25 February 2010

Today, I talked to some of the math team members, in preparation for Criterion K.
They said they had been using the site, and offered these comments:


-Well organized (separated into meets, events, with years for practice tests)
-Likes the summary of all equations, vocabulary
-And the practice tests which separate into years
-Likes the solved problems (work shown)
- Easy to use
-Good navigation.


They also mentioned it was now much easier to study.

1 March 2010

Today, I finished my Criterion K, shown below:
K Assessing the Social Significant of the Product

Observed Social Impact:
After the site was officially online, the link was placed on the math team section of edline.net, and recommended to math team students.
As a result of this, many students have begun to use this site as a guide.
For example, two of my testers, Jane Krot and Jasmin Shin, mentioned in their responses to the questionnaire that they would probably use the site in their studying; they, along with others, have done this. They mentioned that the formulas and examples were helpful to their understanding, and explained that they found the practice tests more accessible than before.

Predicted Social Impact:
I can only hope that this site will continue to be in use for the years to come. In the future, this site could be used as a study guide with much more widespread reach. The entire Mid-Pac math team would know about it. And, because the internet is assessable to everyone, students from other math teams, and even students looking for a challenging problem, would find this site useful. Overall, it will continue to spread mathematical knowledge, promote understanding, and make studying a little easier.

26 Friday 2010

Today, I finished my Criterion J, shown below:

J Testing and Evaluating the Solution

First Set of Refinements:

Beta Tester: Jane Krot

Jane is a qualified beta tester because she is a mathlete, having been on the team for three years. She knows the general process of testing and studying, and is aware of the current difficulties with finding information. By having her test my project, I will have an idea of how an average mathlete would view and navigate through the site. She would know if the layout was confusing, or if a formula was incorrect.

Refinements suggested:

-Several of the links were broken, or only worked on some of the pages

-Practice test pictures posed an issue. For nearly every test page, where there should have been three collapsible panels with test pictures, there were only broken images or tests that did not show up.

-Many of the practice tests that did show up were out of order

-Others were upside down

- Some of the scanned images are difficult to read

- Add more information to some of the later pages

(see questionnaire, figure 1.1 in appendix)

Refinements Made

1. I completely edited the practice test pages. Apparently, because all the test images were in different folders initially, many of them had the same name. When I uploaded the site, and all files were placed in the same folder, the duplicate-named images overwrote each other. As a result, only about five practice tests were actually uploaded.

To fix this, I renamed all of the images, then placed them all in the same folder to ensure that there was no duplication. I also have to fix the relative path in the dreamweaver program, so that the correct images were accessed. In addition, I rotated images so they were in the correct direction, and made sure the date on each tab-label coincided with the dates on the test.

(see figure 1.2, in appendix)

2. I went through and fixed all of the broken links and other broken images, changing the relative paths so that the pages would actually interconnect.

3. I added much more information to the end, so that all of the meets had the necessary formulas.

(see figure 1.3)

Second Set of Refinements

Beta Tester: Ms. Kashiwabara

Mrs. Kashiwabara is a qualified tester as she is both a math team coach and a math teacher. After having taught math at Mid-Pacific for nearly four years, she has the knowledge necessary to correct any mathematical mistakes. As a coach, she will oversee the use of the site, and help promote it to the various math team members.

Refinements Suggested:

-Try to eliminate hand-written formulas and images. A computer edited version would, she explained, look cleaner and better put together.

-Find a way to update the site, if necessary, so that it remains current. This would include operation after I left high school.

(see figure 2.1)

Refinements Made:
1. To address the first concern, I eliminated the hand-written formulas (although I did leave some of the completed problems as hand-written, as these were long and tedious to re-copy; the remaining images are, in my opinion, the easiest to read). I actually used LaTex, an online equation editor which made the task much easier and produced a nice result.

(figure 2.2)

2. To address the second concern, I added a "contact us" section to the page, and created an email address for the site. This would provide me with information on updates that need to be made.

(figure 2.3)

3. As I was going through to create these last two refinements, I noticed some broken images and links my tester had missed. I went through and fixed this. (figure 2.4)

Third Set of Refinements:

End-User Test: Jasmin Shin

Jasmin is a qualified tester because is, in fact, a typical end-user. She is a student on the Mid-Pacific math team, and has been affected by the inadequacies of the current situation. Her perspective will lend information as to how effective this site will be.

