Reflective Journal Entry 2

Evaluating Interactive Multimedia

The attributes I feel that are most crucial when evaluating a module would be ease of use and navigation, the overall look of the module or the aesthetics and the overall degree of content and quality. The most important aspect of a module for me would be ease of use and navigation. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of content or minimal content. It doesn’t matter if the content is on English and Math or complex Biology and Microphysics. If users can’t get around the module they can’t learn from the material. If they can’t learn from the material they will not use the module. If they do not use the module then all that time and money creating the module was wasted. The users need to be able to get to the information they want as quickly and as effectively as they can. For me being able to navigate a module, a website or anything else is key to being a success.

DNA from the beginning Evaluation

The overall look of the module is very clean and simple. The module navigation was a little tricky to figure out in the beginning. At first I was stumped, because I thought the only navigation was at the bottom and wasn’t sure where the rest of the content was. I then noticed the links to the right and clicked on number two for the second chunk of data of genetics. I prefer my navigation to be all in one spot for easier access. Maybe have two more navigation buttons on the bottom on the page, one a left arrow and one a right arrow to scroll through the different chunks of data. I don’t feel that the user could get lost easily or trapped anywhere with all of the links to each page on the right.

The information presented is just about the right size to be able to retain it successfully. There isn’t too much data where the audience will get information overload and not too little data where they will be asking for more. I like how they go more in-depth into each data chuck by going into different media rather than just more text. They provide animation, pictures, audio, video and also an interaction portion to keep the audience engaged the whole way through. All the graphics in the module are interesting to look at and relate to the topics at hand.

The overall aesthetics of the site are lacking. The module is crowded and just seems smashed together. The right navigation bar doesn’t even look to be part of the module. The colors are pretty drape and neutral for the most part. I would have expected more with all the colorful and interesting graphics through out the module.

MecMovies Evaluation

The content of this module wouldn’t be taught anywhere in K-12. The content of this module seems to be more geared towards possible trade schools and intro college courses for engineering or general education courses. It would be something that would be hard to learn, because there are a lot of variables in the content and a lot of different aspects to each variable. The content is pretty basic in retrospect and could defiantly lead into more advanced material. The module presents many different concepts and modules from stress to torsion and bending. The module seems to present the content fairly accurately from what I can tell scanning over each piece.

The module is very simple to use with minimal navigation and everything labeled very well and organized. Everything is laid out just like it should be and makes sense. I tried to get trapped and/or lost within the material and was not successful at all. The module is straightforward and doesn’t need anything else to go along with it, such as technical support or instructions. The content is presented correctly and valid, but not in a fun and exciting way. It is straightforward, which is good to understand it, but boring and would not keep the interest of the user. The module it’s self is not very attractive with the overall aesthetics lacking in beauty and refinement.

Neuroscience for Kids Evaluation

This module doesn’t seem like a module at all to me. It seems more like a website with modules put into it or a collection of modules you could say. There is a lot of content put into this collection. Most of it seems very valid and presents it in an educational way, but the size of the material in this website is very vast. Educators could make a year’s curriculum out of all the information easily if not two or three. The content is broken down into different sections so that they are not difficult to understand for the user. Most sections have visual graphics to help the user understand the data. There is a lot of core curriculum material in the site as well as more advanced material for users that want to go further and more in-depth into any given section. This site would be a huge benefit to any educators using it to enrich their learning assignments for students.

The site is very easy to use with the main navigation buttons on the left hand side of the site all grouped together. These buttons take you to different pages where you have more links to different activities and topics. Navigating pages is very easy and if you get lost they provide a helpful “you are here” navigational tool, so you can scroll back pages very easily so that getting lost is never an issue. During the experiments that I checked out there is not a lot of instructions to eat, everything is straightforward and very easy to figure out. The site spells everything out so no technical support is needed for using the modules.

The site overall is very appealing to look at with a lot of bright colors and cool graphical content. There are charts and diagrams through out the site, but even those are brightly colors and interested to look at. All of the multimedia on the different pages keeps the user hooked to continue on learning and reading more about the different topics that the site has to offer. I wouldn’t say that the site is beautiful, but the site would be considered cute.