ICS 463: Intro to Human-Computer Interaction Design, Spring 2006

Assignment 0 (Due 1/17)

Purpose

To get you set up in and familiar with the disCourse online environment.

What you do

General disCourse Familiarity

  1. If you don't have one yet, request a disCourse account at http://discourse.ics.hawaii.edu/home/register.php.
  2. Once you have your account, log into disCourse at http://discourse.ics.hawaii.edu/ using the account information that was emailed to you.
  3. Notice that a list, My Workspaces, appeared on the right hand side. ICS 463 should be listed there. If it is not, email the instructor asking to be added to the workspace.
  4. If you wish, read some of the stories that are posted on the home page.
  5. Go into my disCourse (tab at top of page), click on Edit Profile (button at bottom right), and provide some information about yourself such as your home page, your bio, and a digital photo (upload any size; it will be scaled). This information will only be available to disCourse members. It helps us a lot to be able to connect names online to faces in the class!
  6. Select the members tab at the top of the page to see where you can learn about other ICS disCourse members.
  7. Select the resources tab and try searching our online resources. If you know of something that may be useful for this class, you may add it here.
  8. Select the workspaces tab to see what kinds of groups are using disCourse. Perhaps you might want to join one?

Class Workspace and Discussions

Now let's look at our class workspace (assuming you have access as in step 3 above).

  1. Go to the class workspace either by returning home via the tab at the top and selecting ICS 463 from My Workspaces (this is usually the most convenient method) , or by selecting the workspaces tab at the top and finding ICS 463 in the list.
  2. The page that displays in the middle of the workspace is where you will check for the most up to date news. (The public web site may not have all news.) You can find out what has been edited recently by looking at the activity log linked on the left.
  3. Explore the various lists of items available on either side of the workspace. Starting on the right:
    • Participants is where you can quickly access the profiles of others in the class, and email the class (we also have an external email list).
    • Resources is where we can link to entries in the resource database that you explored earlier. New resources that are private to this course can also be added here. I recommend that resources be made public whenever possible so students outside this course can also benefit from them.
    • Files is where we can share files by uploading them to the workspace (they aren't made available outside the workspace).
    • Pages are wiki pages -- user editable web pages. For now, most are editable only by the instructor. These pages will have the schedule, news archives, and other course related text.
    • Sections are links to sub-workspaces. One will be created for each project once we have started our projects.
    • Discussions is where much of the action will take place. At this writing, discussions come up in a separate window, although a new version of disCourse will bring them up in the workspace. See next item.
  4. Enter the discussion "General Discussion for ICS 463 Spring 2006."
    • Read any messages that may already be there.
    • Reply to the "Introductions" message with a brief introduction saying why you are taking the course. Your message will have a link to your profile, but you may want to give your message a different URL or file as part of your introduction and to try out that facility.
    • Click on the "Subscribe" button to make sure that you are listed as a subscriber. A "subscription" means you get email notification when a new message is posted. This is important so you don't have to check the web discussions every day. I will subscribe everyone on my initial roster for once a day notification, but you may need add your subscription if you signed up for the course in January. Also you can change the frequency of your notification.
    • Try the icons on the top right side of the page: they change the layout of the page.

In the future, always check your subscription when we make new discussion forums.

What to Turn In

Nothing need be formally turned in for this assignment. We will be able to tell whether you have edited your profile and posted an introductory message.

For most assignments, you will turn in your work by posting a message in a discussion set up for that assignment. Your work will be attached to the message as a file or URL.

Pau.