Assembling a Multimedia eLearning Development Team

1
Assembling a Multimedia e-Learning Development
Team

• How is multimedia development is different from
  other software development projects?
• Graphics and other media require special skills
• Much more emphasis on designing for the user
• Artistic and software design
• E-learning also requires instructional design
• How is multimedia development similar to other
  software development projects?
• Software life cycle still applies
  analysis-gtdesign-gt -gtimplementation-gttesting-gtdel
  ivery-gtmaintenance (cycle)
• Management skills coordinating people with
  different talents and agendas
• Multimedia development is rarely a one-person
  show
• Real world development requires a team pooling
  many talents
• The whole is greater than sum of its parts

2
One minute paper

• How is interactive multimedia development
  different from yet similar to other software
  development?

3
Project manager or producer

• Someone with people resource management skills
• Vaughan Budgets, schedules, creative sessions,
  time sheets, illness, invoices, team
  dynamicsthe project manager is the glue that
  holds the team together.
• Responsible for overseeing project timeline
  priorities
• Communication, delegation and documentation
• Why is important to have a project timeline and
  set priorities?
• Lopuck The job can be a three-ring circus
  because nothing ever goes as planned.
• Why is it important to schedule meetings?
• Why is it important to keep minutes of meetings?
• Why is it important to have a project librarian?
• Where would you keep documents for your project?
• Who has this talent or wants to develop it?

4
Graphic designer, Art director

• Someone who knows how to organize and communicate
  visual information
• Juxt Interactive responsible for creative
  design and experience as a whole impressed on
  the audience.
• Designs user interface and how material gets
  presented to audience
• Connie Coleman, Philadelphia School of Art
• Who has this talent or wants to develop it?

5
Script or content writer

• Someone who communicate clearly through written
  text
• Vaughan content writers...glean information
  from context experts, synthesize it, and then
  communicate it in a clear and concise manner.
• Jennifer Birch
• Who has talent for writing?

6
Sound designer

• Somene with a good ear for voice-overs and sound
  effects
• Is narration with text a good idea?
• Library of sound effects as cues
• Music

7
Videographer (video producer)

• Someone with a good eye for video and making
  every megabyte count!
• Carries over skills from movie or TV production
• Video is costly, in terms of production and
  space/bandwidth requirements

8
Subject matter expert

• Someone skilled and knowledgeable in a given
  topic area
• Helps identify background resources for building
  the content outline
• Reviews content design for factual integrity,
  completeness and educational effectiveness
• Usually not a designer or developer
• Why is role especially important role for your
  projects?

9
Instructional designer

• Someone who can assess educational needs and
  design and evaluate lessons
• Conducts needs assessment
• Matches design to instructional needs
• Leads effort to evaluate the program for
  educational effectiveness

10
Multimedia programmers

• Someone who can implement programs that integrate
  media elements
• Given a clear design and previously created media
  elements (graphics, sounds, video, etc.) a
  programmer creates running software for the title
• Vaughan A multimedia programmer is a software
  engineer who integrates all of the multimedia
  elements into a seamless whole using an authoring
  language or programming language.
• How is this different from most programming?

11
Quality assurance engineer

• Tests to make sure a title works according to
  spec and work for users
• In real world, an external, third party
• May involve actual user observations and/or focus
  group sessions

12
What roles could you play?

• Write a one (or two) minute paper justifying the
  roles you could play or would be motivated to
  learn how to play on a multimedia e-learning
  project.