Kathleen Swanson WELL400 Proposal: Peer Review October 15, 2013

The team represented by this proposal submission appears to have many clear ideas with respect to their vision for their web based resource. In other sections I felt that portions of their vision have yet to be fully conceptualized, or may have been left out of the project plan details. While the resource is referred to as a portal, in many ways the appearance and organization lends itself to be classified as a more typical web page (a home page with a linear list of subpages and subheadings); however this does not necessarily detract from the many positive design and content qualities, usefulness as an educational resource or muddy its many aesthetically pleasing features. Some of the first words that came to mind upon viewing the supplied schematics/screen shots were: streamlined, clean cut and classic, professional yet slightly fresh and modern, colorful yet easy on the mind (not chaotic and distracting), inviting structure that feels intuitive and easy to navigate. The web resources seemed to fulfill many of the faculty requested, and proposal objectives in providing a more inviting entrance point to the LHS library (and hopefully in doing so increasing traffic to many preexisting resources), being accessible to all students, even those who may not have the technological resources at home, while also providing supplementary materials, relevant to the students curriculum (all found within the subject menu regardless of current location within the website) as well as assessments within at least two of the subjects shown. The web resource also demonstrated that the intended audience extends beyond the student body and can be used in a collaborative fashion by faculty as a means to engage students through live chat rooms (Todays Meet). The web resource is designed to be user friendly, providing many options for supplemental learning, assessments, access to the rich world language software available, while not being overwhelming.

I noticed that the proposed outcomes do not reference goals and objectives for students but focused more on objectives relevant to LHS faculty. Also in a subsequent section (program and community fit) there was little expansion on what the students needs were, only a statement that the resource should/will fit their current needs. While I feel it is important to have a clearly defined set of goals with respect to meeting the requests made by the Longmeadow educators and administration. I think it is also important to identify clear goals and objectives for the students who will be utilizing the resource. It was stated that the resource will be easily modified by LHS faculty to fit their evolving needs however I felt there was not enough information given about the platform being used, or the construction/outline of the project plan that would allow me to fully evaluate the web resource on this objective of being easily modified. I do however think this is a very important concern and I was pleased to see that it ranked high in priority. The creators of this web resource see the need to create something that can be adapted to students evolving needs, which I believe to be a crucial consideration.

I see the importance of linking to the LHS library, existing resources and home page, via the lancer icon; however after personally surfing the LHS home page and finding many of their standard tools: student email login (Gmail), Moodle (virtual LHS classrooms), Edmodo, and the live feed to the school calendar, to be scattered across several pages and potentially a challenge to locate. Merely linking to an already poor layout might be counterproductive, when these preexisting resources could be placed within this more appealing and better designed web resource. Integrating all of their LHS resources into one URL would likely increase traffic as well as the probability that the students will make use of the other supplemental materials.

I am concerned places like Khan Academy may be overwhelming to some students with so many choices available. Due to this, I feel it would be helpful to select a few key Khan Academy links for each subject area, possibly accessible from a mouse hover submenu eliminating the need to navigate to yet another page. The supplemental materials listed under the science categories such as taxonomy, elements, and newton, felt limited and not necessarily representative of the typical challenges students commonly face within each subject. Many students struggle with visualizing the sciences or applying the knowledge to everyday life scenarios (extending the use of and integrating one subject across many other interconnected subjects). Inclusion of interactive labs or interactive visual demonstrations of seemingly abstract chemistry and physics concepts (like addition of vectors, free fall problems, ideal gas problems and chemical reactions) might be more useful as supplementary materials as opposed to Newton or elements links. The resources provided should coincide with, expand understanding, or extend boundaries of current LHS curriculum so that an instructor may opt not to spend time modifying the resource. While it appears many of the faculty desire to take an active role with the resource there may be many who will not want to modify or adjust features and would prefer we provide an ample selection suitable to their classroom studies. Many of the references to buttons, assessments, images and analogies are left ambiguous and I felt I only had a visual of parts of the web resource but many of these things are left open ended and nonspecific making it hard for me to consider its usefulness in these areas.

There were many features, components and considerations within this proposal that were creative and valuable. One of my favorite portions was the friendly yet informative way the issue of plagiarism was addressed (under the heading did you know?). In addition to unveiling the many ways a student can accidentally plagiarize, the project plan also offers the students solutions and ways to help avoid plagiarism. Links were provided to turn it in, the plagiarism check and grammarly to aid students in adhering to academic honesty policies. The integration of a prezi and the footprint design of the prezi itself was a fantastic inclusion in the resource. It mixes up the visual and format by branching off and utilizing an outside site like prezi and provides a step by step approach to the research process which can be quite daunting for many students, even when they attend a school that seeks to integrate literacy. It might be helpful to offer steps in choosing a topic since its stated how important subject selection is. The inclusion of live chats and social interaction from the web resource is another great feature. Students today enjoy interacting through technology and social media and it may open more lines of communication interacting between them and their instructors through the social medium provided. As previously mentioned I felt the

clean yet modern design is an important feature as it is much more appealing and inviting than the preexisting homepage, yet not so busy with colors or patterns that it prevents students from finding the resources they need. I enjoyed the visuals provided with the proposal which helped me to step inside their vision and better visualize the projects potential.