Developing+Podcasts+for+the+English+Department+Web+Site

Persona 1 for Podcast

I have been researching podcasts and am looking into the best way to record it. I put this together and included a few websites and a video I found on youtube. I know its not alot yet but thought I'd share what I have so far. --Jill

* * * * Hey Brynn, I forgot to tell you in class but we can't open up the getting started and changing majors personas. Also, Melinda, the gantt chart still needs to be changed to a pdf file. --Jill

As far as my thoughts regarding our project go, I believe that we are on task. Although, at this time the Gantt Chart is not working so maybe I am not fully aware. I feel as though a good deal of my portion of the project is in the midst of being accomplished, yet I still could contact professors or the students that I interviewed to further able Erin to do her job. I would ask them to explain more indepth on what they think they need out of the podcasts, or the most aspects they find to be the most important or helpful. I feel as though everyone is on task, yet confused because this is all too new to us. We are all working to the best of our abillities and we got this! I would also be interested in finding if anyone has any specific questions regarding the persona part or if they need me to find any specific information for them. I am at a loss for questions for any of my project members at this time, but I will not hesitate to ask once I do!! __Bryn

I think this project is slightly overwhelming, but I do have a tendency to look at the whole and not just the day to day. I am not sure exactly what information to gather when I am researching. For Prospective Students, I was thinking of going in the direction of explaining why our academic advisement is important and helpful. Same kind of idea for freshmen as well. Both need to know that even if their advisor doesn't initiate contact does not mean that the advisor is not willing to help. They can easily email or call their advisor and ask what courses are recommended and the order in which to take them. For the Changing Majors, I am not exactly sure how to approach that whole idea. Maybe I could start out with talking about the Head of the English Dept. and explain that if they are considering changing majors, he would be more than helpful and I could provide some more information about our English Dept. in general. Any ideas on any of these would be helpful. I am slightly overwhelmed at the thought of recording five 2-3 minute segments. Erin

I think this project is going well so far. So far, the personas have been completed and contain useful information that we will put to good use later. However, I have not yet had to complete my task as production leader and making the podcast. I have researched podcasts and come up with necessary components we will need to produce a podcast. We will need a microphone, recording software, a hosting website, and an RSS Feed. I have found a few websites that offer podcast hosting, and I’ve found a website that offers a free download of the recording software Audacity. After this, I get a little worried. I don’t know how to put these all together to form a podcast that can be put on the English department website. I am going to look later into whether there is anything on the Lynda.com site about podcasts. I also don’t know where to get a microphone. I know I still have time to learn more about podcasts before the November 9 production deadline, but I would like to have made a trial podcast by then so that I know for sure how to make one when we do the first take for the project. I have another group project that works with a lot of deadlines in another class and multiple papers in others. With all this going on I need to really be mindful of my time. That is why I am glad we have certain roles that each person knows exactly what they have to do and also a Gantt chart because that outlines the schedule for the rest of the project. A podcast is new to all of us, but I know this a good group that can work well together and will help each other out when we need it. --Jill

I agree that it is stressful with all of the other assignments in other classes. However, I do like that we have our own roles and we don't necessarily have to rely too much on others to complete our tasks. I think this group does work well together and we each can contribute something unique to the finished project. I have been looking over our English Dept. Website and I have realized how outdated it seems to be. I can't seem to find hardly any information on advisement in the English Dept. I am going to make an appointment with Dr. McCully and see if he can help me gather some information. Please Post any information or questions that you yourself have had to get answered. If you needed help finding the information, others will too. If we can make it more accessible for everyone, perhaps the lives of others won't be so stressful. Erin

I am going to set up an appointment with Dr. McCully later this week. Please post ANY questions that you think would be helpful information to know as a prospective or freshmen students, transfer or changing major students and those students that are finishing up. I hope to have an appointment with him before next Tuesday. Thank you! Erin

Thanks Jill for your input. Melinda we still can't open the Gantt chart. Bryn, two of the personas won't open still. By Thursday I will try to have the research completely collected and hopefully by next week I will have a rough draft of the content for the podcasts. -Erin
 * A great question from a freshman might be: How do I know who my advisor is? I came in undecided and wasn't really appointed one so I chose one for myself. But it took me awhile to even figure that out. --Jill

More questions I thought up... - Jill Who do you go to if you want to switch to the english major? If we discuss internships, when is the appropriate time to start looking and applying? Internships are not mandatory but what benefit would they have? What types are available to English majors? How many credits are needed in the english department? Information about declaring a major in English later ? Also for getting started, maybe provide information about the different tracks, english, secondary ed, and creative writing.
 * "A total of 39 semester hours is required for a major in English. No course may be used to satisfy more than one requirement. With the addition of general education requirements and elective courses of at least 32 semester hours, the 120-hour requirement for a baccalaureate degree is satisfied."
 * "A currently enrolled Bloomsburg University student wishing to declare English as a major must have a minimum of 15 credits completed and must have completed an English course other than 20.101, 20.201 or 20.205 with a grade of B- or better."

