Create/Evaluate

http://www.purposegames.com/profile/99792/games

Now that I have completed the Creation stage, it is time for me to evaluate my performance. I will do this by creating a survey on the effectiveness of the quiz. First, I will have the three sixth graders take the quiz for a total of four times. Then, I will create a small survey with a mini quiz based of the Design Cycle. After that, I will give it to the three recipients of my quiz at examine the results. The effectiveness of this quiz as a learning tool depends on how well they do on the survey.

I have rated myself a 5 on the Criterion F for the create and evaluate because I have been hard working and dedicated throughout this process. I have also been considerate of others during the stages, letting others tell me their opinions on the product and accepting their ideas as constructive critisism.

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Create

                                     1) Pick a layout

                                    2) Choose and upload the background

                                  3) Start forming questions

                                  4) Upload the questions

                                  5) Publish the quiz

Create Reflection:

I decided to give myself a 5 on this stage because I was able to create a quality product that met all of the requirements on the design specification. I was also able to document my progress through the use of pictures illustrating the steps taken. The reason I did not rate myself higher is because I felt the quiz was a little bit difficult to answer. But I will explain this to my recipients.

Gantt Chart

The total number of minutes required to finish this product is 235, which divided by 60 equals about 4 hours. 

Plan:

Day 1 (10/4): Choose layout 

Day 1 (10/4): Choose Background

Day 2 (10/5): Upload Background

Day 2 (10/5): Compose questions

Day 3 (10/6): Upload questions

Day 3 (10/6): Create actual quiz

Day 4 (10/7): Survey three 6th graders

Day 5 (10/9): Evaluate based on results

Plan Reflection: 

On this stage of the design cycle, I will give myself a 4. I was able to choose three designs and pick the  one that best follows the design specification. I was able to create a plan that was simple to understand, and form a Gantt Chart to illustrate the plan. I did not rate myself any higher because I felt that the plan was too vague, making it easy to get distracted with other things.  

Investigation Reflection

After the completion of this part of the Design Cycle, I have decided to give myself a 5 from Criteria A. I have given myself this grade because I believe that I was able to describe my problem and its solution thoroughly and effectively. I also described the sources that I choose to test and critically evaluated the applications to a rubric that I created using variables I thought were the most important. The only reason I did not give myself a higher grade is because my design brief and design specification are not very detailed in the description. I know that I probably could have done better in describing my plans for the design. But though the posts are not the best they could be, I still tried to critically evaluate my ideas to the design specification. Therefore I am positive I deserve a 5.

Design Specification for Purpose Games Application

1. Must be at least two minutes long
2. Must be simple to understand for a 6th grade student
3. Must be simple to create
4. Must be done within the time period
5. It has to have an average of 15 questions
6. The questions must be challenging to the player, not overly easy
7. The questions must pertain to the topic
8. The background of the quiz must pertain to the topic
9. The quiz must not last more than 2 minutes
10. The quiz should be enjoyable to complete

I could test my quiz game by:

1. Creating a survey that includes the players scores and their opinion of the game
2. Creating a separate test and evaluating how good their test scores are in relation to how effective the quiz game was
3. Collecting the scores from each player and calculating the average (80% is needed to deem this project successful)   

Design

Design Brief

10. Write a short statement of what you are going to make, why you are going to make it, and for whom you are making it.

I am going to make a quiz game from the website Purpose Games based on my results from the investigation stage. I am making it because it got the highest score in my investigation, a 17. I will be creating it for a study tool for a sixth grade student. 

Formulate a Design Specification

11. What are the requirements for this assignment?

The requirement is to create a two minute presentation of a product that would teach a sixth grader the Design Cycle.

12. What are the limitations you have with this assignment?

The presentation will only be two minutes long, and the application only has a total of two layouts to use.

13. How will you "test" your presentation?

I will test this product by creating a survey on the quality of the product and giving it to the recipients of the quiz. I will make three surveys in all.  

REFLECT ON YOUR LEARNING

Investigation

The two applications that I decided to test were the Purpose Games application and the Comic Master application. I will be testing them by the following criteria: Simplicity, Effectiveness, Creativity, and Availability on a scale of 1-5.

