I've been blogging for a few months now and I wanted to a self-eval of my Blogger production thus far. When I first started this blog, my goal was to use it as an outlet to reflect on current topics in technical communication and more importantly, information architecture. Since this is not a corporate blog, I admit that I have strayed away from the content throughout, but there is always time to improve. I was not a frequent reader of weblogs and it took a while to find a writing style that a good fit for me and the image that I wanted to portray to my audience at large.
I try to keep entries short but detailed, although there some times when you need to elaborate on certain topics more than others. I have a working knowledge of HTML and I was able to change bits of the code to enhance the visual design of my page to something more appealing and to make it stand out against the other blogs on Blogger. I also hope to use this page in my portfolio as an example of skills that I have learned thus far and will learn in my graduate courses in Professional and Technical Communication.Stay tuned!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Online Collaboration-My story
I am currently a graduate student at NJIT where my program is delivered in a distance-learning format. I have 3 courses offered on the course management platform WebCt and 1 on Moodle. I was attracted to the program because it was online, but at the time I did not fully understand the extent of collaboration efforts that would be expected to complete course assignments.
For my Cultural and Technological Change course, I was required to work with three other students to complete weekly assignments that consisted of reading specific chapters and collaborating with group members to produce one summary and one question to pose to the other groups in the course. We also had to produce a combined answer to each question posed by the other groups and this endured for an entire semester. We each produced our own work and then came together to bring out main ideas to be included in the final summary. We setup weekly chats and deadlines to submit individual work, but the entire process was very frustrating because of Webct constraints. WebCt does not support any audiovisual components and the design of the chat was very outdated which made it hard to keep track of information that we discussed. The majority of the entire course was collaboration and it was a lot to deal with as a first time graduate student. It was discouraging to later find that other groups were appointing one person to do the weekly assignment and then the others would read it and give feedback.
For my Elements of Visual Design course, we were responsible for collaborating and creating two wikis, which were fun. There was not the same amount of pressure in this type of collaboration and it was interesting to see the various edits that students were making as the project progressed. I could see myself working professionally with others in a similar format.
An online course is advantageous because it is convenient, accessible, and will strengthen communication skills and help to improve time-management as well. As an undergrad, I was not a fan of lectures that I could easily fall asleep in and I thought that it would be interesting to try online courses for graduate school. Having a face-to-face course fosters collaboration because you can be assured that people are "there" and it is easier to talk to someone rather than type a message and hope that they respond.
I think that having audio and video capabilities available for students to communicate with other students will improve the discussions in online courses, although people are in different time zones and will not be able to all be online at the same time. This option will particularly be beneficial for teamwork within courses that require extensive collaborative efforts.
Having this option available will also strengthen communication between students and their professors. There are often times when professors will not join in on discussions and this proves to be discouraging when students are struggling to find answers and could benefit from their teacher's insights.
This first semester was a big challenge, but I can see a difference between my learning experience in Webct compared to those in Moodle. The design and usability of the platform that an online course is delivered through are very important and professors should try out different options and choose the best one for the success of their students.
For my Cultural and Technological Change course, I was required to work with three other students to complete weekly assignments that consisted of reading specific chapters and collaborating with group members to produce one summary and one question to pose to the other groups in the course. We also had to produce a combined answer to each question posed by the other groups and this endured for an entire semester. We each produced our own work and then came together to bring out main ideas to be included in the final summary. We setup weekly chats and deadlines to submit individual work, but the entire process was very frustrating because of Webct constraints. WebCt does not support any audiovisual components and the design of the chat was very outdated which made it hard to keep track of information that we discussed. The majority of the entire course was collaboration and it was a lot to deal with as a first time graduate student. It was discouraging to later find that other groups were appointing one person to do the weekly assignment and then the others would read it and give feedback.
For my Elements of Visual Design course, we were responsible for collaborating and creating two wikis, which were fun. There was not the same amount of pressure in this type of collaboration and it was interesting to see the various edits that students were making as the project progressed. I could see myself working professionally with others in a similar format.
An online course is advantageous because it is convenient, accessible, and will strengthen communication skills and help to improve time-management as well. As an undergrad, I was not a fan of lectures that I could easily fall asleep in and I thought that it would be interesting to try online courses for graduate school. Having a face-to-face course fosters collaboration because you can be assured that people are "there" and it is easier to talk to someone rather than type a message and hope that they respond.
I think that having audio and video capabilities available for students to communicate with other students will improve the discussions in online courses, although people are in different time zones and will not be able to all be online at the same time. This option will particularly be beneficial for teamwork within courses that require extensive collaborative efforts.
Having this option available will also strengthen communication between students and their professors. There are often times when professors will not join in on discussions and this proves to be discouraging when students are struggling to find answers and could benefit from their teacher's insights.
This first semester was a big challenge, but I can see a difference between my learning experience in Webct compared to those in Moodle. The design and usability of the platform that an online course is delivered through are very important and professors should try out different options and choose the best one for the success of their students.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Readability and Usability
Readability is the ease in which a document or work can be read. Things considered readable mean that is interesting and fit to be read. Interest and prior knowledge of a subject often help readers comprehend and retain information.
Readability tests were designed to meaure the suitability of books to assist educators and librarians in selecting appropriate materials for different age groups. Some testing methodology consist of the Flesch Reading Ease scale, widely used formula measuring the readability of documents on scale from 0(difficult to read)-100(easy to read). The Flesh scale is also used in Microsoft Word when providing statistics about a current document and it also tells you what reading level the writing of the document is on. I was first introduced to this in high school when my English teacher made remarks about writing at an appropriate level since we were on our way to college. The Fry test method is also a measure of readability which is now incorporated in computer programs.
Usability testing methods investigate the ease in which users can utilize a product or website. Readability tests can measure the readability of the text on websites or the text in manuals and directions for products. It is important that users can easily understand the information that is presented to them. In visual design, readability tests can determine the effectiveness of typography or copy.
Readability tests were designed to meaure the suitability of books to assist educators and librarians in selecting appropriate materials for different age groups. Some testing methodology consist of the Flesch Reading Ease scale, widely used formula measuring the readability of documents on scale from 0(difficult to read)-100(easy to read). The Flesh scale is also used in Microsoft Word when providing statistics about a current document and it also tells you what reading level the writing of the document is on. I was first introduced to this in high school when my English teacher made remarks about writing at an appropriate level since we were on our way to college. The Fry test method is also a measure of readability which is now incorporated in computer programs.
Usability testing methods investigate the ease in which users can utilize a product or website. Readability tests can measure the readability of the text on websites or the text in manuals and directions for products. It is important that users can easily understand the information that is presented to them. In visual design, readability tests can determine the effectiveness of typography or copy.
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