projects
Muops
MUOPS (Multi-User online plotting system) is a database web tool designed to assist elementary students in learning how to interpret, organize, and formulate questions about collected data.
MUOPS was my final creative project for graduation from Utah State University's Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences program. While MUOPS is versatile enough to be adapted in a wide variety of teaching instances, it was specifically designed as one piece of instruction within a weeklong teaching unit of statistics for the 5th graders of the Logan, Utah Edith Bowen Elementary School.
MUOPS allows users to add data into project data pools, which can then be explored using the MUOPS plotting tool. The following are some of the functions MUOPS supports:
- Simple disbursement of data plots into random clusters
- Stacking of data plots to form bar graphs for easy comparison
- Manipulation of data by allowing for removal and adding of plot points
- Display of data information for each plot point
Contribution
MUOPS was developed using the following:
- XHTML
- CSS
- XML
- ActionScript 3.0
- PHP
- MySql
- Javascript & JQuery
From project planning to development, I did everything: instructional design, graphic design, programming, project management, and implementation. I was supervised and received feedback periodically from my faculty Chairman, Dr. Victor Lee; however, contact with my professor was mainly through email or bi-weekly face-to-face one-hour meetings.
Reflection
MUOPS displays all of what I'm capable of doing as an instructional designer and programmer. It was developed within a fifteen-week time frame: The first ideas were brainstormed during the last week of October 2009, and it was finished the last week of January 2010. Actual testing and implementation was initiated the first week of February 2010.
During development of MUOPS, I was also working on designing online courses for Utah State University's Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences program, and going to graduate school fulltime. It was a crazy semester to say the least, and while I don't desire to be this busy again, I felt graduate school was my time to push myself and to gain as much experience as I could to develop the skills necessary to become a valuable player out in the work force.
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