Module status quo July 2021

Status Quo Document, July 2021

In this document, we survey the current state of the module design project and identify key areas that still need to be worked on. This document is split up into three themes: general, activities, and assessments.  

Each section starts with an overview table listing the sub-tasks (essentially open questions), status (either not started, in progress, or done), and comments (explaining what actions have been or need to be taken). The summary then gives a bird eye view of the section.  

Each section ends with detailed discussions on each of the sub-tasks (detailed discussion should include links to current work on the sub-task, an explanation of those links, and list of todo that need to be done). The sections should be written with sufficient detail such that any person can use this document to pick up the project.  

Table of contents:

▼ Everything

► IExplore Module

► Knowledgebase

► Records

► Tools

► Using the Wiki

  All categories

  Knowledgebase

  Main Page

  Project pages

  Request additional content

General

This section includes discussion on the module specification, guest lecturers, and technology.  

Sub-task	Status	Comments
Module specification	Done	Submitted for review by Caroline
Guest lecturers	In progress	Main lecturers invited, response from 2   Yet to invite specialism workshop lecturers
Staff-partners	In progress	Some contacted, most yet to be decided
Teaching platform	In progress	Have thought about gather.town space requirements Initial draft space made and tested with different features
Submission platform	In progress	Decided to use wiki + Miro   Yet to try sharepoint as assignment submission platform

Summary

Overall, all tasks in this category are in progress. The module specification is done and should be approved soon. We have sent out invites for guest lecturers, however the ones for the specialism workshops have not been sent. We have a few candidates for staff-partners but have not formally confirmed any. Finally, the technology platforms are basically decided (and if they are not, it is not super important, e.g. where module materials are going to be hosted).  

Moving forward, we need to finalize the list of guest lecturers and find a list of 5-6 staff-partners who have a project and are willing to mentor students. The gather.town space also needs to be designed such that it facilitates the activities we have planned.  

Details

Module Specification

• Final module spec location: https://imperiallondon.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/ImpVis2020-EQ/Shared%20Documents/Summer%20project%2021%20-%20STEMM%20module%20team/Module%20Specification%20Revised.docx?d=wd43b4dd4fa8645e794e039d2bd93f1d9&csf=1&web=1&e=06VuHk  
• Submitted for review, awaiting final approval

Guest Lecturers

• Main lecturers: invited

• Education: Juan ~
• Graphical: Tracey ~
• Interactive: Bob √
• General: Freddie √

• Specialism workshops: not yet invited  

• See miro board for status: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l6ZdCjY=/

Todo  

• Decide on who to invite for specialism workshops  
• Communicate on topic of lectures to design activities for that day  

Staff-partners  

• Caroline invited people in MBBS  
• Rest not yet invited or decided  
• See miro board for potential invites: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l6ZdCjY=/

Todo

• Create table to track progress of invites  

• Find 5-6 staff-partners  

Teaching Platform

• Draft space (on a free plan): https://gather.town/app/yctcFVqJTSDJ7jMU/Design%20Sprint
• Miro board for planning: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l6Cy4vM=/
• Teams will be used for main information as will automatically have all students

• Will have a main room for initial teaching, although this may take place on teams, to be decided fully
• We want round tables if possible, but might need square to fit correct numbers
• Want individual group rooms for each team which will depend on the number of students/number of groups we have, each as a private space
• Colour coded rooms to make it easy to direct people
• Can use spotlight square/mode to e.g. call back groups to main room

• Can show a video to a group in a synchronous way with a start time if a guest lecturer were to record a video
• Can have 1:1 private spaces for rapid feedback sessions
• Will have a conference-style poster space with final designs embedded in poster boards, will need to colour code these posters in the same way as the group rooms for consistency and create a private space around each with enough room for a few people at a time
• Final account (with paid plan if needed) to be made and then final space constructed in this
• On a paid plan, can have iCal integration for sessions if wanted

• Need to remember to add in the impassable squares so that people can’t just walk around anywhere as walls don’t initially do this, as well as the private spaces

To-do:

• Create gather.town space with features detailed above
• Decide on integration/use alongside Teams
• Get the correct paid plan for use and number of students

Submission platform

• Options for submission platform: sharepoint, blackboard, wiki…  

• Most likely will use Sharepoint within teams  
• Flexible, as students will work in wiki + Miro + pdf  

Todo  

• Try out Sharepoint assignment submission  
• Try out creating page in wiki  
• Page Break

Activities

This section includes discussion on the planning for the activities for each week with emphasis on the time distribution for the activities and how complete the activity materials are.  