Purpose Games Application (http://www.purposegames.com/create):

Measurements:	Score:
Simplicity	4
Effectiveness	5
Creativity	3
Availability	5
Total:	17

Comic Master Application (http://www.comicmaster.org.uk/):

Measurements:	Score:
Simplicity	2
Effectiveness	4
Creativity	4
Availability	3
Total:	13

   
  For Purpose Games, Simplicity was by far the easiest criteria to score. From my research, I was able to note that the program has a fool-proof guideline that literally walks you through each and every step of the design of the game. All it makes you do is log in, and follow the instructions on the screen. This is very handy, since I tend to foul up if something is far too complicated to understand. Overall, I gave the Purpose Games application a 4 in Simplicity. The only reason I didn't give it a 5 is because the instructions are simple, but I still might make a mistake if I don't pay attention to what I'm doing. To get a 5 in this category, the program would have to be so simple that anybody could complete it without making a single error.

  The Comic Masters application was a different story, though. I gave this program a 2 in Simplicity because it is far more complicated than creating a quiz game. For one, you must start everything from scratch, even the layout of the pages and the location of the backgrounds. You also have to create an effective storyline that discusses your topic entirely. I am not quite that creative, so that would be difficult for me. All in all, the complexity of creating a comic on the computer is great, and I would not do very well in that kind of situation. The only reason I did not score this application lower is that I am very sure that another person could do this without any sort of complications.

  Effectiveness was the most important variable in the investigation, because the whole purpose of the project is to be able to teach a 6th grader what the Design Cycle is based on our product. I gave the Purpose Games a 5 because it s by far one of the best ways to teach a child a new topic. With a game, you can do it over and over, and learn from your mistakes, until you fully understand it. I take sample quizzes all the time in order to ready myself for a test or learn a new topic. This high opinion of the method is the reason I gave this application such a high grade.


  I decided to give the Comic Masters application a 4 because while it can be a useful tool, I am not partial to the method. I don't beleive that just reading about it and visualizing it can help you to fully understand a topic. I think it's better if you can practice it and memorize it through repetition. This is only an opinion, because I am sure that other people are learning their best when they can visualize it topic in their mind's eye. But unfortunately, my views on how I learn control my decision making, and the Comic Masters program will get a lower score.


  The most straightforward reason I can give for giving the Purpose Games a low 3 as a score in Creativity is simply because a quiz game is not that creative. There are no music features or font choices or colorful visuals to keep someone entertained. It's pretty much just a  small test. And I understand that nobody acn be entertained by a test. The only reason I did not score it lower is that there are choices on how you can format your game and how you can score it. But other than that, no creativity whatsoever when it comes to the Purpose Game program.


  Now, the Comic Masters application does deserve a 4 in this category because of its array of choices. You have the liberty of creating your own scenes, situations, and character interactions. It gives you components that you can work with, including already made characters in pre designed poses. Also, the idea of teaching someone using this method is quite unheard of, at least from my perspective. The only issue is that, while it has choices, it does not have as many choices as I would like it to. I feel it constricts you to certain things instead of letting you be completely free in your creation. This is the reason I did not go any higher with my scoring.


  In Availability, I gave the Purpose Games program a 5 because of the simplicity involved with finding it online. All you would really have to do is look up the website, log in, and search the name of the quiz. There is almost no complications involved. A person would just have to search the name of the website, and not have to type in five different key words trying to find one website. This is important because if a product is hard to find, people will be less likely to use it. Of course, as it is a fact that humans are not perfect, there can be some issues, such as forgetting the website, or forgetting your password.


  I gave the Comic Masters program a 3 because there would have to be more steps in actually finding the product. First, the website only offers the actual comic book maker, and not an application for reading the previously finished products. Since this is the case, I would have to create a link of some sort on my blog in order to make the product public to all viewers. This would be an added inconvinience to the person trying to use the product, only because now they would have to find my blog, then find the post with the link attached to it. Though it wouldn't be that much of an issue to me, I understand that some people cannot bear to lift even a finger in an effort to find the product. So, I gave this product a low score.


  In conclusion, the Purpose Games application is the best choice for me. It's simple, effective, and is very easy to find online. While it is not creative, that is not the angle I was striving to reach for. Creativity cannot always teach. I gave this application 17 points. The Comic Masters program, although imaginative and different, is not the most useful tool in demonstrating a new topic. This is why I did not pick this progam. I scored this program a 13.