Course Description

Course Objectives

Every professional needs to teach, train, or inform someone at some time. Perhaps you are a teacher, introducing a new subject to your students. Perhaps you work for an organization that needs to familiarize employees or other stakeholders with procedures, skills, or the workings of a system. Or perhaps you work for a business, and need to tell investors and customers how your product or service will make people's lives better. In any case, multimedia is an effective way to communicate these ideas. And that multimedia is best received when it is delivered through an interactive interface that is easy and fun to use.

This course has two goals. The first goal is to teach principles underlying the effective design of multimedia communications. This includes an introduction to multimedia, concepts of usability engineering, and principles of sound user interface design. The second goal is to give students practical experience developing and integrating multimedia learning materials using a variety of software tools.

At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to …

• Design an interactive multimedia website for a given audience and topic.
• Develop a prototype of their design incorporating multimedia output.
• Evaluate their prototype and specify appropriate modifications.

Textbooks

We will be using the following textbook:

Dorian Peters, Interface Design for Learning, New Riders (Pearson Education), 2014, ISBN 0-321-90304-8.

In addition, readings from the current literature may be assigned. These may be found in the Course Materials section of the Blackboard site for the course.

Course Materials

Course Requirements

• Attendance and Class Participation - 10%
  This includes participation in in-class activities and discussions of your project progress.
   
• Exams - 20%
  Two exams will be given in-class, covering material from the text and the class presentations. Both exams are closed-book, and are not cummulative.
   
• Project - 70%
  Over the course of the semester, you will develop a term project in 7 parts. See the Assignments section for further details and the Schedule (below) for due dates.
  

Advisories

Disability Support Services (DSS): If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC(Educational Communications Center) Building, Room 128, (631)632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Academic Integrity: Each student must pursue his or her academic goals honestly and be personally accountable for all submitted work. Representing another person's work as your own is always wrong. Faculty is required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. Faculty in the Health Sciences Center (School of Health Technology & Management, Nursing, Social Welfare, Dental Medicine) and School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/academic_integrity/index.html.

Critical Incident Management: Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of University Community Standards any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn. Faculty in the HSC Schools and the School of Medicine are required to follow their school-specific procedures. Further information about most academic matters can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin, the Undergraduate Class Schedule, and the Faculty-Employee Handbook.

My Own Advice

Think of me as your cranky client. There may be times when you disagree with what I say. You may think that some things are a matter of opinion, or that you are right and I am wrong. Just remember that I am the one giving out the grades. When I make a suggestion, be sure to listen, because it may have an impact on your final grade.

Start your assignments and your project early. That way if you have trouble, you can get help in time to finish your assignment by the due date. This will also help you to avoid a last-minute crunch in the lab.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't understand something, it's likely that your classmates don't understand it either. Raise questions in class. If you need further explanation, come see me during office hours. If you can't make my office hours, send me email. Be sure to do this before you get hopelessly lost.

Work with other students. I do not mean that you should copy each other's work (which will not be tolerated). Rather, you should learn from one another. If you can't figure out how to make something work, see how your colleague did it. It is also useful to discuss different ways of approaching a problem.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you anticipate any problems with this class. If alerted to them early on, I may be able to accommodate your needs.

Schedule

Classes are divided into two parts: theoretical and practical. Readings are indicated as chapters from the textbook, or as references to materials online, which can also be found in Documents->Readings on Blackboard. You are responsible for doing the readings before class, as they will be discussed in class. Assignments are due on the date listed, and will be presented in class on that date. Please note that this schedule is approximate, and subject to change.