//** Progress Report **// A progress report for the project is due Tuesday Nov 16. It needs to be put in the dropbox under Group 1 by the Project Manager as well as here on the Wiki. The subtitles we need are: I think it'll be easier if we all help. We can post a word document then we can each go in and add stuff and edit. --Jill
 * Introduction
 * Work Completed
 * Work Left (Not Completed)
 * Problems/Solutions
 * Reccomendations
 * Conclusion

I think that is a great idea Jill. Even if we could all meet up sometime maybe on Sunday it would be helpful to accomplish this task. I went to meet with Dr. McCully yesterday to set up an interview and he only had Tuesday at 11 available. I have a list of questions to ask him and hopefully by Thursday I will have most of the content written. I am available all day on Sunday so if anyone wants to meet just let me know! ~Erin

I've run into a few problems with the podcast sample due in class tomorrow (Tues Nov9). Things are working right with it on my computer. I either have it recorded but it wont save as the right file or i can save it but the audio is not there. I will be going to Instructional Media Services tomorrow morning to hopefully get these kinks worked out. I just tried it and it wont open.

Dear Group Members,

I think you have a number of positive things and comments here. There are some things that EACH person needs to do. Bryn, you need to delete and resubmit your personas because I cannot get them to open. You need to follow up and answer the questions if you will. Likewise, Melinda, I do not see an operational gantt chart at this point, so if you could make sure that is there, it would be appreciated. Erin, I appreciate all the work here and your commitment to following through on these issues. The next thing is to get a script posted that might be posted for consideration. I am hoping that the meeting with Dr. McCully was helpful. Jill, I know you are working hard on the issues and you have raised some important technological concerns. I think your plan to work with instructional media is a good one. It is my hope that all of you are in class and have a chance to get on the same page today. So, if documents need to be posted or reposted. All things that are needed should be up by class on Thursday, please?

Thanks,

Michael Hello!! I just reposted everything again so they all look nice..and work! Bryn USER EXPERIENCE::PERSONAS:: To complete this assignment, I first tried to think of the key people who would be looking at the English Department website and what I would have liked to know being in their position. I came up with Potential students (students who would be looking into attending Bloomsburg), Sophomore, Juniors, Seniors, and Transfer students (who may be having trouble figuring out the new school). With this, the 'years' were grouped together because it was obvious that a lot of the information would overlap. From there, I started my research by picking out people I knew that fell under each of these categories and interviewed them all via the computer or phone. They told me their main interests (as was shown on the example), why they would use the website, and what they found to be important under their category. I took this information and proceeded to lay it out in a pretty format, therefore people would actually want to read the information. But the bulk of the information I came up with was from others that were in the position to answer and the things I personally felt would be important to know. In regards to any surprises coming during the process, there really was not many. I had trouble beginning to use the new software because, to be honest, I just am not good with computers. Using the Lynda software, I was able to figure out how to layout and format the personas so they were easy on the eye. I am unsure if I need to get into specifics of //how// I constructed the visual part of the persona, so please let me know if I do need to reveal that information.



Initial Podcast Sample: media type="file" key="Initial Podcast.mp3" width="288" height="24" align="left"

I'm still playing around with it but here it is again with music at the end... media type="file" key="InitialPodcastmusic.mp3" width="312" height="26"

Content so far...

Jill’s Progress == In the beginning I researched podcasts to find out what they are, why people use them, and how to make them. I then tried to make a sample podcast using my personal laptop and its sound recorder program. However, I had problems recording audio with my computer’s microphone. Also once it was recorded, the program saved it as a WMA file that could not be posted correctly on the wiki. After that problem, I spoke with someone from Instructional Media Services, which helps students and faculty with media related projects and provide them with the equipment too. They gave me a digital voice recorder that has a USB port. I recorded audio, uploaded it onto my computer and into my iTunes, where I then converted it to an mp3 file. Then, I saved it again and brought it up on the Adobe Soundbooth program on the campus computers. In this program I can edit out long pauses, take out odd sounds, and add in musical intros. Now, I just have to wait for content to be done and edited before I can resume recording audio. Also, since I have the digital voice recorder borrowed from the IMS office, I will need to return it soon. Therefore I will need to know exactly when we are recording so I can get it out on loan again. I told the office that this was an ongoing project and I would be returning it today (Thurs.) and taking it out again next week sometime and possibly repeating this process. They were okay with it. ==

[[file:Content.docx]]
== At the beginning of the project I didn't really have a good idea of how to go about gathering the information needed to create these podcasts. Once I met with Dr. McCully, I had a much better understanding and it went smoothly. Writing the content did not take long. I do believe the Finishing Up section needs more information and hopefully we can work some more into that. I have added to the content above and will continue to modify it. After class tomorrow I hope to have some ideas to strengthen the content and have a clear view of how the group feels about what I have written. Please do not be afraid to criticize my writing. I can only improve what we have to make it more helpful with your help! ==

