Day: July 27, 2011

My first experience with web design came with ETEC 565A, and the software of choice for me was Amaya. I watched some tutorials on YouTube for Amaya and for NVU and I felt that Amaya would suite my needs the best. I downloaded the software and played around a bit with creating pages and then linking them. It didn’t take long to realize that I needed some structure. It was like I had a bobcat and was just moving dirt around, from pile to pile, without any plan. That is ok as I was just learning but a storyline was needed to make any real progress. So, I mapped up a basic storyline for what I wanted to accomplish in Moodle and began to build some pages. First I referred to the “Web Pages that Suck” checklist and checked out a number of web pages so that I knew what NOT to do. I put in some content and images with links to other pages. Things were working quite well. I then zipped all my files to a zip file and uploaded it into Moodle. Then I unzipped and placed the pages into Moodle.

The process was fairly straight forward and I didn’t really run into problems. That is until I wanted to make changes on a created page. I went back to Amaya to make changes and then reloaded it into Moodle. Moodle, however, had problems with the new page, so I had to rename the page with a number (2, then 3, then 4, etc…). Then a fellow student suggested that I just edit the page in Moodle with HTML code. I am a rookie at HTML but I thought I would give it a try. I managed to do a pretty good job and my edits worked. However, I still had problems with Moodle accepting my changes. I had to do the same thing with saving as a new name. This was all very frustrating. I tested out my Moodle site with Firefox, Explorer, and Safari and I did not notice any noticeable difference in each.

Believe it or not, this was the first time I used a hand held device to browse the internet. So, I can thank this course for giving me motivation to do this, as well as my brother-in-law for lending his Blackberry.

End user experience

• Try accessing both the ETEC 565 WebCT Vista course site and your own Moodle course site via a hand-held device via its browser.
• Try: accessing a learning module and replying to a discussion forum
• Analyze performance, including load times, page rendering, tool access
• Is there an app for it? Could you find any apps for either LMS? If so, did having an app affect the end user experience? How?
• Reflect on your experience as an end user: to what extent are these sites accessible via your hand-held?

I loaded my Moodle page and Webct Vista. Since I am not used to a hand held device, the first thing I noticed was the difficulty in typing. I am sure that once done many times, typing would become easier. The other thing I noticed was the small screen size. I was wondering how my Moodle page would appear on such a small screen. The images were pretty much the same size so scrolling down and down was the only way to see the whole page. It did not allow me to scroll left and right. Loading times were slower than I am used to. I did not notice an app, but that could be my inexperience. I had the same experience with Webct Vista.

Course designer experience

• Using your hand-held device, capture some photos, audio or video
• Try adding some of this content to your Moodle site via the device
• Analyze performance, including load times, page rendering, tool access
• Is there an app for it? Could you find any apps for either LMS? If so, how easy was it to create/modify a course site (in this instance, Moodle)?
• Reflect on your experience as a course designer: how successful were you in creating LMS content via your hand-held?

Similar to my experience as a user, I noticed that typing and screen viewing are not as easily done as on my laptop. I was, however, able to modify my Moodle site in much the same way as on my laptop. I could turn editing on and upload images quite easily. Being able to add content to the Moodle page would make life easy in that I could work on my project when and where I wanted. It is much more portable than a laptop. Once again, I am not sure if there is an app for this.

I don’t think I would want to construct pages this way because it is awkward. I would probably use it as a way to stay more connected and make small changes when needed. I should say that from a more philosophical point of view, I don’t really want the ability to stay connected so easily. I would rather not have the ability in my life, as I think it is healthier to focus on other things in life. Being offline is very important too.