# Mini Projects

## Unit 1: Learning Analytics

Students will design and implement a data-driven product based on a MOOC educational dataset. The product can take any desired form as long as is informed by the data. Some examples include but are not limited to: exploratory analysis, visualizations and dashboards, prediction of learning outcomes or clustering analysis. The final delivery will include a class presentation and a report.

The report should include the following sections:

1. Introduction to the problem you want to solve
2. Learning objective
3. Design and method that you are applying and rationale for selection of that method
4. User and context
5. Results of your prototype
6. Include your prototype or code as part of the project submission so that your work is reproducible by the course staff.

The report should be between 2 and 5 pages. The section headings above should be used to structure the report. Depending on the nature of your project, your report might include more visuals (e.g. if you are working on visualizations), more methodological (e.g. if you are building up machine learning models) or more descriptive (e.g. if you are doing exploratory analysis). As an example of a scientific report on a learning analytics dashboard, take a look at Ruipérez-Valiente (2017).

Students will include a link to the presentation slides in their design journal and should upload mini-project #1 submission report to the course website.

### Example Projects:

Analysis of Users by Geographical Location (PDF)

A Learning Analytics approach to Improving Course Design for the Global Community (PDF)

Visualizing Unknown and Missing Data in the HarvardX-MITx 2013 Dataset (PDF)

## Unit 2: Practice Spaces

Students will design a prototype of a practice space for use in an educational setting to playtest in class. Students will then revise their prototypes and write a 1-page memo describing and reflecting on their design process.

Please upload your revised prototype and memo to the course website with the following sections:

1. Introduction to the problem of practice you want to solve
2. Description of the intended user and context where the practice space would be deployed
3. Description of the design considerations that you took into account when building the practice (using the Reich et al., 2018 article as an example)
4. How the design of your practice space supports teacher learning and reflection, including a clearly-articulated learning objective (drawing on course readings to date)
5. Justifications for use of the technology you chose to address the problem

Students will include a link to the demo in their design journal and should upload mini-project #2 submission report to the course website.

### Example Projects:

Code Spaces (PDF)

The Lab: A Practice Space for Pedagogical Debugging

- The Lab Writeup (PDF)
- The Lab Additional Materials (ZIP) This file contains 2 .PDF, 7 .DOCX, and 4 .SVG files.

## Unit 3: Accessibility

Students will prototype an improvement to an existing product using the UDL guidelines. The prototype will demonstrate how the guidelines and checkpoints of the UDL guidelines informed designed decisions. During the final class presentation we will demonstrate the design highlighting the UDL features. The presentation should include some thoughts on how assessment might need to change to capture the effects of the design.

Upload a two-page memo to the course website with the following sections:

1. Introduction to the problem of practice/technology you want to improve with UDL
2. Description of the intended user and context where the improved technology would be employed
3. Description of how it reflects the UDL principles
4. How the design of your product supports student learning, including a clearly-articulated learning objective (drawing on course readings to date)
5. Justifications for use of the technology you chose to address the problem.

Students will include a link to the presentation in their design journal and should upload mini-project #3 submission report to the course website.

### Example Projects:

Makersgram Memo (PDF)

PicDefine (PDF)

Increasing the Accessibility of Math Tools to Align with Universal Design for Learning Principles (PDF)