Human-Computer Interaction
Term Project

Over the course of the semester, you will develop an interactive educational application. The purpose of this application can be to teach a new concept, provide practice of skills learned previously, provide supplemental information, or give students a new way of "seeing" the information. In any case, this application must focus on a specific topic or concept, and be targeted to a specified audience. You will apply the principles learned in class, producing several deliverables (and making two presentations). You must use Macromedia Director to develop your application, no exceptions.

The topic and the audience are completely up to you. Choose something you are interested in and knowledgable about: e.g. Chinese cooking, Greek mythology, the Pythagorean theorem, states of matter. Your topic should be narrow enough to constitute a single lesson (e.g. "conditional statements" instead of "programming in C"). Teaching someone how to use a particular computer application (e.g. Excel) is NOT a good choice. The audience should be appropriate to the topic, and very specific.

The following table describes your deliverables. The weight column indicates what portion of your final grade is determined by each assignment; any missing or plaguerized assignments will receive no credit. Due dates for the assignments are indicated in the course schedule. You will be penalized for any late assignments (half a letter grade for each week that the assignment is late); presentations MUST be made on the scheduled date to receive credit.

Assignment	Weight	Description
Project selection	5%	Write a brief essay containing the following. Hand it in in class. Describe your topic. What particular skill or information do you expect someone to learn (or reinforce) from using your application? How do people currently learn this topic? Describe your intended audience. Be as specific as possible about their needs, limitations, and presumed abilities or skills. Find 3 web sites that teach/explain your topic (or a similar topic). For each one, Give the URL (web address). Describe the intended audience, i.e. who might learn from this site. Describe how multimedia is used in the site (if at all). Describe how interactivity is used to enhance the learning experience (if there is any interactivity involved).
Design review	5%	Design the main screen(s) for your educational application using Macromedia Director. Although nothing needs to work right now, we should be able to see what the user will see, and what the user will be able to choose to do. Be prepared to show this design in class, and talk about what your application is supposed to teach, and to whom. Warning: I will most likely suggest major changes at this review. Do not despair; it will make your project better in the end.
Activity design	5%	Write a document that describes two (2) alternative interactive activities that could be used to present information in a new way, or reinforce what has already been learned. For each activity, sketch or describe: What would the user see on the screen? What would the user be able to do, to interact with the application? How would the application respond to those interactions? How does this differ from, or build upon, the current practice? How would this help to make the topic more understandable, or reinforce what has already been learned? Hand in your written description in class. I will then select one of these (possibly with changes) for you to implement.
Final project	30%	Demonstrate your finished project to the class. Be prepared to talk about what you are teaching, who your audience is, and how your application builds upon the current practice. Your finished project will be judged on ... Educational merit: how useful is your application as a learning tool, compared to the current practice? Usability: how easy is it for someone in the intended audience to use your application? Aesthetics: is the design clean and simple, and is the interface a pleasure to look at? Fun: How much fun is the interactive activity that you developed?