Revision Suggested:

- Mentioned many of the images were blurry/ hard to read/ too faint

- Recommended hi-lighted or colored text

- Wanted to know if an index or glossary could be added

- Mentioned that some of the images were broken

To see the full survey, view figure 3.1 (appendix)

Revisions made:

1. I changed the color of key-term text to a bright green, which called attention to them. (see figure 3.2)

2. I fixed broken images by moving the file location. (see figure 3.3)

3. I also removed many images, and replaced with formulas which written out with the LaTex editor. While I had left these images after the second set of refinements, believing them to be the most legible, my beta tester still had difficulty reading and understanding many of these images. (See figure 3.4)

K Assessing the Social Significant of the Product

Observed Social Impact:

After the site was officially online, the link was placed on the math team section of edline.net, and recommended to math team students.

As a result of this, many students have begun to use this site as a guide.

For example, two of my testers, Jane Krot and Jasmin Shin, mentioned in their responses to the questionnaire that they would probably use the site in their studying; they, along with others, have done this. They mentioned that the formulas and examples were helpful to their understanding, and explained that they found the practice tests more accessible than before.

Predicted Social Impact:

I can only hope that this site will continue to be in use for the years to come. In the future, this site could be used as a study guide with much more widespread reach. The entire Mid-Pac math team would know about it. And, because the internet is assessable to everyone, students from other math teams, and even students looking for a challenging problem, would find this site useful. Overall, it will continue to spread mathematical knowledge, promote understanding, and make studying a little easier.

24 February 2010

Today, I received back Jasmin's survey, and am able to complete my beta-testing.

Some of the revisions she suggested were:

22 February

I finally received back my questionnaire, for my second set of refinements. I made the changes as quickly as I could, also incorporating some things I had noticed earlier in my revisions.

For one, Ms. Kashiwabara suggested that I try to use less of the scanned tests and a greater amount of computer generated formulas. Looking at the images, and determining what was legible and what was not, I re-generated many of the formulas using an equation editor I found, LaTex (I had to go back, and add this to my Criterion I). This was faster than the previous method, as it allowed me to convert the formulas directly into .gif format. However, it was still rather tedious. I redid some of the formulas, but not all.

For example, here I replaced the picture with laTex

Before:

After:

In addition, I added a "contact us" section on the home page, in order to address Ms. Kash's concern that the site would need to be continually updated.

21 February 2010

Today, I gave the link to my project site, and a questionnaire, to one of my end-users, Jasmin Shin. I asked her to help me finish my testing, and made sure to set a deadline of next week Wednesday (Feb. 24). Although I have not yet made the changes for my second set of revisions, I have to get my testing done ASAP. I already updated the broken images and links which I found the other day, so I'm hoping the modifications requested involve a more broad set of modifications.
However, as I am nearing the end of my testing, and approaching my deadline, I am hoping that the site is reaching near completion, and only needs minor revisions.

20 February 2010

Today, I went through the site and noted any broken links and images.
I found several; there were many broken images on the geometry pages, and some awkward looking formulas (I had to change their alignment to absolute middle).

18 February 2010

Today, I talked to my beta-tester, and reminded her that I needed the survey completed. She promised to have it done by Monday, and at this point that's the most I can ask for. In the meantime, I've decided to go through all of the links myself, trying to make sure the site functions completely correctly.

17 February 2010

Although I am not quite done with my testing, I need to implement my project so that I am able to have an observed result for Criterion K. Although the effectiveness might be decreased, the site will still, hopefully be helpful. I posted the link on the math team's edline page (where news about upcoming meets and such are posted), and began telling my math team peers about the site.

16 February 2010

Today, I was supposed to turn in my second revisions for Criterion J. However, my second tester has yet to return their survey. My teacher said that I could have an extension, but that it would probably be preferable to simply begin my end-user tests as soon as possible, even if the second set of revisions has not yet been returned.

8 February 2010

None of the math team coaches have yet responded to my request that one of them volunteer to be a beta-tester. After thinking this over, and noticing that my deadline was fast approaching, I personally asked one of the teachers, Mrs. Christine Kashiwabara. I sent her the questionnaire today, and will attempt to make my own changes while I wait for her to return it to me.

3 February 2010

Today, I sent out the link for my project to all three of the math team coaches. Accompanying this email was a request that one of them be a beta-tester for the project.

Although not all three will test, it would still be useful for them to view the site. After all, they have extensive knowledge of math, and could mention if they saw anything immediately out of place.

