Meta NavigationResourcesReview

CHARGE Teaching materials

   How well have we packaged what we have?
       Pretty well. Some adjustments needed to descriptions and navigation.
   How do we create/collect more materials?
   Learning materials sprint?
   How do we integrate materials created by POSSE participants?

SCENARIO

   You are looking for teaching materials that will support a web systems course
   that you are teaching in Spring. Someone told you that foss2serve.org has some
   resources. Check it out and report your findings.

"THINK ALOUD" LOG

   I found "materials" on the first page, but no link.
   Just under that I found instructions on how to use the site: brows by category or index of all pages.
   I chose browse by category.
   There isn't a "materials" category.
   I do see a Learning and a Learning Activity category.
   None of the rest look relevant.
   Trying Learning Activity first.
   Now I see a bunch of "... Activity" links. I hope these are what I'm looking for.
   I clicked on the first link (Activity Template), this gives me hope... I go back
   I try "Blog Activity".
   I think about students using a blog for my class... or maybe using a blog as an example application
   I go back to the list of activities.
   Now I'm confident that each "... Activity" link is a lesson of some sort.
   But now I'm wondering how I'm going to find activities that are related to my course.
   Wishing I could search.
   Found search box at the top
   I search for "web" ... expect and got too much
   Trying "web activity" ... now I'm getting the "... Activity" pages.
   Seams to be a similar number of results.
   I decide to go back to the "Learning Activity" category and click through each, read their descriptions and select from there.
   As I clicked through... "Bug Tracker Activity-Mouse Trap" is not in the same format... couldn't quickly find short description of activity.
   I assume it has the same goal as "Bug Tracker Activity" that I just read about.
   "FOSS in Courses 2" looks incomplete. Has the template format, but not filled in.
   "FOSS Use in Courses" after reading this description, I realize that the intended audience is not always undergraduates. Now I want a way of quickly identifying intended/typical audience. Not in template :(
   "FOSS in Courses Planning 1" description is vague. Skimming the other fields gave me a better idea.
   STOP THE PRESS... I just found a link "Learning Activities" which gives me a list of all the activities. But this is inside the "Learning Activities" category. Now I'm not sure which is the right page or if it matters. Did I get here the wrong way?
   Now I notice the "learning activities" link on the left, and realize that my "materials" search did match because they are called activities, not materials
   I click on it and realize it gives me the same page as the one I found a moment ago.
   I flip back and forth between the categories page and the "Learning Activities" page to see if they contain the same stuff. They appear to.
   I decide "since the 'Learning Activities' page is in the menu on the left, it is probably the intended way to use this site"
   I continue my scan, but using the "Learning Activities" page.
   "Project Anatomy Activity" refers to a "participant"... this is different than others, I wonder if this difference is significant.
   I like the descriptions that begin "Learner will ..."
   After reading through the descriptions, I decide that none of the activities are directly related to a web systems course; however, if I wanted my students to use open source development tools or get involved with an open source project, these might be useful.
   I flip back to the main page and confirm that in fact that was the goal of these materials.
   I also now see that there are other related sites that I might explore.
   Before I go to them... I want to check out that "Learning" category....
   After clicking through the pages under the Learning category... I'm still not clear what the Learning category is or it's purpose. In fact, the two pages in the category don't appear to be related.

TOP ISSUES

   Inconsistent templates
   Trouble identifying the "right" way to use the site - (don't want to miss anything)
   The term materials is used on the main page, but the term "activities" is what I really wanted.

SUGGESTIONS

   * Fill out the template in those few that don't use it, and reword the few descriptions for consistency with the others ("Learner will... ")
   
   * Align navigation with the the "Goals of Foss2serve"
   
       Faculty Development Programs
       Learning Communities
       Learning Materials

   Example of reorganizing left menu:
   
       Development
           POSSE Info
           POSSE 2013-06
           Workshops
           
       Communities
           MouseTrap Project
       Materials
           Learning Activities
           HFOSS Links
       Navigation
           Main page
           Help
           Category
           All Pages
       Toolbox
           What links here
           Related changes
           Upload file
           Special pages
           Printable version
           Permanent link

TODO

   Fix description templates
   Fix menu as fleshed out by Heidi given below

       Events
           POSSE Info
           POSSE 2013-06
           Workshops

       Learning Resources
           Learning Activities
           HFOSS Links
           Projects
           MouseTrap
           Ushahidi
           OpenMRS

I DON'T HAVE PERMISSIONS TO CHANGE SIDEBAR http://foss2serve.org/index.php/MediaWiki:Sidebar

• Events
  • POSSE_Overview|POSSE Info
  • POSSE_2013-06|POSSE 2013-06
  • Workshops|Workshops
• Learning Resources
  • Learning_Activities|Learning Activities/Materials
  • HFOSS_Links|HFOSS Links
  • Projects
    • Gnome_MouseTrap|MouseTrap
    • TheOpenMRSTeam|OpenMRS
    • Ushahidi|Ushahidi
• navigation
  • mainpage|mainpage-description
  • helppage|help
  •  :Category:Contents|Category
  • Special:AllPages|All Pages
• SEARCH
• TOOLBOX
• LANGUAGES