IS480 Team wiki: 2010T1 Flexperts
Type | Student group |
Area | Interactive Learning Material |
Industry | Computer Software |
Web-based Applications | |
Product | E-learning Resource System |
Team members | Bryan Cheong Wen Cai |
George Chen Kaidi | |
Harjani Bharat Gobindram | |
Urmila Mandapaka | |
Yohann Yezdi Engineer | |
Faculty Supervisor | Kevin Steppe |
Client | Soo Wai Man |
(CTE, SMU) |
Our project involves developing an e-learning resource system that easily generates and manages e-learning Flash objects using our pre-loaded, re-usable templates. We are working closely with the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), SMU, to give the Professors a more efficient method of communicating certain learning materials that they could not during class, in a more interactive and dynamic method than PowerPoint presentations. This helps to increase the understandability of materials that are not taught in class specifically. This is achieved by allowing students to work with the objects and see for themselves how the theory might apply. Tapping on the concept of cloud computing (Platform as a Service), users can enjoy the additional benefit of lightweight web applications with no need for installations or storage.
Contents
Project Description
Pedagogy Project (e-Learning)
Our project comes under a bigger umbrella project called The Pedagogy Project. This scheme provides support for full-time faculty seeking assistance to develop electronic teaching and/or learning resources. SMU's working definition for Pedagogy Project (e-Learning) is:
"Development of an electronic teaching/learning resource that is pedagogically sound, interactive and engaging to supplement a challenging area/topic of classroom teaching"
In consultation with faculty and administrative teams, we have articulated a process for supporting Pedagogy Projects (e-Learning). The process provides guidelines for budgeting, proposal submission, project scoping, approval, design, development and pilot testing.
Objectives
Upon completion, our team will have delivered a full working system based on our client’s requirements. The system will be hosted on our school’s server, running 24x7, and we will provide necessary maintenance. Our client and users will be able to efficiently generate new learning objects based on re-usable templates. By definition, a learning object is a digital resource that can be re-used to support learning (Beck, Robert J., 2009).
Assumptions
- Solution can be hosted on the school server permanently, and maintained by us.
Mitigation: Seek approval once proposal is accepted. Maintenance period is 1 to 1.5 years, will a retainer fee for the team. After which, project will be handed over to either external vendor or student to perform upgrade. - Users will know how to use our system.
Mitigation: Conduct a User-Acceptance Test on a small pool of faculty. - Users will be comfortable with our system.
Mitigation: Market research and comparison with other related commercial products.
Key Features
No setup required
Simple yet powerful
Crosses all boundaries
When it comes to the matter of compatibility, our solution fits right in and bridges the gap. It is platform independent. All you need is a flash compatible browser. |
Project Management
Milestones
Software Setup
- Adobe Flash Builder (Flex)
- Flex SDK
- Microsoft Project / Merlin(Mac equivalent)
- Eclipse
- Microsoft Visio
Resource and reference
For the purpose of our development in the proposed solution, our client has put together a mini-library of 20 technical help books, covering topics from Flex to XML to databases. We are also using Proquest e-books for reference purpose.
For software, our client has provided us the entire Adobe Master Suite Collection for project development. We have also each obtained an educational copy of licensed Adobe Flash Builder (Flex). The SDK is open-source. We have also obtained budget to purchase an online clip art resource for our repository. For the purpose of comparison, we have also purchased several licenses of related commercial software to better leverage our product.
Server will either be hosted on the SMU Library development server, IS server (yet to seek permission), or on CIT’s server (maintained by us). On top of that, we are in the midst of negotiating with the Vista Team, IITS, on how we can use a prototype of their new LMS to test out our system.