1. Assembling a Multimedia e-Learning Development Team
How is multimedia development is different from other software development projects?
Graphics and other media require special skills
Much more emphasis on designing for the user
Artistic and software design
E-learning also requires instructional design
How is multimedia development similar to other software development projects?
Software life cycle still applies: analysis->design-> ->implementation->testing->delivery->maintenance (&cycle)
Management skills: coordinating people with different talents and agendas
Multimedia development is rarely a one-person show
Real world development requires a team pooling many talents
The whole is greater than sum of its parts

2. One minute paper
How is interactive multimedia development different from yet similar to other software development?

3. Project manager or producer
Someone with people & resource management skills
Vaughan: “Budgets, schedules, creative sessions, time sheets, illness, invoices, team dynamics— the project manager is the glue that holds the team together.”
Responsible for overseeing project timeline & priorities
Communication, delegation and documentation
Why is important to have a project timeline and set priorities?
Lopuck: “The job can be a three-ring circus because nothing ever goes as planned.”
Why is it important to schedule meetings?
Why is it important to keep minutes of meetings?
Why is it important to have a project librarian?
Where would you keep documents for your project?
Who has this talent or wants to develop it?

4. Graphic designer, Art director
Someone who knows how to organize and communicate visual information
Juxt Interactive: “responsible for creative design and experience as a whole… impressed on the audience.”
Designs user interface and how material gets presented to audience
Connie Coleman, Philadelphia School of Art
Who has this talent or wants to develop it?

5. Script or content writer
Someone who communicate clearly through written text
Vaughan: “content writers...glean information from context experts, synthesize it, and then communicate it in a clear and concise manner.”
Jennifer Birch
Who has talent for writing?

6. Sound designer
Somene with a good ear for voice-overs and sound effects
Is narration with text a good idea?
Library of sound effects as cues
Music

7. Videographer (video producer)
Someone with a good eye for video and making every megabyte count!
Carries over skills from movie or TV production
Video is costly, in terms of production and space/bandwidth requirements

8. Subject matter expert
Someone skilled and knowledgeable in a given topic area
Helps identify background resources for building the content outline
Reviews content design for factual integrity, completeness and educational effectiveness
Usually not a designer or developer
Why is role especially important role for your projects?

9. Instructional designer
Someone who can assess educational needs and design and evaluate lessons
Conducts needs assessment
Matches design to instructional needs
Leads effort to evaluate the program for educational effectiveness

10. Multimedia programmers
Someone who can implement programs that integrate media elements
Given a clear design and previously created media elements (graphics, sounds, video, etc.) a programmer creates running software for the title
Vaughan: “A multimedia programmer [is a] software engineer [who] integrates all of the multimedia elements into a seamless whole using an authoring language or programming language.”
How is this different from most programming?

11. Quality assurance engineer
Tests to make sure a title works according to spec and work for users
In real world, an external, third party
May involve actual user observations and/or focus group sessions

12. What roles could you play?
Write a one (or two) minute paper justifying the roles you could play or would be motivated to learn how to play on a multimedia e-learning project.