April 30, 2012
I have finished marking the Final exam. The top mark was 89, but the second highest was 80, so as I promised I have processed the final exam marks as if they were out of 80. There was a wide range of marks from very good to very poor, even though my marking was very generous on individual questions. I was very careful to see that no opportunities for marks were missed. I have posted the raw scores (out of 100) in the WebCourses gradebook.
The project marking is also complete. I went over the results and made a few changes to the marking that resulted in somewhat higher marks than the initial marking would have produced. Again, I believe that there are no opportunities for marks to be missed. Your marks and comments will be released later today.
I know that many of you are anxious for the grades to be released. I will be doing so later today.
I already have passed my proposed marks by the department and have received approval for them. I have tried to be generous in assigning grades and was more generous than the "usual" mapping would have been, resulting in many more students receiving a grade of C or better. I made distinctions between grades at locations where there were significant gaps in marks between two students. In this way a difference of one or two marks on any one item (e.g. assignment, project, final) would not make the difference in a grade.
Again I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my interests in usability with you and would like to wish you well in your futures.
Regards, Prof. Carter
April 12, 2012
Today in class I went over the expectations for information relating to the possibilities analysis and requirements analysis (especially related to the comments I posted yesterday).
Next week during the class times the TA will be keeping office hours at her usual office location.
I hope that the TA will have all of the project marks posted by the time of the final exam. If any students wish to contest the marking, they will need to send me e-mail with all the details of their concerns as soon as possible after the marks are released and definitely by April 27 at the latest so that any mark adjustments can be reflected in the grades that I submit the following week. (So far the TA has done an excellent job of marking and I have not seen situations that required changes to the marks.)
Good luck to all of you both in the course and in your futures.
April 11, 2012
Remember that tomorrow, April 12 will be the last lecture and the last opportunity to ask questions regarding the project.
Be careful that you follow the expectations in Chapter 10 regarding what is needed to document possibilities (Ch 10.2), boundaries (Ch 10.3) and requirements analysis (Ch 10.4).
NOTE: There is a big difference between the answers to requirements analysis questions for tasks, users, content and environments (which should all be focused on what the characteristics of the tasks, users, content and environments are that need to be taken into account in some unspecified way) and the requirements and recommendations that result from them (that should be focused on how the design will take these needs into account in a manner that the designer will clearly satisfy and that can be evaluated to see that it has been met by the design).
If in doubt, be sure to make what you are doing explicit to show that you have done it!
March 21, 2012
My office has been moved to a new location: Psy 303L
This is in a locked area - please e-mail me
your intent to come by so that I can meet you at the outer door at the
agreed upon time.
Feb 26, 2012
I have modified the course outline to ensure that project teams have scheduled time to meet regarding the completion of their team term project.
Feb 14, 2012
Setting up project teams for Assignment #3:
Assignment #3 is intended to be completed in teams of 5 persons. I plan to use the same teams for the class project, except where incompatibilities or failure to contribute require me to make changes.
I am happy to allow you to be in the same team with your friends, as long as they want to work with you. I will use the following procedure to establish teams:
Feb 2, 2012
Getting the Web site you use for Assignment 1 is an ESSENTIAL part of the assignment.
Most students have now done this.
If any students have not done this, BE WARNED:
if your site is not approved by Friday Feb 3 you will get 0 marks on Assignment 1
regardless of how good the rest of your assignment is.
Jan 30, 2012
Clarification on time Assignment 1 is due
I tried to change the time the assignment was due and was told by WebCourses that if I did so, it would delete any assignments already submitted.
THAT IS NOT USABILITY!!! If it knows enough to warn that assignments might be deleted, then it shouldn't delete them. It should allow me to change the due time. However, it did not.
Thus, all I am able to do is to clarify that there was a typo in the time zone on the assignment and that it will be due 12 noon local (EST) time rather than the 12 noon CST that the assignment originally said.
Jan 18, 2012
Usability principles
As promised, I am providing you with the latest thinking regarding topics in the class. This morning I teleconferenced with my colleagues in ISO TC159/SC4/WG5 regarding the principles in ISO 9241-110 and ISO 9241-12. We discussed the same material that is in Chapter 4. As a result of our (still to be continued discussions) I am moving "Suitability for Learning" from being listed as a user-focused to being listed as a task-focused principle. This does not affect the descriptions of it. New versions of the text chapter and the notes are being posted. However, other than this move, they are not changed at this point in time. We will discuss other results of the teleconference in class.
My new office
I now have an office in Psychology 352 that I will regularly be using. It is always best to make arrangements (by e-mail or in class) when you want to meet., as I am being asked to make various guest lectures and appearances.
Jan 13, 2012
I now am using Webcourses@UCF to post all class notes and chapters of the text.
I will remain posting my Class News outside Webcourses@UCF at this location: http://www.eecs.ucf.edu/courses/cap4104/spr2012/CAP4104_Class%20News.html
Jan. 4, 2012
I would like to welcome you to CAP 4104 for the Spring Term of 2012 and to introduce myself.
I am a Professor of Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. I am currently on a sabbatical year here at UCF. I have specialized in Usability Engineering for over a quarter of a century and have been active in creating International Standards for Usability, Accessibility, User Interfaces, and Software Engineering for over twenty years. I look forward to sharing with you a wide variety of the latest insights in the field.
For more information on me and my research group at the U.of S. please visit the USERLab Web site.