Project #3: Multimedia Analysis and Application

Scenario
On your way to class, you notice a flyer on the community bulletin board near your classroom. The flyer comes from a newly formed consortium of local non-profit agencies in the area which was just awarded a government grant to train their members in multimedia and web development. The grant covers all of the software applications and computers that the agencies might need, but it doesn't cover training employees or background information on these applications. The consortium is looking for volunteers to educate and help develop training materials for its employees. You decide that this would be a great addition to your resume, and you email the consortium contact person with your offer for help when you get home.

Purpose and Audience
The consortium consists of local agencies that provide various community services, such as soup kitchens, shelters, disaster relief, health education, family counseling, substance abuse, children's afterschool programs, and the like. The agencies decided to form the consortium to collaborate on larger community issues and to better unify their work in the community. Each agency would like to develop multimedia web-based productions to serve a variety of purposes: educational media for their clients, public relations and community outreach, employee and volunteer training, and more. They specifically want web-based media because they feel that this media would be the easiest to disseminate to a broad base of individuals. However, the employees who need training possess varied levels of knowledge with respect to web development. Some of them have only a limited knowledge of multimedia (they have seen Flash and Shockwave movies, and they have a rudimentary knowledge of Frontpage); other employees have an advanced knowledge of html, but they haven't had time to learn Flash and other multimedia development applications. There's also a few IT folk who know a lot about hardware and networking, but nothing about design.

Prompt
Your task is to work with a group of other volunteers to educate this group of diverse individuals through both print and interactive documents. You will work both individually and in teams to develop materials, and you will be assigned tasks based on your experience and expertise.

Steps in the Process and Deliverables
I. Forum Analysis Short Report: The first thing that the consortium would like you to do is to educate them on some of the issues with multimedia development, especially concerning Flash. You try to tell them that there are a number of online forums where people discuss Flash and their uses and experiences with the application. This information gets them excited about developing their own forum for this type of interaction. They ask you to compose a short report where you analyze one of the various online forums that deals with a particular multimedia application.

Using Jim Porter's Forum Analysis method, you will produce a short report for the consortium that analyzes the forum you choose. Each of you will need to choose a different forum, or at least each forum can only have a few people who produce reports on it. You should choose a forum that addresses a type of multimedia application or addresses only one specific application such as Flash. Some examples of Flash forums include:

• http://webforums.macromedia.com/flash/
• http://www.flashmove.com/board/index.php
• http://www.flashmxfiles.com/

Your report will be 2-4 pages in length, single-spaced, in modified block format. You will need to use appropriate heading structures and formatting. See David McMurray's chapter on page design, http://www.io.com/~hcexres/tcm1603/acchtml/page_design.html, and Purdue's OWL guide to resume design, which shows how to develop a hierarchy of information using fonts and page design, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_resdesign.html. We will also review some principles of document design found in the protected web resources for class. This report will be due on Tuesday, November 25.

Because there are about 18 volunteers that responded to the consortium's request, they have asked that you divide up the remaining tasks that they would like you to accomplish. Half of the volunteers will be involved in producing a tutorial and half will be involved in developing sample Flash movies of various types for the consortium to use as models.

II. Flash Instructional Document and Presentation: For this component, you will team up with another peer and produce an instructional document (quick reference, user guide, reference manual, or tutorial) that trains users on one specific skill or task within the program. Ideally, we will have about 8 people producing 4 documents for the employees, so each team might be composing documents directed toward different skills and levels. You will be required to present these documents to the class, who will take on the role of the employees you are trying to train. The class will also provide feedback on your training document during and after your presentation. Suggested documentation group members: Natasha, Ivan, Tom, Ryan, Tuan, Gabe, Jeff, Rich, Heather. These presentations will occur on Tuesday, November 11 and Thursday, November 13.

III. Flash Model Movie and Presentation: For this component, you will team up with another peer and produce a model Flash movie. Ideally, we will have about 8 people producing 4 different movies of varying types. One option for this component is for you to return to the first project for the course and create a Flash movie using the same information. You will present these movies to the class who will take on the role of the employees you are trying to train. The class will also provide feedback on your training document during and after your presentation. Suggested production group members: Carrie, Sarah, Julie, Tim, Khurram, Zac, Anna, Eric, Mary. These movies will be presented on Tuesday, November 25.

Production Schedule
Tuesday, November 4--By the end of class, proposal email due in which you inform me on the topic of your movie or instructional document.

Tuesday, November 11--Instructional presentation on basic Flash skills.

Thursday, November 13--Instructional presentations on more advanced Flash skills.

Tuesday, November 25--Forum Analysis Reports due and drafts of Flash movies.