PROJECT 1 - EVENT EXPERIMENT
DATES:
- 9/23 - Draft release
- 10/7 - Formally Assigned
- 10/14 - Concept Consultation: Single page brief or treatment of your concept and goals.
- 10/21 - Plan Draft Posted: Posted on each participant's blogs (limit 3-4 participants per event). Individual/Team consultation with Jane, have a draft document with at least one sentence for each point 1-8 required in the final plan document (see below) concisely summarizing your intent. This can be rough but should clearly communicate that you have thought about each of the key points and have made relevant design decisions. For some of the peripheral decisions, you may alternately present some brainstormed possibilities that fit your overall plan.
- Final Plan Posted: At least 4 days prior to event OR (in case other classmates need to prepare) one week prior to event date.
- 10/28 EXPERIMENTAL EVENTS BEGIN (I think we can handle 3 or so each week) and can run through 11/18 or so. PLEASE: Get going on this/do not delay.
- 12/2 Final Project Reports & Evaluations Posted (on all participants' blogs)
- 11/4 Project 2 will be introduced and assigned.
- Experiment Plan Draft for advance review with Jane
- Final Experiment Plan posted on your blog(s)
- SurveyMonkey Survey
- Standard Experiment Feedback Form (.doc downloadable from your blog) Will be distributed.
- Experiment
- Final Review Report Presentation and Posted on blog(s)
1. Approximately one (1) hour in duration
2. Designed to involve the whole class, playing specific roles
3. May optionally involve (non-class) SL members (individually invited or open via posting on the SL Schedule of Events
4. Participatory, with a variety of roles
5. Experiment PLAN (see below) must be clearly specified in detail and posted on your blog. If multiple students are collaborating on an experiment (max 3-4) you can either post the exact same plan on each of your blogs OR you can create a commonly accessible TEAM blog and everyone on the team links to it.
6. Every Experiment's feedback SurveyMonkey Survey BOTH in the experiment (in the form of a self-identifying, scripted object) AND linked from their experiment PLAN post on their blog.
7. Use Standard Detailed Feedback Form, posted on blog, will be distributed.
8. Final Experiment Report and Evaluation - due for presentation and discussion after all experiments are concluded. Final form of this will be posted on your blog(s). In designing your experiment, aim for specific minimal outcomes or experimental challenges to focus on for feedback and final review and evaluation.
9. DOCUMENTATION IS KEY - assign enough people to roles for documenting the experiment event (snapshots, video) to give yourself a lot of good evidence for your research and FINAL EXPERIMENT REPORT AND EVALUATION.
B. EXPERIMENT PLAN
(What is this? This document will be provided to experiment participants prior to the scheduled start time and should minimally include the following information. Your experiment may need additional speks.)
What is included? (see detailed notes, below, on each of these items)
1. Experiment Title
2. Scenario
3. Mechanics
4. SL Location
5. Roles
6. Role Assignments
7. Assets Provided
8. Participant Preparation
9. Feedback SurveyMonkey Survey Link (and inworld survey link object)
10. Standard Detailed Feedback Form (will be distributed)
11. Production Plan
12. Final Review Report and Presentation
EXPERIMENT PLAN DETAILED NOTES
1. EXPERIMENT TITLE - CONCISE
This can use the same title as your design concept or derive more specifically from what activities or scenario the experiment involves.
2. EXPERIMENT SCENARIO - STATE THIS IN ONE SENTENCE
Description of the basic focus of the experiment. You will design, organize, and conduct an experiment aimed to inform you about some essential or basic dimension of your concept design for a virtual world or virtual world application. The experiment SCENARIO should focus the participants' experience on that essential or basic dimension of your virtual world concept that you want to be informed about, the "what if?" at the heart of it. This may be the participants' perceptual experience of the immediate environment or the participants' experience of their transactions with objects and/or other participants.
3. The EXPERIMENT MECHANICS - STATE THIS IN 3-6 SENTENCES
Describe the basic activities/interactions by which the participants will engage the focus, i.e. what the participants do. These actions/interactions should be as simple and straightforward as possible. Don't be too subtle - make the goals, problems, and activities CLEAR and DIRECT. Don't make your participants' actions involve too many sequential steps before they get feedback or accomplish something or get a concept - it will be too easy for them to go wrong or lose patience.
4. SL LOCATION
Name of the location AND the exact SLURL where participants should meet. If there any landmarks we need to know about, identify those. If there is a certain time-of-day we should set our client software to, tell us that.
5. ROLES - ONE SENTENCE EACH
Describe each roles that participants are to play. This experiment will be an event designed to involve the whole class. Designing key roles for participants forms the basic structural foundation for their experience.
Make the roles specific and focused. Participants will automatically expand and customize them as they improvise in the real time event; don't try to plan or control everything. That would be boring. Some examples: member, player, reporter, documenter (snapshots or video), hero, villain, fall-guy, zen monk, driver, tester, griefer, godzilla, tourist, etc.)
6. ROLE ASSIGNMENTS - LIST OF NAMES AND ROLES
YOU decide who is going to do what using the list of student/avatar names, below. It's simpler if you just assign us to roles. Don't agonize too much over who gets what role. Make sure you have enough people doing DOCUMENTATION, e.g. snapshots and/or video.
7. ASSETS PROVIDED - CONCISE LIST
List what assets will be involved and how we get them. Which ones do you provide/how and when do we get them.
8. PARTICIPANT PREPARATION - CONCISE LIST
Any preparation the participants need to make for your experiment, e.g. avatar appearance, clothes color, hat to wear, skills to acquire (provide how-to info or link to it). Keep these simple.
9. FEEDBACK SURVEY - LINK TO SURVEYMONKEY FEEDBACK SURVEY
Every Experiment's feedback SurveyMonkey Survey BOTH in the experiment (in the form of a self-identifying, scripted object) AND linked from their experiment PLAN post on their blog.
10. STANDARD EVENT FEEDBACK FORMS - Jane will distribute. You will gather these from participants, digest, include summary in event report.
11. PRODUCTION PLAN - DESCRIBE IN A SHORT PARAGRAPH
We want to get as much experiential information as possible while expending the least amount of effort in production. Research SL locations and assets to see if there are already existing resources you can use. Streamline the design of everything you create, delete unnecessary and potentially distracting details. This is not a game graphics or programming course - just designing and coordinating the activities well will take effort.
12. EXPERIMENT REVIEW REPORT/PRESENTATION
You will post a review report on your experiment that includes documentation gathered, survey feedback, and observational information. This will be posted on your blog(s) and form the core of a presentation to the class for discussion.
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