[[file:progress report.docx]]
In the beginning with the personas, I really just started out by thinking about the things I would personally want to know in each stage of the game. I tried to figure out what I wished to have known as a freshmen, what I would have wanted to know beginning a major, and tried to imagine those important answers to give to others. As the project progressed and our group began to look more indepth with the subject I found two key differences from what I initially thought. The difference with first draft of the personas was that we narrowed in to the key factors and then specified them. For example, the first draft of the personas barely skimmed mentioning the importance of advisory, yet that turned out being the basis of our whole project. In Erin's content, she became very specific with how and why advisory is so important and continued to stress this point throughout. I found that the first drafts of the personas set a very broad layout for how the project will be concluding. I feel as though we used little to no information from the first drafts, yet they seemed to generate a general idea of what would work and what would not end up working. If anything, I feel as though they created the foundation of ideas, or the 'vibe', for the project, not necessarily set the foundation to strictly work off of.

As far as my own personal progress goes, I began with making the persona drafts and am now looking into editting Erin's work. Since I am unable to go back and set changes to the personas, there is little to be done but move forward and continue with the editting. As we edge closer to finalizing our podcasts and actually creating them, the content is what is key and I do hope that the initial drafts helped somewhat. If anything, the personas have generated ideas and set the mode for getting us acquainted with the project. Now, all we must do is focus on what is left to be done and figure out what the **real** personas need to have and express those key importnaces to the audience. --Bryn

 these are some of my content edits... for some reason everything I wrote on the wiki keeps getting erased.

Beta Project Prospective Students and Fresmen media type="file" key="ProspectiveandFreshmen.mp3" width="288" height="24" Transfer Students and Changing majors media type="file" key="Transfer and Changing majors.mp3" width="288" height="24" Finishing Up media type="file" key="Finshing Up.mp3" width="288" height="24"

Erin and I have edited and rerecorded the transfer students and finishing up podcasts. I will put them up as soon as I can convert them to an mp3 file. Please listen to the Prospective students podcast now and the other two when I put them up and tell us what you think. Information regarding internships has been added to 'Finishing up' and more information regarding how to go about changing ur major has been added to the transfer/changing majors podcast. Also we need to discuss the usability testing. -Jill

Revised and Edited: <span style="color: #21189a; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: small;">Prospective and freshmen <span style="color: #21189a; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: small;">media type="file" key="ProspectiveandFreshmen.mp3" width="288" height="24" Finishing Up media type="file" key="FinishingUpPodcast.mp3" width="288" height="24" Finishing Up with music.... tell me what you think about this please media type="file" key="FinishingupMusic.mp3" width="288" height="24" Transfer Students/Changing Majors media type="file" key="Transferchangingmajors.mp3" width="292" height="30" Erin: for this transfer/changing majors ^ I able to take what we recorded today, take out the last sentence and put the last sentence from Tuesday's recording into it. I think it sounds pretty good.



I updated the Transfer Students and Changing majors content. I haven't recorded it yet but I would like some feedback from you guys! Thanks! :)

Updated the finishing up too....



Updated Prospective....

Usability Reports!!!

Power point slides. i jsut put titles on a few blanks but feel free to change them



Don't worry now if you cant hear the podcast its just because the files arent in the same locations but that will be fixed for

the presentation

I will have the podcasts done tomorrow the putting together of two files takes a while and then it also takes a while to ass

the music. and i dont want to mess it up because it can erase files if not done carefully.

FINAL

FRESH/PROSPECTIVE

media type="file" key="FreshProspectPodcast.mp3" width="264" height="22"

Changing Majors/Transfer Students

media type="file" key="TransferChangeMajorsPodcast.mp3" width="264" height="22"

FINISHING UP

media type="file" key="FinishingUpPodcast.mp3" width="240" height="20"

final powerpoint



<span style="color: #943634; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Jill, the powerpoint turned out great! I like how the purple ended up turning out! Also, I just took a listen to the updated podcasts and they turned out really well. The music was a good choice, and I think the ‘tap’ worked a lot better. Yay, I’m so happy with the way this all turned out! See you girls tomorrow (or today) and hopefully I can find an outfit. Text me for last minute updates. I'm currently editing the Memo for subjects 1 and 2. <span style="color: #943634; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">_Bryn

<span style="color: #943634; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">

<span style="color: #943634; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">These are the scanned documents. All the testing and signed waivers. :)

<span style="color: #943634; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Group, I just wanted to say thank you! You all did such an amazing job and I am proud of the finished product! I can't wait to hear it on the website! YAY! We are ALL done! :) <3 Erin