Feedback - Community Site, tools and process review.

[Bodo Hoenen]

Please share your feedback (Positive and negative) on your thoughts of the WIKI, forum, site and tools how they have been setup.

[Bodo Hoenen]

• Welcome page too much text, needs to be simplified and made more welcoming.
  
• Add content about Forum

[Bodo Hoenen]

We may need to seed the topics with some relevant discussions to set the tone.

[Jeff Bennett]

Having worked in a variety of organizations I can honestly say that Dev4x already has established a superior approach and a better set of tools than any I have worked with anywhere. The fact that more than a few of my gigs were Fortune 500 makes that a bit shocking but all too true. If you've been there you know. 

The Dev4x website is great, in and of itself, but most organizations are able to put a good web face on things. The tools we have already have in place are in another league. Using newer technology without the legacy baggage to carry really provides a great way to inspire insight, suggest ideas and then, with the team at you side, quickly transform ideas into tasks and help guide them to fruition becoming an important part of this terrific solution. 

The Team Home Page provides a great entry point for team members to stay informed, find their way and connect with other team members easily and with purpose. GitHub speaks for itself as does the new addition of Google Groups. 

Trello is really a great tool for simply and easily managing projects and tasks. I especially like the way it manages the integration with email. Very clean.

While we have a great suite of tools already, I also look forward to new team members showing us their favorite tools and how they can help us exceed our own very high expectations. 

Come on in, the waters more than fine!

[Thibault Sorret]

Loving the way this is going, using Trello, etc. is perfect!

 

1) One tool I'd say is missing, a searchable, indexable chat system. That's where Slack comes in.

This project is small as of now, so finding information in chats is relatively easy, but going through email conversations 6 months from now will be a lot harder.

Another advantage, when a new member joins a team, or changes to a new project, they can catch up by viewing the chat history.

Also a great place for the biweekly updates or other general announcements.

Personally, I still haven't met most of the team, I think this tool would help get people to interact with each other more, potentially leading to more ideas, etc.

 

Bonus? it integrates with all things Google and Trello.

 

https://slack.com/

http://www.fastcompany.com/3040638/tech-forecast/how-slack-uses-slack

 

2) On the site itself the homepage should have a quick explanation of the project. Mission statement still. Jumping into bulletpoint priorities, etc. throws the viewer off guard.

 

3) Detail: the Navigation looks good, but the numbers look weird in the header, consider using roman style II ii or 1a..b..2a.. to make it easier to follow.

 

4) Updates for the role of everyone within the subsections. I suggest we all ask to be added to the relevant ones. This should include our contact info.

 

5) Where is the call to action? As someone who goes on the site, what should I do next? Guide the user to a purpose (helps us, share the project, learn more...). Also tell the user why they should use the forum, what sort of input we'd like from them.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

[Stephen Kie]

I have gone through the Wiki in detail and have the following feedback:

• IA appears to be well structured and logical to follow
• There are several typo's scattered throughout the sections
• On the Welcome page (https://sites.google.com/site/dev4xmoonshoteducationproject/administration/home), the images under Step Two should be responsive as they appear pixellated on my 4K display
• Sitemap has some sync. issues in that it has some section names in camel-case, i.e. HOW vs Why

[Jacob McOwan]

I spent some time surfing through the wiki. The content is really great. I like how it gives everyone on the team a place to stay connected, as well as the inspirational content such as the TED talks. 

However, the wiki feels as if it’s designed for tech/programmers. For me, it was challenging to navigate.

Below are a few thoughts/suggestions:

1. The '

   ​WELCOME PAGE
   ' should be the home page on the wiki. When I click home it takes me to this page.

1. I think the content from

   ​the home​
    page could easily be combined to the welcome page
   ​;​
    the useful links section being added to the bottom because it is supplementary.

2. The Core Strategies and Top Priorities section should be written as a paragraph narrative, not bullet points if it is on the home page.

2. There are many tabs, and sub-tabs that could be simplified.

1. The ‘How’ should be removed before all topic tabs.

1. For example ‘How - Technology’ becomes ‘Technology’

2. Announcements needs to be it’s own category to be a place for important developments, events, info. that relate to all Dev4X members.