Sub-task	Status	Comments
Macro-design	Done	General topic for each week decided   Decided to move project introduction to W2 of module
Module Introduction [W1]	In-progress	Decided on icebreaker - List of random question and each person answers one or introduces themselves
Introduction to Groups and Projects [W2]	In-progress	Students introduce themselves after they are assigned project groups and a staff partner Preliminary discussion of the topic with staff partner Skills matrix introduction
Individual design strand lectures [W3-W5]	In-progress	Q/A after 30-minute guest lecture Design strand specific group discussions for each of the 3 weeks Exchange of ideas within group on the general term Updating Skills Matrix Asynchronous Activity [W5] - Critique visualisation of choice based on the three strands of design
Specialism Workshops + Project [W6-W7]	In-progress	4 specialism workshops (2 per week) [Presentation + Q/A] Discussions on project with group and staff partner Pending – Finalize activities during/post specialism workshop after discussion with lecturer conducting that specific workshop
Project Presentation + Final Review [W8-W10]	In-progress	Complete project design and present to panel of judges Asynchronous Activity [W10] (for Portfolio) - Students critique their own visualisations based on the three strands of design as done in W5

Summary

We have a very solid overall plan as to the topic of each week of the module. In addition, we have completed more detailed hour by hour plan for each week. Furthermore, we have multiple guest lecturers who we have invited and are waiting for a reply on.

However, the activities board is not finalised and there are multiple ideas for the activities to do on each day. To move forward, we need to do a week-by-week discussion on which activities are necessary to do in-class, which activities specifically target the ILOs, and how long the activities will actually take. Furthermore, the activities for now are general pointers and ideas, not yet written up as a document that can be given to a TA or instructor. Finally, a lot more work needs to be done to consider how to scaffold the project design process. Or if it isn’t going to be scaffolded, guidance needs to be written up for the instructor/TA for how to guide the project creation within the groups.  

Details

Course Structure and Activities - https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l8ecJCk=/ [Course Activities, Course Flow v5]

Macro-design

• General topic for each week and outline of course decided  

To-do: Consider time constraint that might arise and star-mark activities that might need to be done Asynchronously if time runs out

Module Introduction [W1]  

• Introduce course  
• what will happen each week
• course aim
• course submission
• Assessment
• Icebreaker
• list of random questions, each person answers one or introduce yourself one by one
• Introduce related tools
• Introduce to ImpVis
• Introduce how to use Miro
• Introduce how to use Gather town
• Cianne: creating assessment criteria + Menti Exercise
• Asynchronous Activity  
• Students fill out preference forms by W2 so that they can be assigned to project groups

Still uncertain:

• Form of Icebreaker

Introduction to Groups and Projects [W2]  

• Freddie’s lecture – Holistic overview of designing interactive visualisations, his experience with working on MOOC visualisations and his own projects
• Portfolio explanation
• Show group division and how to communicate
• Introduce self in group
• Discuss their topic
• asynchronous activity
• students research their topic to explain to the group next week

 

Individual design strand lectures [W3-W5]  

W3 - Educational design

• Before Week 3
• Miro brainstorm in groups ideas about educational design strand
• Expert Talk  
• Experts Talk (Presenter: Juan Nunez)
• Q/A after 30-minute guest lecture  
• Workshop
• each member of group tries to explain their topic to each other
• group discussion of application of educational design ideas to their project
• Cianne: creating assessment criteria + skills matrix skills

W4 - Graphical design

• Before Week 4
• Miro brainstorm in groups ideas about Graphical design strand
• Expert Talk  
• Experts Talk (Presenter: XXX)
• Q/A after 30-minute guest lecture  
• Workshop
• group discussion of application of graphical design ideas to their project and what elements they will need
• Cianne: creating assessment criteria + skills matrix skills

