Storyboard curriculum based on assignment progression structure

[dluman]

Outline

The original storyboard of topics and concepts lives in the world wiki. Here, we need to develop coursework that covers each of these topics:

• cumulatively
• spanning 15 weeks
• featuring a summative course project

The venture curriculum is intended to develop autonomy, comfortability with ambiguity, and a sense of journey progression. Here, the last is a significant feature of reflective writing, in which students should be able to articulate their growth over time.

Detail

Each assignment should contain planning:

• prior week recap
• instructional goals
• end-of-week deliverable
• future week call-ahead

In addition, we need to assess what systems we either have or need to make to create a continuity of experience. Each assignment should have a supporting infrastructure which includes technical needs that already exist (e.g. inventory) or new infrastructure we need to build.

From discussion

• each assignment should assign skills (1-5) for each learning objective for the course
  • "skin" each learning objective with a "skill" name
• multiple GatorGrader files (one for each skill?)
• showcasing achievement via "badges"
• keep a background "skill tree" that gives rewards?

Planning

Maybe there's a spreadsheet? Here's the wiki for planning.

[dluman]

Here're the Learning Objectives and description for CMPSC 100 for getting "skills" created:

CMPSC 100 - Computational Expression

Credits: 4

An introduction to the principles of computer science with an emphasis on creative expression through the medium of a programming language. Participating in hands-on activities that often require teamwork, students learn the computational structures needed to solve problems and produce computational artifacts which address these problems in real-world contexts. Students also learn how to organize and document a program's source code so that it effectively communicates with the intended users and maintainers. Additionally, the introduction includes an overview of the discipline of computer science and computational thinking. During a weekly laboratory session students use industry-grade technology to complete projects, reporting on their results through both written documents and oral presentations. Students are invited to use their own departmentally approved laptop in this course; a limited number of laptops are available for use during class and lab sessions.

Prerequisite: none.

Distribution Requirements: ME, SP.

Learning Objectives:

1. Apply Python programming fundamentals to execute and explain computer code that implements interactive, novel solutions to a variety of computable problems.
2. Implement code consistent with industry-standard practices using professional-grade integrated development environments (IDEs), command-line tools, and version control systems.
3. Analyze and suggest revisions to existing Python language code to add functionality or repair defects.
4. Evaluate the practical and ethical implications of writing computer code and discuss the contexts, perceived effects, and impacts exerted on and by computer code as a cultural force or artifact.
5. Design, describe, and implement original projects incorporating industry-standard practices and Python language fundamentals.

[dluman]

• A skill feature, with multiple skills, primarily those outlined in the course:
  • A masked version of the learning objectives represented as badges.
  • Add a feature where students can call upon their skills and monitor their progress.
  • Similar to how the inventory is called

The next step seems to be defining what these skills are vis-a-vis the learning objectives in the previous comment. In addition, we might make a table of "Job N ..." that defines roles by some combination of up to 2/3 skills.

• A Go back feature, limited to only a week or whatever the instructor decides is suitable.
  1. Allows students to revisit previous paths that weren't taken to acquire more skills. (This needs further evaluation to determine its viability.)
  2. A form will be constantly updated and sent to the instructor; this process also needs to be automated.
  3. It will maintain a record of all the skills of every student.
     • A full roadmap of the term-world using spreadsheets

We might benefit from drawing out what the paths might look like with three assignment-sized forks which are mutually reinforcing (i.e. the assignments make sense to move between). Does this mean that we could have three-assignment "units" that have some sort of additional narrative cohesion.

A couple further notes:

• skills should be limited to 5 (one for each learning objective) and
• these skills should be consistent through the semester (students are only ever exercising some combination of these 5)

So, we need to name them and that might help us to organize the narrative units and write the story around student learning. The next major leap here is to have a set of assignments in the spreadsheet.