Final Project - Phase 1 - Design Document
Topic: Learning Letters, Phonetics, and Basic Reading
Needs Analysis:
The expectations of students entering kindergarten have been raised in recent years and teachers now want them to already know the alphabet, the sound for each letter, and how to recognize words that start with that letter. It comes as a surprise to many parents that this is not taught in kindergarten as part of
the standard curriculum when preschool, where a student might otherwise learn
these concepts, remains optional and at the cost of the parents.
There are many students who are being labeled as ”behind” who are other -
wise very bright and would very quickly learn the required material with a little
extra teaching and attention.
Problem Statement
This project is being developed with the purpose of helping young learners
acquire kindergarten level skills in the alphabet, phonetics, and basic reading.
Target Population
The immediate target population for this project will be children, ages 4-5
who are, or soon will be, in kindergarten. A secondary population will be the
parents or teachers of these children.
Usability Considerations
The layout and site design should take into consideration the needs of be- ginning learners. The layout should be appealing to the eye with visual cues and, if possible, audio cues such as rollover navigation hints to help users navigate around the site. This may require some elements to be made in flash in order to make the sound play reliably.
Navigational elements such as buttons should be large and easy to identify. Since the users may not be able to read, the shape should help to understand the destination. Standard fonts will be used that allow for maximum compatibility and read- ability across all browsers.
Hardware requirements
This may be obvious, but there will be several hardware requirement for the user to access this site: • Mouse • Monitor • Keybord • Internet Connection. A broadband connection is reccomended for the best experience, but 56K dialup may be used if absolutely necessary.
Software requirements
Users of the site will need to have the following items installed and up-to- date on their computers: • Modern web browser (Firefox recommended) • Flash Plugin installed
Instructional Procedures
Students are asked to type in their name (which is stored for later use in the activities and reports), then are taken to a page where they are presented with two buttons. The first is to Learn about individual letters or practice them. Clicking on this button will take the students to a repository of links to resources that will help them learn about each letter. These activities may be on other websites or they may be embedded into the page, depending on the availability of the actual resource. The second button will take the student to an assessment area where they will be able to take simple “quizzes” or “exams” that will help track their progress.
User Interface/Navigation
In this section will be found rough sketches of what the user interface and navigation will look like. It should be noted that a consistent menu will be at the top and bottom of each page with a header and a few basic links. There will also be a “quicklinks” footer on each page. The green color scheme may still change. Graphical Sketches, flowchart
Figure 1 on page 3 shows the main page with the prompt for the user to enter his name. Figure 2 on page 3 shows the page where the student selects whether to learn or to the assessment game. Figure 3 on page 4 shows the list of letters to choose from. The idea is that the student will select the letter he needs to learn more about. Figure 4 on page 4 shows what a letter resources page might look like with links and possibly activities for that letter. It has yet to be determined whether a page like this can be created for each letter.
Usability Testing
Describe testing procedures and results
Main Page
Figure 2. Select the activity
Figure 3. The list of letters to choose from. The idea is that the student will select the letter he needs to learn more about.
Figure 4. This shows the list of resources that would be made available to students for a given letter. It remains to be seen whether an individual page for each letter can be put together.
Figure 5. The “Assessment Game”. A preview of what the assessment tool might look like. The student select the correct sound, letter, and image that goes with that letter.