Improving Learning Object Development with Scenarios

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Improving Learning Object Developmentwith
Scenarios

• Rachel S. Smith Kathleen Willbanks
• Senior Interface Designer Marketing
  Operations Manager

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Agenda

• Introductions (who we are) Survey (who are
  you?)
• What is a scenario?
• Why scenarios are used
• How scenarios are used
• Writing scenarios
• Elements of a scenario
• Personas
• Examples
• Deriving requirements from scenarios
• Kinds of requirements
• Getting requirements out of scenarios
• Examples

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What is a scenario?

• Description of an activity that takes place while
  someone is using a product or service
• User-focused and product-focused
• From one sentence to several paragraphs in length

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Why Scenarios Are Used

• To help developers visualize how their product or
  service will be used by real people
• As a reference at various points during
  development to make sure were on the right track
• As a quick way to test a working product to see
  if it meets our initial requirements

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How Scenarios Are Used

• To gather user requirements for a project
• To do user testing even before anything has been
  mocked up or built
• To check storyboards and mockups to see if they
  are on the right track prior to implementation
• To check the work-in-progress during
  implementation to make sure it does what we
  wanted it to do
• To check the completed work before we release it
  to make sure it does what we wanted it to do

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Writing Scenarios

• Keep your project (product or service) in mind
• Dont focus on technical solutions
• Think about what the experience will be like for
  users when your product is done
• Think about best-case, worst-case, and
  normal-case applications

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Elements of a Scenario

• Prerequisites
• What has happened prior to this scenario?
• One or more personas
• Who is involved?
• Description of activities
• What is happening?
• Results
• What is the ending state of the scenario?

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Elements of a Scenario Prerequisites

• What has happened prior to this scenario? For
  example
• A student has enrolled in a course and been given
  the course URL.
• An instructor has had accounts set up for all her
  students so they can access a module sold on a
  subscription basis.
• Sometimes prerequisites refer to previous
  scenarios.

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Elements of a Scenario Persona(s)

• A short description of a specific imaginary
  person
• Identify primary user types for your product or
  service, and create a couple of personas for each
  user type (i.e. students)
• Personas can be reused keep a library
• Useful to help focus our scenarios by forcing us
  to think about actual people

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Persona Ingredients

• Biographical information about the imaginary
  person (name, age, occupation)
• Brief sketch of typical day or activities
• Personality traits that affect how the person
  does work related to your product
• Information about his/her level of experience
  with the technology you are using

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Sample Student Persona

• Kerry is a third-year student at California State
  University Long Beach. She has been studying
  French for several years, including high school
  classes as well as university courses. She is
  interested in 19th-century French literature and
  plans to double-major in French and English Lit.
  She lives on campus, has a computer of her own,
  and is familiar with using the web and email.

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Sample Instructor Persona

• Dr. Zauzig teaches advanced French language
  courses at CSU Long Beach. She is not very
  interested in technology, but she understands
  that her students are, and she is able to get
  some help from the IT department when she needs
  it. One of her graduate students knows how to
  make web pages and often helps her. Dr. Zauzig
  has been collaborating with Dr. Wilson, another
  professor at a different campus, to create an
  online unit that they both can use in their
  courses.

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Exercise Writing Personas

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Elements of a Scenario Activities

• What is happening during this scenario? Examples
• A student is trying to complete a certain
  assignment using the unit.
• An instructor is trying to assess student
  progress.
• Activities will vary depending on the nature of
  the product.

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Elements of a Scenario Results

• What is the ending state of the scenario?
  Examples
• The student has completed her assignment and is
  ready to send it to the instructor.
• The instructor has finished assessing student
  progress and is ready to write feedback for the
  student.
• The ending state of one scenario often sets up
  the next scenario.

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Writing Scenarios Example

• Example Project online module for teaching
  French literature (exact content is not specified
  for this exercise).
• Developers two faculty (content experts) and two
  graduate students (technical developers).
• Primary user types students, instructors
• Secondary user type administrators

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Scenario 1 Learning a French Poem

• Persona Kerry
• Pre-requisites Kerry has enrolled in the class
  and has a login/password for the online course
  materials.
• (See handout p. 3 for text of this and other
  sample scenarios.)

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Exercise Writing Scenarios

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Deriving Requirements from Scenarios

• Using scenarios to develop a requirements
  document
• Assumptions basic facts or limitations we know
  we have to work with
• Requirements basic functions that the module
  must carry out so users can perform their task(s)
• Issues unresolved questions that arise as we
  work
• This is one of several ways to use scenarios
  during learning object development

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Kinds of Requirements

• User requirements functions that someone using
  the system will see or do.
• Example user needs to save his work there must
  be a control that allows him to do this.
• System requirements or technical requirements
  behind-the-scenes technical functions that the
  system must be capable of doing in order to
  support the user requirements.
• Example when user activates the save my work
  control, the system must allow the user to name
  the file and then write it to a disk.
• You dont need to separate the types of
  requirements at this stage.

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Getting Requirements from Scenarios

• Examine each scenario and ask the following
  questions
• What is the user trying to do?
• What part of the task is facilitated by the
  system or product?
• What part of the task is independent of the
  system or product?
• What has to happen behind the scenes while the
  user does this task?
• What does the user see on the screen while he is
  working on the task?

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Deriving Requirements Examples

• See handout pp. 3-4.

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Your Turn

• Continue developing scenarios personas
• Start pulling assumptions, requirements issues
• Questions?

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Thank you!

• This presentation will be available on the CDL
  website under Presentations
• http//www.cdl.edu/