Semester Project (25% of Final Grade)

The purpose of the collaborative project (this means you will work with at least three other students in this class) is to:

1. provide you with the opportunity to develop and build team skills.
2. provide an opportunity to apply the skills you learned in the first part of the course.
3. provide an opportunity to learn and apply additional technical skills (beyond the basics) through independent and collaborative learning.
4. identify primary sources of information, synthesize existing sources of information, and compile the results into a WWW accessible information space that is useful to others.

• exhibit originality in the organization or presentation of the project,
• develop an as yet unidentified collection of information,
• demonstrate correct and functional Hypertext Markup Language,
• follow standards for HTML documents,
• link successfully to selected sites,
• finalize a plan for site maintenance and/or "adoption"

A project progress report (one per team) has to be submitted typewritten no later than Wednesday, 20 March 2002.

This document will:

1. identify each member of the team.
2. indicate the role and primary responsibilities of each member.
3. include a brief overview of the project, the impact of the project, and why it is important.
4. provide up-to-date information on the state of the project (URL etc.)
5. list goals of the project.
6. list objectives to reach these goals.
7. present a timeline for each step in the process.

What will you have to submit at the end of the semester?

Each student must submit a two page typewritten or word processed summary (This is NOT a paper!) that documents the project planning and implementation. The summary should reflect the group project planning experience.

• discuss what you have learned during the project
• reflect on the collaborative project planning and its implementation
• reflect on what you would have done differently
• recommend project grade with justification or explanation for the grade.

In addition, each student will evaluate the other members of the team. Each will be asked to confidentially assess:

1. the contribution of the individual to the final product (amount of work)
2. the quality of the contribution to the final product
3. initiative in learning new skills
4. the ability of the individual to work with the team in terms of
   • being present at group meetings (in person or virtual)
   • being on time
   • doing what they said they would do
   • informing group members of progress, problems and changes
   • showing evidence of initiative and creative contribution

Your semester project will be due not later than Monday, 29th April 2002 (1:00 pm). Your group will present the semester project on this or the following class day. The class and the instructor will provide feedback on your project.
The revised project and the typewritten or word processed summaries will be due on Friday, 3rd May 2002 (3:30 pm). Please submit a diskette with all your files and a printout of your pages.

Criteria for grading:

(5 %) Other students' assessment of your performance. (see also Peer Evaluation Form)

(20 %) Instructor's assessment of project as a whole. (see also Grade Sheet)

• How well it meets the criteria identified in the first paragraph.

• Whether plan was well conceived, concrete, specific and submitted in a timely fashion.

• Whether the project plan appropriately anticipated users' needs.

• Aesthetics of final project: principles of design, grammatically correct, spelled correctly, well organized, easy to navigate.

Return to Assignments

Heiko Haubitz
January 5, 2002