3. General Discussions should be a main tab for all Dev4X related topics, as well as each department having its own general discussion. For example: Technology has a sub-tab that is ‘Technology Discussion’

4. The WHO page should be very simple. Just the each person’s name, what they do on the project, or what department they focus on, and a way to contact that person.

1. Perhaps the who page could have a hierarchy of contact for specific departments as well. This would be very helpful as the project grows it’s volunteer-base.

2. The WHO page does not need a General Discussion. Things that would be discussed there would probably fit into the main general discussion forum, or the department forum more appropriately.

5. TIMELINE: Each section should also have it’s specific timeline on it’s specific page.

1. Timeline could be clearer. Once you scroll down, it’s hard to see the months. Maybe general monthly timeline, with more specific details within each section page.

2. Tech has the Tech timeline, same for content, design, etc.

3. ​​
   Maybe a shared google calendar that each person could be invited to that simplifies the ‘timeline’ and reminder process. This could also include bi-weekly meetings.

[Bodo Hoenen]

Thank you all for your feedback so far. This is what we have amended so far:

• Welcome page is updated and cleaned up.
• Announcements and Discussions pages have been removed from the Why, How and Timeline sections, as you rightly said these are not relevant here.
• Announcements and discussions pages on the 'HOW' sections have been changed to purely announcement pages where new information relevant to that project can be posted. Discussions will be taking place on the forum.
• I have amended the Home page as many of you have suggested. Added an intro paragraph, Also added a chart showing where we are spending our effort. 
• I reformatted the menu to remove the numbers, and added some dropdown items to the Administration tab.

[Bodo Hoenen]

Thank you for the feedback on creating more visible call to actions. 

To do that I have  added a current tasks section to each of the main areas, then highlighted if those tasks are active or unassigned. then directing individuals that are interested in helping to start a discussion and suggesting how they can help. 

Is this clear enough? 

 

[Misha Eydman]

Bodo, it looks great. I think if there are any remaining kinks or missing information, we will be addressing those over time. My only suggestion is that I don't really see the need for the left navigation menu since top is sufficient to access the main sections and once there we can find our way around using links to sub-sections.

[Bodo Hoenen]

Good point. does anyone else agree with that? we can always test it out an add it back if needed.

[Moodle Muse]

Yes I agree the left nav is duplication. Perhaps announcements or an image could go there instead?
Using Google sites and groups is a great choice. Mobile friendly, one password accesses dozens of tools. I have been using this with Indigenous and low-skilled / motivated learners for 2 years and they love it.

One point on the Manifesto: "We will empower users' the term 'users' is technical ..It could be "Learners will be empowered to own and control their tools and data"

[Bodo Hoenen]

OK done, I disabled the side menu, lets see how this goes. Also good point on the Manifesto!  

[David Cross]

Quick note, "wellbeing" should have a hyphen (well-being). "Pregnancy related" should probably be "pregnancy-related."

Considering the importance of this final paragraph, I think it could use a bit of massaging. I don't want to step on any toes, but would be happy to give it a stab if asked.

[Bodo Hoenen]

I would welcome your input on that Dave! and also I've corrected that well-being typo quick!

[Bodo Hoenen]

Quick Edit

The Drop Down menu to the forum, Q/A page and other admin pages has been moved from the right Administration menu, to the left Home menu, to save space and make it more visible. The old admin section will be removed in a day or so.

From this:  

To this:

[David Cross]

Here's a plaintext edit. Feel free to change as you see fit!

A FUTURE WHERE ANY CHILD CAN LEARN ANYTHING 

 

Imagine a world where we have eradicated child sex slavery and reduced forced marriages, a world where education for health and well-being is available to all. A world where infant mortality and pregnancy-related deaths are significantly reduced. A world where the youth growing up in conflicts can still learn lessons of ethics and morality, and can learn to become the leaders of their nations. 

 

“This is not only possible, it is achievable within our generation. Help us achieve this together!”

