Integrative Project

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The Term Project

Webmonkey is a Web development portal site operated by Wired.com. Among other resources (which you're welcome to peruse), it has a series of tutorials, including a very interesting hands-on Internet-based tutorial on the creation of information architectures (IA) for websites, that ought to work nicely as an SLP for this class. It is organized in five parts, which fits well into our structure. You can access the tutorial [Retrieved March 2, 2011] at

http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/information_architecture_tutorial/ or http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorials/

Your overall assignment for the term is to follow the steps in this tutorial to develop a design document for a website to support students in the BSITM Program as they move through it from the first courses to the last.

The goal of your project is to use the “information architectures” process to put together the best design you can. You may interpret the phrase “support students in the BSITM Program” in whatever ways seem most appropriate to you. After all, you’ve just been through the program; what would you have considered to be a helpful and supportive website? You are encouraged to be creative and imaginative; obviously, there isn’t any one “correct” design. The purpose of the IA process is to give you some structure as you create your design.

The assignment is in five parts, one for each module. In Module 5, you will have an opportunity to submit REVISED VERSIONS of your first four assignments along with your part 5 assignment, if you wish (it’s not required, just offered as optional.) If you do choose to submit revised versions, then they will also be re-evaluated, and if appropriate, your earlier grades on those assignments may be adjusted upward or downward, depending on the degree of improvement you’re able to make in them based on feedback from your instructor and your own re-thinking of the material.

Module 1 Assignment

For Module 1, you are to read through the Overview and Lesson 1, and carry out the first steps: goals definition for the website. The lesson outlines a series of questions to structure your goals. It suggests asking a range of respondents about the questions; clearly, this may be outside your present scope, although you may want to discuss them with friends and/or family and/or colleagues who have been with you through the program – who might have suggestions based on their interactions with you as you progressed - to get their take on the possible goals. You may also wish to seek informal thoughts from your instructor if you wish, with a well-structured inquiry.

At the least, you need to iterate the questions a couple of times for yourself. Write down your answers, then set them aside for a couple of days and come back to them. If you can do this a couple of times, you’ll find that your formulation will be better each time.

This part of the tutorial concludes:

“Once you have agreement from everyone involved, document the goals of the site and publish them where everyone in both your client’s organization and your own can see them... summarize the list and write a few paragraphs about the goals. A simple summary will do.”

Your “publication” consists of submitting your “list and paragraphs” in report form as your SLP 1 assignment.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Length: 2-3 pages typed and double-spaced

The following items will be assessed in particular:

  • The degree to which you have carried out the assignment completely, or clarified why you could not and investigated alternatives
  • Your ability to focus on the overall purposes of the assignment, not just its specific steps
  • Your use of some in-text references to what you have read; please cite all sources properly
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