CMS.594 | Spring 2019 | Undergraduate

Education Technology Studio

Projects

The core class activities and assignments are as follows:

  1. Short design journal reflection or technical prep assignments: Short assignments in the form of a design journal entry or technical preparation will be completed each week. Design journal reflections will be completed in a semi-public journal and typically will be shared in class with peers. In addition, the design journal will serve as a landing page for all mini and final projects.
  2. Unit mini-projects: In each of the three parts of the course, students will participate in a mini-project that immerses them in core elements of education technology design and development specific to that unit. Each mini-project will be scaffolded into multiple phases based on an accelerated version of the design-based research approach:
    1. Identification of practical problem
    2. Proposed innovative solution
    3. Iterative cycles of internal rapid testing
    4. Final reflectionThese phases will prompt students to engage in discussion about core skills and concepts that relate their mini-project to the readings. Students will present a final deliverable for each mini-project, as detailed in the syllabus. Deliverables will generally include some prototype learning experience along with a synthesis of initial testing data and reflective writing about how the prototype enacts sound learning and instructional principles. Mini-projects may be completed individually or in teams of two.
  3. Final project: In the fourth part of the course, students will work on a final project, individually or in teams of two, to identify an extension of one of the mini-projects that provides an innovative solution to a student-identified problem of practice in education. Alternatively, students have the option to design a new project that reflects learning and readings from one or more of the course units. Students will conduct interviews with a potential user/stakeholder which will inform subsequent iterations of project. Students will playtest their final projects and will make refinements to their project based on data from the playtest. In the last session, students will give a formal presentation of their final projects. The final project will consist of three “deliverables”:
    1. Final project prototype
    2. Slide deck and final presentation
    3. Accompanying written product
  4. Class participation: You need to be an active participant in class—listening carefully, participating actively in small group conversations, contributing proportionally to the full seminar discussion, bringing your assignments with you to class, etc.—you know the drill. You need to attend every class. The teaching team will grant very occasional waivers for good reasons (e.g. attending conferences) and can excuse absences upon recommendations from MIT Student Support Services. We will not grant waivers for doing work for other classes.

Short assignments in the form of a design journal entry or technical preparation will be completed each week. Design journal reflections will be completed in a semi-public journal and typically will be shared in class with peers. In addition, the design journal will serve as a landing page for all mini and final projects. Students are instructed to use the design journal template (PDF). 

Assignments listed are due at the start of class. 

Ses # Assignments

1

Familiarize yourself with the syllabus and come prepared to ask clarifying questions.

2

Familiarize yourself with the HarvardX-MITx Person-Course Academic Year 2013 De-Identified dataset and brainstorm ideas about what to do, analyze or build based on the provided dataset.

Review your knowledge of a data analysis programing language (R or Python).

3

Ideate and implement some analysis, charts and visualizations based on the provided dataset. Fill in the two designated slides of the design journal with analysis, visualizations or any other results that you might have accomplished.

4

In your design journal, you will prepare a final prototype of your learning analytics data-driven product to be presented in class. During class you will be doing a presentation of 10 min + 5 min of questions explaining your motivation to develop this project, who can use this, how and with what objective, and rationale of your technical decisions.

Mini-project #1 submission report and presentation is due before class.

Where to submit: Students will include a link to the presentation slides in their design journal and should upload mini-project #1 submission report to the course website.

5

After reading about and experiencing practice spaces in today’s class, post a short description (200 words) of your own proposed practice space for mini-project #2 in your design journal. The description should identify: (1) the problem of practice your practice space addresses, (2) the intended user, (3) the proposed setting, and (4) skills you want the user to practice.

6

Prepare a prototype of your proposed practice space to playtest in class. Feel free to use the technology and interface that you feel most comfortable with; if you have experience with coding and want to create a web application that’s great, but it’s also fine if you want to create a paper prototype or a mock-up in Google Slides. The only requirements are that it represents a fully thought-out idea and that other students can try it out in class.