21 January 2010

Today, I began my write-up of Criterion J; this includes a summary of the revisions suggested, revisions made, and why my beta-tester was qualified. Here is a copy of what I will turn in tomorrow:

Criterion J

Beta Tester: Jane Krot

Jane is a qualified beta tester because she is a mathlete, having been on the team for three years. She knows the general process of testing and studying, and is aware of the current difficulties with finding information. By having her test my project, I will have an idea of how an average mathlete would view and navigate through the site. She would know if the layout was confusing, or if a formula was incorrect.

Refinements suggested:

-Several of the links were broken, or only worked on some of the pages

-Practice test pictures posed an issue. For nearly every test page, where there should have been three collapsible panels with test pictures, there were only broken images or tests that did not show up.

-Many of the practice tests that did show up were out of order

-Others were upside down

- Some of the scanned images are difficult to read

- Add more information to some of the later pages

(see questionnaire, attached)

Refinements Made

1. I completely edited the practice test pages. Apparently, because all the test images were in different folders initially, many of them had the same name. When I uploaded the site, and all files were placed in the same folder, the duplicate-named images overwrote each other. As a result, only about five practice tests were actually uploaded.

To fix this, I renamed all of the images, then placed them all in the same folder to ensure that there was no duplication. I also have to fix the relative path in the dreamweaver program, so that the correct images were accessed. In addition, I rotated images so they were in the correct direction, and made sure the date on each tab-label coincided with the dates on the test.

2. I went through and fixed all of the broken links and other broken images, changing the relative paths so that the pages would actually interconnect.

3. I added much more information to the end, so that all of the meets had the necessary formulas.

19 January 2010

One thing Jane did not mention, but I noticed when browsing the site, was that the banner-image on top looked exactly how I intended it to look on some pages, but was blurry and pixilated on others.

It seems the code for these two was different. For the large, blurry image, the incorrect picture was being accessed. It was the same image, only originally not a wide. It was stretched to fit the dimensions specified by the web page.

So, I simply changed the image file being uploaded to the correct one for all of the dysfunctional pages.

15 January 2010

Today, I turned in the edited version of Criterion I. In it, I added in the important information of who does what. Instead of just saying "Jane was involved," I explained "I will discuss with Jane her survey."

15 January 2010

Another refinement Jane suggested was to fix broken links. I went through the pages she said did not work, or took the user to the wrong place, and fixed the relative path. In many cases, I had copy-pasted the wrong link set. In others, I forgot a few letters in my typing, so the link would not truly work.

13 January 2010

As I mentioned earlier, we received back our full report, of what we have completed so far. Today, the revisions on that report, with respect to Criterion G and H were due today.

While I made no revisions, having received the maximum amount of points, I am afraid that I will have to cut down these Criterion in the future. Already, my report is precariously close to the 2500 word maximum.

8 January 2010

Another edit my tester suggested was to add more information to the site. At the time of publishing, I had not quite added all the information I needed. In fact, some of the pages were still completely blank when uploaded.

So, I added in even more research and information, so that none of the pages were blank.

7 January 2010

Today, we received back all of the criterion we had completed thus far. The teacher graded them all, and made suggestions for revisions. All of my sections had perfect scores, except for that of Criterion I. The teacher had explained that, for my detailed schedule of events, while I explained who was involved in each task, I did not explain what it was they did.

5 December 2010

Referring to Jane's survey, I began to make the revisions.

One of the major issue was that none of the tests worked; when one tried to open the collapsible panels, all one would get was a broken image icon.

At first, I had no idea what could have caused this. When designing the site in dreamweaver, I would use then "preview in browser" tool to see if everything was functional. At that point, everything seemed fine. I tried to search down a reason for this. The only real differences between the previewed, unpublished site and the actual site was the organization of their containing folders. When I published the site, all of the files were dumped into a single folder.

Previously, the tests and images had been subdivided, within the main folder, and categorized by meet. Many of the tests had the same file name- for example, I had tests simply called "2006." This was not a problem when they were separated, but became an issue when they were in the same folder, overwriting each other.

So, I went through my files, renaming all of the practice tests. I had to change both the file name and the relative path in the website. To make sure there were no repeats, I followed a simple pattern. I would turn, for example, a test from Meet 7, event 3, 2005-06, previously titled 2005-06.html to m7e32005-06.html

4 January 2010

Today, I received back the survey I sent my first beta-tester. The results are seen below.

Survery:

Name: _Jane Krot_________________

Grade: _11_________________

Date:____January 2, 2010 and January 4, 2010_______________

Math Team Member: Yes No

Questionnaire

1. How long have you been on the math team?

I have been on the math team for 2 years (since 9^th grade).

