Wheeler Project Testing & Evaluation Procedures


Latest release: April 9th

Now through April 16:

  • Have 3 completed topics (including to our current one)
  • Finalize interface concerns
  • Full navigation functionality between interactive exercises, general review, quiz questions, and the final page
  • Create opening screen and logon, ending puzzle game
  • Fully working glossary/outline tab
  • Create evaluation of quiz performance, suggested review

    Bells & Whistles:

    In class demo:
    Our in-class demo will be our first testing stage. Because we may not have final graphics at this point, we are looking for feedback on the overall sense of flow, continuity, and content. At this point we won't be as concerned about specific content issues, i.e. quiz questions, as these have been chosen by Dorothy. We are taking most of our questions directly from her quizzes/tests. The bigger questions we'll be wondering over the next few weeks: Does the interactivity enhance the learning of the material? (How) is this better than a simple worksheet?

    April 16: Conclusion of Coding

    Week of April 19 - April 21: Test Wave One (code named T.W.O.)

    We are still awaiting final confirmation from Dorothy as to the exact date. On our first visit we will first install the program and check compatibility of our program with the machines at Wheeler. We will have the students run the program as it stands with these questions in mind: Is there clarity in the phrasing of review content? Do the kids understand the flow and direction of the navigation? Are the instructions for the interactive exercises clear? Did we aim our content and UI at an appropriate level of sophistication?
    To get testing data, we plan to sit down with students and observe their reactions. We will ask them to talk to us as they go through the lesson, verbalizing why they clicked where, what they like/don't like, what makes sense, what doesn't make sense, what's frustrating, if there's anything they wish they could do that they can't. We will not justify or clarify anything about the program to the kids during this time. We may ask them to expand on what they say, or explain why they had a certain response to something. We know that our presence will effect their use of the program, but at this early stage in testing we are less concerned about the specifics and empirical testing, but more concerned with getting a sense of shape and any glaring problems.
    We will also listen to Dorothy's reactions, both in regards to the interface and the content. Her first impressions will be important, as they will give us some solid, teacher-level feedback from the client herself. Following the testing, we plan on analyzing our test feedback in order to isolate problems; figuring out what are problems, versus symptoms of problems. In addition to isolating our weak areas, we will also try to figure out what is good and how we can build on that. We expect surprises and are excited about finally seeing if we've done anything of value.

    Week of April 26-May 2: Test Wave Two (code name T.W.T)

    This will be similar to Testing Wave One (T.W.O) except that they will be demoing the full project in its (as) complete (as it can be) form. At this stage, we will focus on specific empirical data. One mode of analysis will be to look at quiz results. We will have two groups; a control and a test group. We will give only the review and the quiz to the control group, and we will have the test group do the entire program. We will compare results. Theoretically this is one way to gauge the success of the review and the interactive exercises; we know what topics we want the reinforce, do our exercises focus on that? We will also perform a "watered down" version of our test in T.W.O. to follow up on what we had changed. During this time, we will begin to write our documetation for Dorothy. Following T.W.T., we will make the final changes necessary and return to Wheeler to reinstall the final version.

    Success?
    Our criteria of a successful project are: