BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

  Humanities Technology and Research Support Center

CHum 310
Semester Project

Assigned January 10, 2011

Final Version Due April 13, 2011

The major project for the semester will be a group project in which your group will create an instructional application (i.e., a program that teaches some set of facts or knowledge) using LiveCode. It is expected that the topic will be from the Humanities—language, arts, culture, philosophy, etc. However, if your group has another idea and can make a compelling case, we will consider other topics. Details follow:

1. Each class member is assigned to a team.

2. The team should meet during the next week to come up with a preliminary proposal for your project. 

Due January 19.

3. Each group will then have 2 weeks to create a detailed plan for the project, including:

   • Objectives for the program.
   • Specific performance goals for the users of your program.
   • A storyboard detailing the structure and giving information about the
   contents of each card or page in your program (within reason, realizing that some minor changes will probably occur during the programming process.)
   • Specific design and style guidelines (i.e., specifications of font sizes and styles, screen layout, button placement and style, etc.)

   Due February 2.

4. A "first draft" or alpha version of your software.

   Follow these guidelines in creating your software:

   • The actual programming should be roughly equally divided among all team members.
   • Since a large portion of this course will be devoted to learning how to incorporate multimedia into instructional applications, your project should include significant, appropriate multimedia elements: color graphics, animation, sound, digital video.
   • Similarly, a large portion of the course will have to do with integrating desktop applications with internet resources. Your project should demonstrate use of one or more of these technologies:
     
     • interfacing with online databases, accessing internet-based text or media resources,
     • accessing and incorporating dynamic internet content via onrev server-side scripting,
     • embedding your project in a web page as a "revlet",
     • use of an embedded browser object in your stack, or launching your project from a web server using a desktop-based "launcher" application.
   • Your program should include user interactions of various kinds, such as exercises, quizzes, interactive puzzles or simulations. It should not just be a presentational PowerPoint-style program.

   Due March 21.

5. A formal user evaluation of your alpha version. You will receive detailed instruction on how to do this before this date.

   Due April 4.

6. A "final draft" or beta version of your software, which incorporates the changes suggested by your user evaluation, to be demonstrated to the class and submitted to the instructor.

   Due April 13.