[Bodo Hoenen]

Thank you Dave! I just made those edits!

[Diana Sharp]

I think the Dev4x.com home site looks great!  Here a few tiny minor edits to recommend -- proofing-type stuff only, content is terrific!  Note that in general I am happy to help with editing any project materials; I enjoy doing a lot of it for other projects:

1. 

"Developing an autonomous, self-schooling platform for children that cannot get a quality education and those that will never go to school."

Change to: "children who" and "those who"

2. 

"We believe schoolchildren should be free to learn anything they want and become whoever they like. Think of it as combining all the educational approaches and letting the children's’ abilities dictate how the learn."

Change to:  "children's" (remove extra ')  and "how they learn."

3.

Kids learn anything they want in an order which makes sense to them.

Change to: "order that"

4.

Learn with friends who can help you or with those you can help.

(add missing period)

[Bodo Hoenen]

Thank you for picking those up! I've made the changes now! 

Additionally, thank you for the offer to help editing our materials. That will be a great help! I'll reach out when something comes up, which I am sure will be sooner rather than later!

[Stu Holmes]

@Bodo Will there be a shared calendar we can use/see on the wiki for arranging meetings?

[Bodo Hoenen]

Good suggestion, I'll set that up soon on the home page.

[Stu Holmes]

After chatting to a couple of people, from the forum, I've heard several main issues being raised repeatedly:-

• People are keen to volunteer, but not sure of where they can help.
• Some volunteers are 'waiting' for direction and ready to start helping out. (*Risk of losing volunteers if no direction given)
• What work is currently being done? (Progress reports? Regular updates?)
  
• Who else is working on the project and what are their skill-sets? (eg. Language & Mathematics educators form 'subject matter' team, Software Engineers, Designers, Project Management, Public Relations, etc.. all form core teams based around that skill-set)

To tackle these concerns I've put them here in the forum, as suggested by Misha, so that everyone can contribute their ideas and potential solutions to tackle these operational issues. Of course we all need to bear in mind that there is a lot of big moves taking place, over the course of the next few weeks - TEDx, Social Enterprise Accelerator Finals, a UN contract and talks with potential sponsors...so Bodo and Misha have their hands full right now. So we need to pull together, as volunteers and organise ourselves.

My initial thought was to use a project management tool called 'Basecamp' to capture all the team member's profiles, along with skills, and then form several mini-teams, based around those skills. At this early stage, those mini-teams could then research, develop and recruit volunteers to work on specific tasks related to the Global Learning XPrize or focus on longer term goals for post-XPrize challenges. There would be a shared team calendar, so mini-teams could arrange meetings and assign actions to one another. We could then have an overall project report showing the progress made so far, to keep everyone informed and on track. The Global Learning XPrize, first round, is going to conclude in 18 months, so we don't have much time!

So to sum up....please could you give your feedback on these issues as well as offer up any ideas you may have to tackle these challenges. What would you find useful over the next few months? What do you think are the key issues we face at the beginning of this project? Is there something we are missing?

Regards,

Stu

[Naomi Malone]

I think the idea of a project management tool is a good one...you are right, it's been rather difficult to figure out where help is needed. 

It's been a long time since I've collaborated using Basecamp so unfortunately cannot provide my thoughts on its usability, etc. I believe it costs money though..is cost a factor? 

I have had some good experiences with two free online project management tools - Trello and Asana. Trello seems to be more scalable than Asana, which has a 15 member team limit for free use. It might work better with larger, more diverse online teams. Asana might be good for side projects.

https://trello.com

https://asana.com

I'm sure there are many others...these are just the ones I've come in contact with.

[Misha Eydman]

Stu / Naomi,

I wanted to respond to your comments. We are currently using Trello to track all project related tasks, however we have not yet devised a way to share it with a wider audience while maintaining some order and structure. We will be hosting a global meeting this Wed where we plan to announce a formation of committees which will then be able to work together on a specific effort and utilize all the tools we already have at our disposition. Of course, anything that will contribute to a better process and communication is welcome.

Misha.