Where to submit: In your design journal (include links when possible). If it’s a paper prototype take pictures of it and upload it to the design journal. All prototypes should be brought to class for playtesting.

7

Mini-project #2 prototype and submission report due. Students will include a link to the demo in their design journal and should upload mini-project #2 submission report to the course website.

8

After reading about and experiencing UDL implementations, write a design journal entry which should consist of a short description (200 words, Images, etc.) describing your own proposed prototype for mini-project #3. Be sure to identify which barrier to learning you believe your design will address.

9

Prototype of how to improve technology with UDL for all students including students with disabilities to be included in the design journal complete with a 3-slide PowerPoint describing how your prototype reflects the UDL principles.

10

Mini-project #3 revised prototype memo due. Students will include a link to the demo in their design journal and should upload mini-project #3 submission report to the course website.

11

Revisit your “reflection” design journal entries from the end of each of the three mini-projects where you wrote notes to yourself about what you would like to accomplish with four more weeks to work on each mini-project. Respond to the following questions in your design journal:

  1. Which proposed improvements do you feel more excited about?
  2. Which improvements seem most promising to you?
  3. Of the potential extensions you have identified, what challenges do you anticipate in implementing your own recommendations? You may also conclude that none of your mini-projects are suitable for further exploration and propose a new innovation for a user/partner of your choosing.

You may include a combination of text plus images, sketches, code, or other media in your response. Be prepared to share your responses in class.

12

Using your empathy/stakeholder protocol, by this class, you will have conducted an interview(s) of either (1) an expert in the field who directly understands the needs of your end user; or (2) interview extreme users and those in the middle or “mainstream” of your target audience. You must let the instructor know if you need support in identifying and connecting to the appropriate individuals and securing interview(s) in advance of today’s due date. Take field notes during the interview.

Using your field notes, create four slides in your design journal that include the following:

  1. Interviewee: Who did you interview? Justify your choice of an interviewee. Were they an expert or the extreme/mainstream users?
  2. Key takeaways: What are some key takeaways from your empathy stakeholder interview? What surprised you?
  3. Design refinements: How will you integrate feedback from your interview to make refinements to your prototype? Propose 2-3 ideas for changes that you will make based on your interviewee’s responses.
  4. Potential roadblocks: What challenges do you anticipate in implementing these refinements and what resources might help you address them?

Be prepared to share with peers during class.

13

Playtest-ready project prototype and protocol for playtest.

Where to submit: In your design journal (include links when possible). Cases where the design journal submission format is not feasible should be discussed on an individual basis with the instructor.

14

All final project components due: (1) Final project prototype, (2) final presentation slide deck, and (3) written product.

Where to submit: Project prototype and slide deck should be linked in the design journal. The final written product should be uploaded to the course website.

Students will work individually or in teams of two to identify an extension of one of the mini-projects that provides an innovative solution to a student-identified problem of practice in education. Students may also identify a project of their own choosing, in consultation with the instructor(s). To inform the final project, students will conduct stakeholder/empathy interviews and will be expected to integrate stakeholder input into their final projects.

Project prototype and slide deck should be linked in the design journal. The final written product should be uploaded to the course website.

Final project deliverables include:

  1. the project prototype
  2. a presentation
  3. written product

Written Products

Students may choose from one of the written products listed below and examples will be provided in class. Think carefully about the your audience in your tone, format, structure, and the amount of “jargon” you use in your writing. All written products should address elements 1–7 from your final presentation slide template. You are strongly encouraged to incorporate visuals into all written products.

