The readings are listed on the Class Schedule. You can find the prompts (and submit your own reading response) here:

Reading Response 8

They are available through the class schedule on the web page, and you can also link to them here:

• the reading
• the knowledge check

You can go them directly using the link below.

Reading Response 7

As I mentioned in class today, we’re going to start conducting user testing sessions next week for the Volunteer Center web site. The process keeps evolving as I work out more of the details; here’s the current plan:

1) I have requested a Sona researcher account that we can all share.

2) Once that is created, I will set up all the study info in Sona.

3) Each of you can then go in and post your own time slot, and periodically monitor the account to see if someone has signed up for it. If there are a lot of studies running right now, your time slot may not fill. If that happens, you can just post a new one a couple days farther out. We can keep repeating that process until everyone is able to get a participant. I recommend putting up your initial slot for early next week.

4) I will post this information as well as necessary documents, procedures, etc. on the class web page, under “Class Project”, then “User Testing”.

You can now find the readings we’ll be discussing Friday listed on the course web page in the class schedule.

The prompts you should respond to in your reading response are also now posted, and you can find them here:

Reading Response 6

Feel free to go ahead and do the knowledge check now (it’s due Wednesday by the start of class). You can link to it directly here:

https://wwu.instructure.com/courses/1180022/quizzes/1041062

I just updated the description for the thematic analysis homework to include much more concrete guidance on what you should do for the “analysis” part of the assignment. You can find this on the class web page, or link to it directly here:

Thematic Analysis Homework

A summary from our discussion from Wednesday’s class is now available; see the link below. Use this to help with the thematic analysis homework.

Notes from Thematic Analysis Practice with Volunteer Opportunities

As I’ve mentioned in class a couple of times, I’m going to try a new approach for the reading responses this time. I wrote some specific prompts for you to respond to. If you follow the link for submitting your reading response, you will see the prompts there; you can also access them here:

Reading Response 4

The goal of this change is to create clearer expectations, so it’s easier for you to understand what you need to do to receive a strong score for your response. In class on Friday I will ask you for your thoughts about the new format. Based on your experience, we can continue with the new format, revert to the old one, or try to come up with a Plan C.

We are reaching the part of the course where we’re going to be doing some real work for the Volunteer Center. The most important thing we do all quarter will probably be interviewing current users of the Volunteer Center web site; that’s the foundation for everything else.

I will be at each interview, and my goal is to have each student participate in one interview as well. The interviews themselves will be no more than an hour, but it is likely that they will all be off-campus, so you will have some overhead time for traveling there as well. In recognition of the effort and time commitment involved, 5% of your course grade will be based on your participation in this interview. If you come to the interview and actively participate in the process in a professional manner, you get those points – there are no criteria beyond that.

I have started sending e-mails to individual students regarding their availability for specific interviews, based on your responses in the Doodle poll. We do not have the luxury of lining up all the interviewees in advance, such that you could pick and choose among available times. We may even complete a couple interviews before we know the possible times for the others. So if I e-mail you and you can make it work, I encourage you to step forward. The other options down the road could easily be less convenient rather than more.

I am going to do my best to work some scheduling magic and find times when all of you can attend an interview. If we truly can’t make that work, I will come up with an alternative assignment for that student or students. However, to discourage students from “opting out” of the interview because they don’t want to deal with the hassle, the alternative assignment will be chosen to take longer and be much less fun than the interview.

If you have any questions about this process, please don’t hesitate to ask.