Table of Contents

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LessonPlan 2.0

Market Analysis

Design and Engineering

(Pre- and Post-)Production considerations

Contextual factors

Project Management

Future functionality

Niko Leave a comment

Version 1 of ‘LessonPlan’ will be released as a full functioning platform, but due to time constraints more advanced features will be implemented in future versions.
Some of the planned features are detailed below. The extra features simplify and make more robust some of the functionality of the platform, but all said functionality is completely operational in version 1 without them.

  • Suggestion algorithm
    One of the main goals of ‘LessonPlan’ is to facilitate module selection, allowing students to make more informed choices when selecting optional modules. This is based on the premise that providing students with information apart from the limited details of the module overview pages – and especially feedback on the practical applications of the module descriptions – will allow them to have a clearer picture of the module’s learning outcomes and requirements. In the initial release of the platform this is largely based on the inferences that each student can make from the feedback, comments and discussions that other students have posted. Implementing a suggestion algorithm would offer some automation on this task: The algorithm will be able to notice patterns in module selection and relate them to satisfaction. It will then be able to offer those observations as suggestions. For example, if a student A has rated Module X and Module Y as very interesting in Semester 1, and rates Module Z as very interesting in Semester 2, there’s a probability that students that have also found Modules X and Y interesting will have an interest in Module Z as well.

 

  • Posts’ ratings
    As detailed in the post about Trust here, implementation of ratings for comments and discussion posts is intended in the future. This would allow users to up-vote a post that they found particularly helpful, useful or interesting. That would provide new users with an instant indication about the validity of the post, while encouraging users to post more responsibly.

 

  •  Flags for abusive content
    For the initial release of ‘LessonPlan’ it was decided that no active monitoring or moderation of posts was needed to keep content clean and clear. From studies of Graph Theory on Online Social Networks it has been noted that an accentuated characteristic of a network shapes the behaviour of its members. Since members of the platform will be University students, with their credentials logged into the system, it is a safe assumption that the majority of them will behave ethically, in line with the Acceptable Use policies. This then, as a network effect, constrain potentially deviant behaviour from other members. This assumption is re-enforced by what is detailed in the post about Trust: Where social capital and trust exist, members can rely on informal fairness rather than constant active monitoring and exhausting rules of provenance.
    Nevertheless, future versions of ‘LessonPlan’ can address this issue if need be. The feature will allow users to flag up abusive posts. Posts that gather a certain amount of flags, will be marked for inspection. And after a certain amount of flagged up posts, prevention policies could be set in place (for example, warnings, suspension or even deletion from the system).

Strategy for attracting new users

Nengjie Zhang Leave a comment

In order to make more students know the useful and convenient system, we recommended some marketing strategies:

  • Use social media to expand this system profile, such as Facebook, Twitter.
  • Cooperate with universities, it is a better way to let this system into university official system.
  • Put more advertising in public places.
  • If this system will charge, better to free to everyone in the first three month.
  • Invite some professional people like professor or well-know student to use this system, and then expand the reputation to increase more students to download this system.

Testing

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To help ensure an easy to use system for all users, which will in turn reduce support costs for our business, we will conduct thorough testing. Such testing will take place at various stages in the project lifecycle:

Unit Testing

Unit tests can be written for each of the functional requirements in LessonPlan 2.0. Each time a function has been developed, it will be tested by both developers and end user. The process will be iterative and users will be involved in all processes of software development life cycle. This will decrease the chances of later requirements modification, which is costly. Tools like JUnit will be used by developers for unit testing to ensure the correctness of a unit’s implementation in relation to requirement specifications.

Integration Testing

When developing several units and functions that supposed to work together, integration tests will be created to ensure interoperability of the components and to prevent error regression.

Prototype Acceptance Testing

When a design prototype is produced, potential users will be asked to try out the prototype system. They will provide feedback that can then be used to prevent usability problems and inform feature decisions.

Pre-release Testing

Select users will be offered the opportunity to try new updates and features before general release. This testing allows us to catch any potential bugs and usability problems before all users of the system are introduced to them.

This style of testing will happen repeatedly, mostly after new features have been developed and are ready to be released.

Social impacts of the system

Nengjie Zhang Leave a comment

Social impacts are defined as “the consequences to human populations of any public or private actions that alter the ways in which people live, play, work and relate to one another, organize to meet their needs and generally cope as members of society (Glasson 2000).

In addition, social impacts are the “people impacts” of development actions. Social impacts include changes in people’s culture, environment, and political systems, for the project, the module review system has two typical social impacts.

  •  Lifestyle impacts – on the way people behave and relate to friends on a day-to-day basis. The system allows users to provide feedback on them, as well as obtaining suggestions according to user patterns. It leads to a useful application in university life. For example, students can share the module materials if they choose the same module.
  •  Community impacts – on infrastructure, services, activity network and cohesion. The system aims to offer existing and prospective students a source of information about the available modules on each course, also, there will be an activity network like social one. Students will be able to provide feedback on them, and the system can suggest suitable modules for a particular user according to course enrolment which shared in the system.

