughout the project, but will be the specific focus of this phase.
Project Phase: Development
Concludes: Friday, Week 9 (22/10/17)
This Milestone will cover two weeks, unlike other Milestones, as such the project team will attempt to generate a functional electronic prototype for feedback in Milestone 4, which includes some to most core functionality. Draft styling for the application will be completed during this Milestone to ensure the final product looks professional.
Key deliverables:
- A HTML and JavaScript interface that (at least) simulates functionality.
- User feedback on the generated prototype.
- Draft styling for the application.
- (Optional) Basic back-end functionality.
Project Phase: Development
Standup: Tuesday, 03/10/17
Concludes: Friday, Week 10 (06/10/17)
This Milestone will be used to finalise the front-end interface, and begin or continue creation of back-end functionality. The project team will look to define precisely what the final product will be, and draft appropriate promotional materials.
Key Deliverable:
- Complete, or nearly complete, MVP.
- User feedback and development plan based on feedback.
- Draft promotional materials (poster, brochure).
- Concrete plan for finalisation of system and promotional materials as necessary.
- Basic back-end functionality
Project Phase: Development
Concludes: Friday, Week 11 (13/10/17)
During this Milestone final decisions about the scope of the final system will be made. Work will be dedicated to refining existing system features and implementing final features. Promotional material will be drafted and feedback will be requested on these assets. Further testing will be performed on the system during this phase as parts of the system are ready or need to be tested. The feedback received from this testing will be applied moving towards Milestone 6.
Key Deliverables:
- Draft printing (if appropriate)
- Promotional materials ready for finalisation and draft printing (if necessary)
Project Phase: Testing and Finalisation
Standup: Tuesday, 17/10/17
Concludes: Friday, Week 12 (20/10/17)
Project due 27/10/2017
This Milestone will aim to have the MVP of the system completed to a high standard. Promotional materials should be ready for feedback and finalisation at this point also. During this milestone final feedback will be gathered ready for final features and improvement by Milestone 7. By the end of this Milestone, promotional materials must be ready for printing due to time constraints that exist when dealing with printers.
Key deliverable:
- MVP complete
- Promotional materials complete and ready for print
Project Phase: Testing and Finalisation
Social and Mobile Showcase (4pm)
Concludes: Wednesday, Week 13 (25/10/17)
Social & Mobile Showcase will be the conclusion of this Milestone. The Minimum viable product will be complete, and any features or functionality included in the application will be functional and free of bugs. Any promotional materials will be finished to a high and complete standard and printed ready for display.
Key Deliverables:
- An electronic prototype complete to a high standard that performs key functionality (free of bugs).
- Promotional materials completed to a high and professional standard.
- Pitch and any additional materials printed.
Project Phase: Testing and Finalisation
Concludes: Friday, Week 13 (27/10/17)
This Milestone is the conclusion and final delivery of the project. Group members will finalise project-related assets as necessary and ensure they are ready for submission. The Github repository URL must be uploaded to Blackboard by 5:00pm Friday October 27.
Key Deliverables:
- Final application that provides at least minimum viable functionality to a high standard.
- All promotional material completed to a high standard.
- All relevant project assets.
- The entire project.
User testing refers to having users, or representative users (education students) perform testing sessions on parts of the system. Different sessions will be run throughout the project and catered to the specific goals of testing sessions. For example, early testing will be performed using paper prototypes, with users asked to complete tasks, and give feedback about their experience. Usability testing will also be performed on fellow interaction design students in order to refine the overall user experience, and ensure best practise is being adhered to.
Tags : #collaborationAndSharing #social #asynchronousDistributed #CSCW #groupMultiuser #education #jobretention
- (5%) Week 8 standup
- (5%) Week 10 standup
- (5%) Week 12 standup
- (15%) Prototype
- (10%) Promotional materials
Total: 40% weighted
To provide a platform for teachers to create and share lesson plans which adhere to the Australian curriculum.
This would include being able to:
- Upload/download files
- Commenting on uploaded files
- Home page
- About page
- Rating system (Rating Files and posts)
- Lesson plans page
- Search function (to sift through)
- Sort function (Alphabetical, Subject, Year level, Rating, etc.)
Individual contributions can be found on the wiki: