Journal Entry #5

The FILM-PM module is starting to take shape as I continue to populate my pages. I have laid in most everything at this point, I have the pages laid out and I have a sequence flow as well. I put placeholders for things I still need to create so I am starting to get an accurate picture of what exactly I have here

The current challenges / issue is adding in the programming elements such as the timing of the buttons, ghosting out functionality until I want it to appear and things like that. I have made an overt effort to try and isolate the creation of the material from the programming. Prior to this, I was trying to do both at the same time and it not only did not work but was a cruddy module. Doing both separate is the key.

What is working is that the class itself looks aesthetically pleasing. I am not using a template so I am essentially creating things from scratch (which is probably one of my problems) but with the help and advice on a color palate and fonts it actually looks pretty decent. I am happy with the flow of the module and I think that if an interested student really wanted to know this stuff, it would be of value to them. 

My next task is to start recording the copy for my paper clip guy so that I can lay that element in. Once I have that finished, all of the creative will be populated and I can begin the torturous process of trying to get all of the programming to work.

Journal Entry #4

 Starting to get down to the actual nuts and bolts creation on my module. One of the benefits of last weeks assignment was it got me to document where I was on the project in an a pretty overt manner so I feel like the design itself is locked in.

I decided this week to go with the current sequence and cadence and started my cutting and pasting and pulling in my actual material so that it is all populated where and when I want it. Since I have a lot of this previously built, the module went from nothing to something fairly quickly.

The job from this point, the hard part for me is going to be the programming so that everything reveals itself when and how I want it to do so.

I have laid out most of the pages where I need and want them and am going to double back and add in the programming elements such as timeline editing and the whole business with the NEXT buttons which should be simple but seem to be a huge problem right now.

Now that most of that is laid in, I feel like I need some kind of revelation on how to get over these programming humps. I just know it should be easier than it is so I must be missing something. I'm starting to wonder if this new version of Captivate has been tightened up from the old version to 'simplify' it. It makes looking from help from YouTube and other forums not very helpful because all of the advice seems to be on the older version.

This will be my task from here on out on this project.

Journal Entry #3 - 10/31/2024

Design Progress:  Since my last journal entry, I have continued to make progress. I work iterations as I have expressed before so I have put together a second round of design that is more robust and starting to look like a complete module. I have module objectives clearly articulated, I've got learning content throughout that follows a good flow, and I am really starting to see what this is going to look like for real. 

Challenges:  I feel like I have taken a step back with Captivate. Every time I try to do the simplest thing it becomes a hour of my life gone. There are these page elements called widgets that you drop into your pages to do different things... text, video, etc. but if you want to adjust where it sits our how it functions, ugh. I am still struggling with the timeline. I have gone to some Captivate forums for help and it seems I am not alone. Apparently, this new version is not as intuitive as the old version. I agree, nothing intuitive about any of it. I'll get there but geez...

Successes:

1. The design itself is coming along nicely, much more robust storyboard / design using the PPT method Arthur suggested in one of his posts. I was sincerely dragging on my design mainly because I was getting hung up on the functionality of Captivate and would lose track of the class. By continuing to keep the design thinking separate from the Captivate work has been a success.

2. I was initially very reluctant and hesitant to work with the animated character, I just was not seeing it. Partly because it is an assignment and mainly because I stuck with it, I landed on a concept that not only seems to work but actually solves some problems I was having in what the format of delivery was going to be. I now have paperclip serving an integral role in the module.

Journal Entry #2 - 10/11/2024

Design progress: Since my last journal entry, I have done quite a bit for my project. I have used my initial design and have started to build out the various pages and functionality. I am starting to develop a comfort level with captivate and the more I work with it the better I feel like I’m getting. One of the things that has helped me is that one of my colleagues has worked with captivate in the past and I have a ready resource that I can use whenever I have questions. For the most part, I have been fiddling with functionality, but I’ve turned my attention towards actually putting in useful content. I have found that by doing this. It has already sparked some ideas on how I can tweak my set up. I probably should’ve started with this.

Challenges: I am still struggling with some of the more technical pieces of captivate. There is certain functionality that I feel like I should be able to do, but for some reason it isn’t as intuitive as I had hoped I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that it is a newer version of captivate And perhaps they are still fine-tuning or perhaps I am an idiot.

Successes: I have started to get a feel for how to use adobe character animator. This is much more intuitive than captivate, which is surprising to me, but for whatever reason it is. I’m thinking I am going to see if I can leverage this a little bit more than I initially thought I would . 

All in all the project is going well.:

Journal Entry #1 - 9/11/2024

Journal entry #1

Readings - I was unfamiliar with design thinking prior to this course so it is all new to me. Some of what is discussed like prototyping and iterations are already a part of what I do but I like how it is organized in a way to make me consider other things. For example, I sort of kept a tally of my progress through version control of the documents but I like the whole concept of keeping a record of the progress so that one can see the evolution of the design.  I never thought of this as cloud thinking but here are some notes I made as I sketched out my thoughts on the storyboard (storyboard for the storyboard I suppose!):

I also have a running PowerPoint document that I am using to mock-up some of the screens on storyboard. Per the design thinking concept, I am not deleting pages as I go (which is what I used to do) but am keeping as a running record of the iterations.

Project Design - I began the two weeks with a review of the tools I have chosen to use, Adobe Captivate and Character Animator. I have gone through the tutorials so I have an idea of how these work but as with most things I imagine I will learn the most by getting in there and starting to build out the design. I use other Adobe products so the interface is familiar and I am assuming many of the same concepts and terminology hold across all of the platforms.

Challenges - No real challenges yet other than a compressed time schedule not being helped by a busy work week!

What worked - I am enjoying seeing how the readings relate to the work and am hoping we continue to do a deeper dive on design thinking. I have a work colleague who actually taught design thinking at a university and she has been willing to let me talk it through with her.