W5: Interaction design

• Before Week 5
• Miro brainstorm in groups ideas about Interaction design strand
• Expert Talk  
• Experts Talk (Presenter: Bob Spence)
• Q/A after 30-minute guest lecture  
• Workshop
• students try out different methods of interaction (through links to different visualisations)
• group discussion of application of interaction design ideas to their project
• Cianne: creating assessment criteria + skills matrix skills
• asynchronous activity
• Miro - critique your favourite vis based on the three design strands

Still uncertain:

• How much time we need for creating assessment criteria + skills matrix skills

Specialism Workshops + Project [W6-W7]  

W6-project

• Workshop (experts give topic or lecturer set)
• Group Skills matrix discussion
• Group discussion: What are the important aspects for the design related to each strand?
• give students a timeline for their project

Still uncertain:

• When the timeline will be delivered and content
• Experts give topic or lecturer set

Pending – Finalize activities during/post specialism workshop after discussion with lecturer conducting that specific workshop

W7-project

• Workshop (experts give topic or lecturer set)

• Introduce how to give good feedback
• Rapid Feedback Sessions

Still uncertain:

• Workshop form
• How to get Rapid Feedback Sessions

Pending – Finalize activities during/post specialism workshop after discussion with lecturer conducting that specific workshop

Project Presentation + Final Review [W8-W10]  

W8-project

• Rapid Feedback Sessions

Still uncertain:

• How to get Rapid Feedback Sessions

W9-review

• Rapid Feedback Sessions
• introduction to self-assessment
• Asynchronous -> Critique your own visualisation - Three strands of design [template similar to the exercise in W5] (As part of the student’s portfolio)

W10-final review

• Poster in public place of gather town. Teams are free to leave comments to other teams (might serve as encouragement)
• Final Wrap up - Reflect on what they've done for 10W + ImpVis Wiki an if students want to join code & crisps to implement design
• Asynchronous activity - fill out self-assessment/ reflection

Assessments  

This section includes discussion on the three assessments and related items (such as the design of the assessment criteria and skills matrix, though there is some overlap with the activities section).  

Sub-task	Status	Comments
Assessment criteria	Done	Assessment criteria for design project will be completed by students in class   Timeline for producing the criteria has been created Some more specific details of how the in-class discussion will work might be needed
Design project	In progress	Tried design sprint Need to decide on how to scaffold design process
Self-assessment	In progress	Meetings with staff in charge of the Imperial Award and Change Makers programmes have given ideas Specific template / structure needs deciding
Portfolio	In progress	There are thoughts about what should be included Specific structure needs to be considered further
Feedback	Done	Not a direct assessment Ideas of how students can give useful feedback Will always be possible to add more examples/more detail to this if there is time, but can be used as is
Skills Matrix	In progress	Timeline for producing the skills matrix in class has been created and skills that should be included have been considered Decisions on template to use and skills to include need finalising

Summary

Overall, we have made great strides in improving the original three assessments. In particular, we have changed the structure to include external-, instructor-, and student-led assessment to give the student more agency. Furthermore, we switched to assessing a whole portfolio that allows the student to better show their learning versus only the final product. In the process, we have a clear idea for how to do feedback and through the design sprint have an idea for the requirements of the final design project submission.

However, a number of key questions have yet to be answered. In particular, we have not yet tried the entire process for creating the assessment criteria. We have not done a proper run through of creating and refining the skills matrix. We have not created an exemplar design project. And we have not decided the format or content of the portfolio. These tasks are important to see how much we have to scaffold these activities and to test how the process will actually work with a group of students.  

Moving forward, we need to find time (most likely in September) to try out each of the assessments. From there, we can decide whether to tweak timings of the sessions and what materials we still need to develop.  

Details

Assessment Criteria

• Students will co-create the assessment criteria with the module lead in class through a combination of small group discussion, in-class discussion, and Menti submissions – time has been allocated for this in weeks 1-6 - the proposed plan is on Assessment Criteria and Skills Matrix, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com) (The specific weeks listed have been adjusted due to moving the formation of project groups to week 2 instead of week 5)
• No specific assessment criteria have been created as this will be done in class – this will be led by Caroline  
• Some more thought might need to be given to how to structure the in-class discussions  

To-do:

• Ensure assessment criteria creation has been incorporated into course structure & activities timeline (Course Structure and Activities, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com))

Design Project

• Design sprint:  

• For the design created, see https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l6BMMjQ=/
• For comments on the process, see homebase miro board, heading “Design sprint observations”  

• Initial planning for formatting final design: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l5-ymT8=/
• Interactive elements for students to test and use: https://impvis.co.uk/launch/impvis-layouts-v2/page1.html?collection=39

Todo

• Decide how to scaffold the design process

• E.g. give prompts for the students to think about or ideas for how to do effective brainstorming  

• Finalise guidelines for the submission of the final design  
• Create example project of a “good” submission  

Self-assessment

• Meetings with staff involved in the Imperial Award and Change Makers programmes have given ideas about how to create a good self-assessment format – notes from these meetings are on Assessment Criteria and Skills Matrix, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com) under the ‘self-assessment brainstorm’ and ‘self-assessment comments’ sections

To-do:

• Compile ideas to determine final plan for how self-assessment will be structured
• Decide on the template, if any, that will be given to students  
• Decide on the time allocated, either in-class or asynchronously, for students to complete it

• Decide on how much introduction / guidance will be given to students about how to complete a good self-assessment in class  
• Incorporate the self-assessment plan into the course structure & activities timeline (Course Structure and Activities, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com))

Portfolio

• Will be via a Miro board for each student

• Used for the self-assessment/reflection as well as being a record of what they did during the project and their learning journey
• Some example templates that could be used, but will give a lot of freedom
• Will need to give areas on the Miro board for each activity
• Would be nice to use a timeline type structure for their learning journey to help with their self-reflection at the end
• A to-do list created at the start of each week and then reviewed before the next week could be useful for tracking what has been done

• Plan so far: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l6YC4ic=/

To-do:

• Create structured Miro board for portfolio
• Create spaces for individual weeks/activities
• Create areas for linking to group project work

• Create an area for self-reflection with some limitations/guidance so that people don’t go over the top/not give enough (e.g. specific locked frame size, text size, space to review their own design)

Feedback

• Focus on reviewing rather than feedback to fit with ImpVis procedure
• Using a traffic light system (RAG) for priority of points
• Focusing on points being Specific, Formative and Rich, which are detailed in the word doc

• Examples of traffic light review systems have been found, but there will always be room for more, especially in biology/medicine (there are more on physics/engineering right now)
• Could add more detail about the ImpVis review process, maybe with screenshots if there is time, but not necessary
• Some templates have been created, some more creative than others, to make use of these methods and give choice to suit different kinds of learners, found on the Miro board
• Tested cloning Miro boards and annotating pdfs as well as access/editing permissions: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l7CTGkk=/
• Word doc detailing good review practices and giving examples: https://imperiallondon.sharepoint.com/:w:/s/ImpVis2020-EQ/Ef-dKtgL9UBKh-OI5uZIqUkBXiloOJbtGp5w-G7zZ33n5g?e=YrCbIf

• Miro board with plan for final word doc (above) and feedback templates: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_l6p-lcw=/

To-do:

• Create Miro boards for students to review designs at time of use

Skills Matrix

• The broad skills matrix will be filled in by students in-class, then students will add to this in their project groups to create a project-specific skills matrix  

• Students will use the project-specific skills matrix to set personal learning goals for the project  
• The purpose of the skills matrix is to allow students to identify what skills their group requires, what skills each group member already has, and what skills each group member will work to develop during the project
• A timeline for producing the skills matrix in weeks 1-6 has been created on Assessment Criteria and Skills Matrix, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com) (The specific weeks listed have been adjusted due to moving the group formation from week 5 to week 2)
• An example skills matrix was created in the design sprint to trial the process - Solid Angles Design Sprint, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com)  
• Observations of the process of creating the skills matrix can be found on Homebase, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com)

To-do:

• Decide on if there are any specific skills that need to be included, or whether this will be done completely in class
• Determine the final template to be used (most competency matrixes seem quite similar so lots of examples online)
• Some consideration might need to be given to how in-class discussions will be structured
• Ensure skills matrix production plan is incorporated into course structure & activities timeline (Course Structure and Activities, Online Whiteboard for Visual Collaboration (miro.com))