  1. Stakeholder/funder pitch: Write a 3-page pitch to a funder or stakeholder (e.g. a school district or major professional development provider) convincing them to fund or use the next version of the product/tool you have developed.
  2. Conference proposal: Write a 3-page report suitable for submission to an academic conference summarizing the initial results from field testing your prototype and the next steps for research and development.
  3. Policy brief: Write a 3-page policy brief that describes your product/tool and its potential applications in the world.
  4. EdTech news article: Write an edtech news article (600–1000 words) that reports initial findings from your field/playtests and discusses the potential impact of your product/tool in the world.
  5. Infographic: Create a 1–2 page visual depiction of your product/tool for a non-technical audience which provides an overview of the problem your product/tool addresses, initial findings related to its testing, challenges for taking this product/tool to scale, and future directions.

Example Projects:

Troll: A Game-Based Program for Enhanced Computer Troubleshooting in the Classroom Policy Brief (PDF)

Collaborative Textbook Policy Brief (PDF)

Practice Space Prepares Teachers for Hands-On Physics

Unit 1: Learning Analytics

Students will design and implement a data-driven product based on a MOOC educational dataset. The product can take any desired form as long as is informed by the data. Some examples include but are not limited to: exploratory analysis, visualizations and dashboards, prediction of learning outcomes or clustering analysis. The final delivery will include a class presentation and a report.

The report should include the following sections:

  1. Introduction to the problem you want to solve
  2. Learning objective
  3. Design and method that you are applying and rationale for selection of that method
  4. User and context
  5. Results of your prototype
  6. Include your prototype or code as part of the project submission so that your work is reproducible by the course staff.

The report should be between 2 and 5 pages. The section headings above should be used to structure the report. Depending on the nature of your project, your report might include more visuals (e.g. if you are working on visualizations), more methodological (e.g. if you are building up machine learning models) or more descriptive (e.g. if you are doing exploratory analysis). As an example of a scientific report on a learning analytics dashboard, take a look at Ruipérez-Valiente (2017).

Students will include a link to the presentation slides in their design journal and should upload mini-project #1 submission report to the course website.

Example Projects:

Analysis of Users by Geographical Location (PDF)

A Learning Analytics approach to Improving Course Design for the Global Community (PDF)

Visualizing Unknown and Missing Data in the HarvardX-MITx 2013 Dataset (PDF)

Unit 2: Practice Spaces

Students will design a prototype of a practice space for use in an educational setting to playtest in class. Students will then revise their prototypes and write a 1-page memo describing and reflecting on their design process.

Please upload your revised prototype and memo to the course website with the following sections:

  1. Introduction to the problem of practice you want to solve
  2. Description of the intended user and context where the practice space would be deployed
  3. Description of the design considerations that you took into account when building the practice (using the Reich et al., 2018 article as an example)
  4. How the design of your practice space supports teacher learning and reflection, including a clearly-articulated learning objective (drawing on course readings to date)
  5. Justifications for use of the technology you chose to address the problem

Students will include a link to the demo in their design journal and should upload mini-project #2 submission report to the course website.

Example Projects:

Code Spaces (PDF)

The Lab: A Practice Space for Pedagogical Debugging

Unit 3: Accessibility

Students will prototype an improvement to an existing product using the UDL guidelines. The prototype will demonstrate how the guidelines and checkpoints of the UDL guidelines informed designed decisions. During the final class presentation we will demonstrate the design highlighting the UDL features. The presentation should include some thoughts on how assessment might need to change to capture the effects of the design.

Upload a two-page memo to the course website with the following sections:

  1. Introduction to the problem of practice/technology you want to improve with UDL
  2. Description of the intended user and context where the improved technology would be employed
  3. Description of how it reflects the UDL principles
  4. How the design of your product supports student learning, including a clearly-articulated learning objective (drawing on course readings to date)
  5. Justifications for use of the technology you chose to address the problem. 

Students will include a link to the presentation in their design journal and should upload mini-project #3 submission report to the course website.

Example Projects:

Makersgram Memo (PDF)

PicDefine (PDF)

Increasing the Accessibility of Math Tools to Align with Universal Design for Learning Principles (PDF)

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Spring 2019
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