2. Was the site fully functional? If not, what bugs did you encounter?

The link for www.mathwords.com did not work on my computer.

When I tried to open the practice tests for Meet 1, Event 2, Geometry- Angles in a Plane; Meet 1, Event 1, Algebra II -Quadratic & Fractional Equations w/ Real Solutions & Word Problems; Meet 1, Event 3, Algebra 1- Patterns; Meet 2, Event 2, Geometry- Logic; Meet 3, Event 2, Geometry- Right Triangles, Pythagorean Theorem & Special Right Triangles; Meet 3, Event 3, Algebra I- Age, Motion, and Numbers; Meet 3, Event 4, Trigonometry - Inverse Functions; Meet 3, Event 5, Algebra I-Operations with Polynomials; Meet 3, Event 6- Algebra II, Functions; Meet 4, Event 1, Exponents & Logarithms (no tables);Meet 4, Event 2, Geometry; Meet 4, Event 3, Algebra I- Factoring Over the Integers & Equations Involving Factoring; Meet 4, Event 4a- Trigonometry; Meet 4, Event 4, Trigonometry, Polar Coordinates & DeMoivre's Theorem; Meet 4, Event 5, Algebra I-Linear Inequalities; Meet 4, Event 6, Algebra II- The Quadradic Function; Meet 5, Event 6,Algebra II - Matrices and Determinants, Triangles with Scientific Calculators; Event 1- Polynomial Equations with Real Coefficients; Meet 7, Event 1, Algebra II - Probability; Meet 7, Event 4, Analytic Geometry - Rational Functions; Meet 7, Event 5, Algebra I- Equations with Decimals & Percents (Mixture & Investments); Event 6- Arithmetic & Geometric Sequences & Series, none of them worked.

For Meet 4, Event 6, Algebra II- The Quadradic Function, the first practice test has a blank page and there are no other tests. For Meet 5, Event 5, Geometry - Circles with Arcs, Chords, Secants, Tangents, & Angles, one of the practice tests is missing or does not work.

For Meet 3, Event 1, Algebra II- Radicals and Exponents, some of the practice tests are not working.

For Meet 7, Event 3, Algebra I- Radical Operations, the tests for 2006-2007 does not coincide with the number on the practice test.

For Meet 7, Event 4, Analytic Geometry- Vectors, one of the tests does not work.

For Meet 1, Event 3, Algebra 1- Patterns and Meet 4, Event 5, Algebra I- Linear Inequalities, some of the writing scanning I was not able to read.

For Meet 2, Event 3- Solving Equations, the link for the practice tests does not open.

At one point, I was not able to access the links above, but that might have been my computer because later it started working.

When I tried to press the Event 3- Linear Equations in One Variable (No Word Problems) and Event 5- Logic links, the computer was not able to access the page, but when I pressed on another event and used the links below to go to event 3, it worked.

For Meet 2, Event 6, Algebra II-Absolute Values and Inequalities, it is a little bit hard to read the scanned parts.

For Meet 5, Event 2, Geometry- Areas of Convex Polygons, the practice tests are out of order; they do not coincide with the dates

For Meet 5, Event 2, Geometry- Areas of Convex Polygons., the practice test for 2004-2005 does not coincide with the data on the actual scanned test

For Event 5- Circles with Arcs, Chords, Secants, Tangents, & Angles, the URL when I click on the actual link under meet 5 does not work, but it works when I go to another event and click on the link below.

For Meet 6, Event 4, Analytic Geometry- Parabolas, Ellipses, & Hyperbolas and Event 6- Permutations & Combinations; Meet 6, Event 4, Analytic Geometry- Parabolas, Ellipses, & Hyperbolas, some of the practice tests are upside down.

For Meet 6, Event 6, Algebra II - Permutations & Combinations, one of the tests is upside down and one of the practice tests is repeated,

3. Were there any mistakes with the math (incorrect formulas, properties, etc.)?

What is this: Square Roots: jj? I am just not familiar with it.

4. What could be done to make this site more user-friendly?

5. What kind of information would you like to see added?

May be add the “*these events alternate annually” on each page below.

6. Would you use this site as a resource? Why or why not?

Yes, I would use this web site because each event for each meet has examples and formula sheets. Also there are practice tests, I can do. If I forget my packets at home, I can open it up and do the practice tests. Also I can prepare for future events.

7. Any additional comments, questions or concerns?

May be for the probability page add the formulas used for permutations and combinations and some example problems. Also add more information to the last two meets.