This page links to a website designed to introduce prospective distance education students from Hillsborough Community College to the realities of learning online. At the site is built around the READI diagnostic tool, and helps connect students with remedial tools after they receive their READI test scores.

This website was created during the summer and fall of 2007. I became involved with Hillsborough Community College as a result of my internship during the Instructional Systems masters program at FSU.

All of the work on this project was done at a distance with one other student from FSU. The project director was Floyd Ballard; an instructional designer for HCC. Ours was the first "internship" between FSU and HCC and also one of the first internships conducted at a distance over the internet.

The impetus for the author's internship was the discovery by HCC, as was discovered by many other institutions, that prospective distance learners are unaware of what they are getting into when signing up for online courses. Online orientations are needed. HCC wanted to outdo other community colleges by providing a first rate tutorial/orientation for incoming distance learning students. A general budget of $4000 (two interns working 200 hours each at $10 an hour) was set for the completion of the project. The goal was to finish the project during the summer months of 2007. (I continued working on the site until September).

Graphics & Design:The entire site, including graphic design, was done by the author. Digital photographs of students were taken by F. Ballard and sent to the author for editing and inclusion into the site.

Analysis. The project was begun with both interns scanning scores of college websites for (1) published characteristics of successful distance learners, (2) website usability design ideas, and (3) features of other distance learning orientation programs.

Manditory Features:
(1) READI: Prior to hiring us, HCC had already paid to use the READI diagnostic system. It was thus a condition of the project that the site had to be built around and incorperate the READI system.
(2) Useability: It was also the desire of the lead instructional designer that the site be extremely invite and easy to use. As a result the site was designed with extremely usability in mind. (The FAQ layout is a good example of this goal).
(3) Sustainability: It was also a project goal, that at least the FAQ system (contianing information that would logically change) be easily maintained by clerical workers at the college. As a result the FAQ system can be updated by means of PowerPoint (a program familiar to clerical workers). Job aids were created to help with this.

Like other real world projects, the scope of this project changed throughout its duration. The project pace was slowed by repeated discussions and revisions regarding site graphical layout. A major scope decision was made by the lead instructional designer to have the site become a shorter tutorial rather than a full length orientation. In the end the project was completed to the original specifications but does not appear to have been used yet as HCC was in the middle of a website upgarde, and decisions were being made about overall college website layout and design. (Our design was within the approval specifications of the college webmaster.)

While the site still appears to be "unused", the HCC college website has also not changed. In the mean time, the author has been contacted by another college with a request for help creating a similar online tutorial.

As was stated earlier, the entire site was designed by a team of three. The author, built the entire website, designed all the graphics, and made any adjustments to layout that the lead designer required. (Site was built using Dreamweaver MX & Fireworks MX) The author's internship partner did not have the web skills to build the website and thus she played a role doing front end analysis, creating the Power Point based FAQ answer images, and recording the video based job aid.

Each Friday, the team would conference by phone, discuss site changes, preferences, and progress while looking at the site. Frequently the author made live changes to the site during the conference call. Other team members contributed to grammar, spell checking, site layout, color decisions, usability, and etc.