Redoing Challenges?

[Megan Ryan]

We can only use one project per challenge, right? Working in a school-like setting, I often redo activities to accommodate multiple age groups and build mastery. Would it be possible to still connect these redundant projects to a skill? I wouldn't expect them to count toward another badge, but it would make it easier for me to see everything we've done and the progress we've made.

Thanks,

Megan

[Michele W.]

My kids would like this feature as well. They like to remake challenges using different mediums or as their skill levels grow. 

[Jennifer Johnson]

They can edit a project to add additional images or videos (and delete old ones if the student is so inclined).

I imagine it would add to the moderation burden for them to have to approve challenges more than once for the same user, but obviously what an 8 yr old is doing and what a 14 yr old is doing are very different things. My daughter was telling me about one user that deleted most of his projects and started over because he no longer wanted his 'little kid' stuff on there.

[Michele W.]

Had to chuckle, my oldest deleted all his diy projects and changed his user name because he wanted a fresh start and for his projects to reflect his current ability. I tried to explain that everyone starts as a beginner and it may be helpful for others just starting out to see beginner projects and how he's advanced from those. 

My middle son did thought that no one would see his project if he simply edited one he did 12+ months ago. Usually it's new projects or ones submitted for challenges that get viewed and commented on. It will be interesting to see if he decides to keep most of his projects up or also reaches a point where he doesn't want projects from his early days so visibly attached to him. 

Wouldn't it be very cool to see projects the diy staff did when they were these ages?

[Andrew Sliwinski]

Thank you for bringing this up Megan. This is something that we are tracking as well and I'd love to share some of our current thinking as we try to iron out a solution:

Essentially what we are designing right now is a way for kids to gain experience in a skill regardless of how many times they have attempted a challenge. We want to essentially remove the "limit" of experience (3 challenges and 6 for "mastery") and replace it will a design that allows a learner to be "unbound" – to go as far with a skill or challenge as they want to. We feel like this is a better reflection of the natural learning process and should also help encourage learners to share more of the process.

The taxonomy of this would be that a learner could post an image or video of anything that they have done that is specific to a skill. That image or video might solve a challenge (and could do so an infinite number of times) or it could just be a photo of something that they are working on. The idea is that we will try to help the learner assemble a story arc of their journey with a skill rather than attempt to reduce that journey down to 3 "moments". This should help address the immediate problem that you bring up but also (hopefully) help learners understand the context of their projects as a continual learning process.

- Andrew

[Michele W.]

"Essentially what we are designing right now is a way for kids to gain experience in a skill regardless of how many times they have attempted a challenge. We want to essentially remove the "limit" of experience (3 challenges and 6 for "mastery") and replace it will a design that allows a learner to be "unbound" – to go as far with a skill or challenge as they want to. We feel like this is a better reflection of the natural learning process and should also help encourage learners to share more of the process. 

The taxonomy of this would be that a learner could post an image or video of anything that they have done that is specific to a skill. That image or video might solve a challenge (and could do so an infinite number of times) or it could just be a photo of something that they are working on. The idea is that we will try to help the learner assemble a story arc of their journey with a skill rather than attempt to reduce that journey down to 3 "moments". This should help address the immediate problem that you bring up but also (hopefully) help learners understand the context of their projects as a continual learning process."

Andrew, This is really, really great! 

Aside from the suggested challenges, any chance diy will be adding additional resources suggestions for expanding knowledge and experience in each skill area? 

I find it difficult as a parent to to know the terminology or sites to use in helping my older two locate resource and project ideas once they have mastered a skill area on diy that I am not extremely familiar with myself. It would be wonderful to have info that expands on each skill, sharing interesting sites, resources, trade talk, experts in the field, videos, projects that spin from that skill, other ways to use that skill, etc. to gain further inspiration and experience. 

- Michele

[Andrew Sliwinski]

Yes we are!!! As it happens, some of the first steps of this will be included in the new features we are adding to the adult dashboard (launching next month). We are adding more resources and a TON of metadata to each challenge which should help with some of these concerns tremendously.

- Andrew

[Michele W.]

Awesome!

Is a search feature in the works for challenges? Such feature would be especially helpful for clubs, instructors, and parents for locating how project ideas or topics would tie in with diy's framework and where those challenges are categorized. 

Eventually personalized project suggestions would be another way to expand on skills. Something that relays materials and challenges that dovetail from the ones the maker has completed or a way to stretch skills they've used in their portfolio projects.