Reference

Glasson, J., 2000. Socio-economic impacts 1: overview and economic impacts, in: Morris, P. and Therivel, R. (2000) (ed), Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment, Spon Press, London and New York

 

Economic context

Yang Wang Leave a comment

As the social media platform for module reviews, the benefit for the Lessonplan is not only to provide a convenient approach to the university and students, there are also commercial aspects for the social network. Because of the Lessonplan need staff to engage in the work like platform management and data maintenance. So the university and the students need profit from the platform. The economic context for the module reviews platform should be related to the stakeholders (university, students) of the platform.

The economic value for the university

For the university, the first benefit is the feedback and the rate of each modules from students. This will assist them to improve the modules quality and confirm the module aim, which will greatly expand the influence of the unviersity and attract more students all over the world. Then the economic value will profit the university. And the sponsers for the society will assist the platform to generate more job opportunities for the university. So the idea for the university is the university could integrate this platform with the SUSSED website or the SUSU website.

The economic value for the students

The students using this Lessonplan could also be benefit by having a quality modules. The platform can also provide a place of work for students, because some posts could be qualified by the capable students such as someone that is expert at the database can help with the data maintenance. If it provide the part job to the students, more new user will attract to the platform.

The Lessonplan economically viable

The economically viable of the Lessonplan could be general show in the Cost Breakdown. If the university can promote the platform, the system will be more and more mature. The scope of the Lessonplan is that the platform could be the module reviews system through the university all over the UK or even the world.

Trust considerations

Niko Leave a comment

In Online Social Networks (OSNs), trust is a key element, serving a connecting function between (initial) strangers. ‘Lessonplan’ has many OSN elements, and, therefore, issues of trust- and rapport-building should be considered.

Web 2.0 environments and social media platforms can cause situations of uncertainty, as they usually provide some level of anonymity. Even though this topic is the subject of a large volume of literature,[1] for the scope of this post we will only look at how trust serves as a mechanism to reduce the uncertainty of users in online interactions, e.g. in disclosure of personal opinions.

Continue reading →

Data protection

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Stemming from the previous post about Privacy Settings, the platform needs to conform to various guidelines and policies on Data Protection. The protection of personal data (and especially sensitive personal data) is in large mandated by the Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC), which was subsequently implemented in national legislation of the Member States. In the UK, it was incorporated into the Data Protection Act 1998 – with amendments pending to reflect the newly reformed Directive.

Under the DPA, any organisation, site or provider (data controller) who gathers user information needs to specify and inform the users on what data are being collected, how they are used, who has access to them and long these data are preserved.

Since this project aims to be in close relation to the University and its network, it is necessary to not only adhere to the DPA but also to more specific policies implemented by the University. Continue reading →

Privacy considerations

Niko Leave a comment

Privacy is always a concern in social media; especially in systems hosted in or accessible by your workplace, where wrong privacy settings can cause trouble. If we consider Facebook, for example, there have been many incidents where accidental over-sharing with an employer led to severe implications at work. In our case the platform is student-centric and the bulk of information exchange relate to academic performance. Fear of unwanted access to personal information, from a lecturer for example, could lead to hesitation from the users to share content.

For this reason, it was decided that any decisions on privacy will be dealt with by the user. Continue reading →

Wireframe Design

Tun-Ya Yu Leave a comment

A Wireframe design is a screen blueprint of application, and the wireframe could help understand the vision of application. And the design is shown below.

1. index page:
Because the system allow user view the rating and review without login, the search function does not require user to login. But user could also choose to login to use the system, and the button at top would show as “MyAccount”.

1-1 index page without login

1-2 index page with login

2. Search result: The result would show the course name, and the school name will shown below.

2-1 search result without login

2-2 search result after login

 

3. The description of module page: A module page has three parts: Description, Rating, and communication.

3-1 Description page. without login

3-2 Description page after login. If the user has enrolled the course, the page would should the “communication” tab.

4. The Rating of module: if a user

4-1 The Rating page with a enroll user. There would be a “Rate this course” button shown.

4-2 Rating page without login

4-3 A logon user but not enroll would see the page similar with user without login.

5. Rate a course:

5. A enroll user could rate the course.

6. communication: The system allow user to post and make comments with their classmates.

 

6-1 Communication page, would see all the posts on it. And user could view their post or add post.

6-2 Add a new post.

6-3 inside the post. user could make comments

6-4 user could view all their posts.

7. Account: this page include the profile and courses taken.

7-1 the profile tab would show where user login from and their nickname.

7-2 user could edit their shown name.

7-3 The course page would show all the courses taken