Date: 02/08/2021

Task Assigned: Create a mindmap from a topic of your choice

Deliverable: Mindmap on Embodied cognition from paper reading

Recommended practice by co-guide:
Using drawing book to create concept maps while reading - this is embodied process of using non-digital medium for expression of understanding - useful for creating concept maps from the rough book to digital mode with precision and better direction

Slowly moving on to using iPad for notes taking - helpful in writing paper reviews, writing abstracts for papers
Tools used: Vue

CMAP cloud based tool

Link to resource

Common features: Both concept mapping and mind mapping are possible, easy UI, Availability of nodes and links structure, color coding, shape changing
Differences: Cmapcloud provides flexible extensible canvas which goes on expanding as our cmap extends. Vue does not offer the same on all directions.

Issue faced: Color-coding in Vue binds the nodes and then one cannot separate those.

Takeaway:

Concept maps have more importance to hierarchy, with top most concept being the one at highest level of abstraction. Mindmaps begin from the centre and may go on expanding as per the though process in any direction

Milestone Reached:

Created embodied cognition mindmap as seen above.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Building own website

Crucial for second year PhD, as it becomes one's identity being shared among peers

Date: 09/08/2021

Task Assigned: Create a personal website with tools journal as one of the tabs

• Previously used tools-
  Wordpress + Elementor (EdTech Hackathon 2020 initial website)
  Google Sites (TELeaD website)
  Drupal (Low experience, ET website revamp help)
  Javascript (J P Morgan Chase, India project)
  HTML, CSS (College Projects and Events)

Since I had experience of website development, I chose google sites as it is simplistic one and the mentor for this day, Nagesh Pokle explained the process nicely.

Issues faced:
#1 Integrating multiple components of google sites (tools to the right side) within each other is challenging and has constraints or limitations on placements.

#2 Content was not previously prepared for the personal website which caused delay

Solutions:
To overcome challenges of #1 issue, there need to be some modifications in planning the design of the website and content placements.

For issue #2 considerable time was spent not only on the content but also on the design elements such as the banner representing pages and thesis project idea in a comprehensive yet cluttered manner.

Takeaways:

1. The plan-design-evaluate process is an iterative and time consuming one because what we plan in head may not be feasible on the real platform.

2. The content creation needs to be done first, then only the website will appear coherent and gives better idea of navigating through the personal website similar to narration of a story.

Milestone Reached - Deliverable: Journal Entries

_______________________________________________________________________________

Brainstorming Tools

Date: 18/08/2021

Task Assigned: Conducting mentoring session for brainstorming and ideation.

Selection of problem statement and final idea

Deliverables: Ideation table (4-3-5 activity)

Decision matrix

Mentoring experience:

Collaborative impromptu teaching experience as for this session, mentors were Spruha (myself) and Rajashri.
We prepared slides asynchronously and it only took about 5 to 10 minutes meeting to decide who will speak for which slide.

Revised concepts learnt during HCI, my favourite subject in 1st semester of ET.

Click here to view our Brainstorming Techniques Presentation

Tools used:

Different tools follow different definitions of brainstorming, but for us the useful ones are those which create spaces to collaboratively and incrementally construct variety of ideas to solve a particular problem. Some of the examples discussed were:
IdeaBoards (new to me)
MIRO Boards (Used in HCI classes)
Concept Boards (Used during Hackathon)

We suggested use of Google Sheets for the same and implemented in the group activities following the presentation.]

Why?
In MIRO boards free version we had faced time consumption in signing in and learning how to use MIRO board tools. Since we only had about 1.5 hr to cover ideation and decision matrix, we needed to choose a familiar tool. Also, it is a novel use for simplistic solution such as Google sheet.

Brainstorming techniques such as 4-3-5 (since here we have 4 members, 3 ideas and 5 minutes to expand each idea) and decision matrix for divergent-convergent thinking to begin developing prototype of the final idea.

Difficulties leading to takeaways noted:

1. Not having all the members on the same page could lead to greater time consumption in ideation activity

2. It is difficult to come up with multiple extremely different ideas - but the HMW questions after breaking down our problem were useful to try to overcome this challenge

3. Preconceived idea about best solution could influence the decision matrix - humans tend to lean towards their suggested solution the most

4. We went overtime in this activity and one of the members did not fill all the boxes so we had to help him fill them properly.

Please find detailed process notes on Team 2 group journal - Brainstorming.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Prototyping tools - 3D Modelling and Digital Fabrication

Date: 25/08/2021

Task Assigned: Learning TinkerCAD through videos

Deliverable: 3D model in TnkerCAD

Steps:
The team first planned out design ideas with MSTeams whiteboard paintings. Feasibility of the ideas was discussed in meeting

• 10 to 15 minutes of hands on activity by all members on collaborative design in TinkerCAD lead to familiarisation of the tool.

• As specification of the flask design started taking shape to add features from the ideation phase, we came to know about design constraints for the ideas earlier stated and modified the design accordingly

• We went through several design iterations which have been logged below

Limitations:

• IoT can be integrated once the device design is done, it can be kept as a part of Version 2 with enhanced features but for current step it seems difficult to incorporate all the features.

• The ideas about glass slits, notches and tap positioning lead to problem points which were noticed during actual physical product building

Solutions or workarounds on the constraints:

Our team decided to go ahead without IoT part, which will be the base design to integrate IoT in future. We eliminated the needs for glass based liquid level indicator as it will not ensure thermal insulation.

Takeaways:

• Sketching is a good way to communicate ideas before moving on towards modelling

• Instead of straightaway compromises, negotiation to meet maximum requirements is helpful and makes the process more fruitful.

Issues while learning tool:

Collaboratively performing 3D modelling together can be troublesome if task division is not there, there is scope for people creating redundant designs all over the canvas and overlapping items.

When one enters TinkerCAD, by default a demo shape gets added, thus at the beginning this demo shape kept appearing randomly during someone's design process as the team members joined-left and rejoined.

Final products:

TinkerCAD model

Design journal Entry - modelling

Design presentation

_______________________________________________________________________________

Educational Video-making Tools - OBS

Date: 08/09/2021

Attended session by Ashutosh Raina - how to optimally use OBS for creating educational videos.

MoM:

Ashutosh presented how-to videos from OTeach platform. These are available at: Using OBS studios for recording LeD’s

In parallel to the presentation, we performed the tasks on OBS platform.

New learning: Integrating of audacity, the audio adjustments and background noise cancellation solutions were novel.

Overlapping with chroma backdrop insights were helpful for future video making requirements.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Golabz

Date: 13/10/2021

Assignment for creation of Golabz integrated learning system and Golabz spaces assigned along with guideline videos.
Watched all the videos along with hands on experimentation to understand the Golabz environment.

Deliverable:
A Golabz ILS on evolution of Cycles:
Visit the Golabz space to learn about Evolution of Cycles

New learning: Designing of ILS, stages such as content creation, constructive alignment, problem based learning implemented on Golabz environment.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Scratch

Date: 6/10/2021

Attended session by Priya Lotlikar - how to use scratch for developing learning systems

MoM:

Priya presented an active session on Scratch introduction.
The teams then connected to decide a problem statement from educational domain to develop solution with scratch.

Date : 20/10/2021

Our team could not synchronously meet but we managed to continue the task on our team 2 sheet asynchronously. All the team members coordinated to design the learning system and chose 1 stage of system module development to finish it up on time.

Date: 31/10/2021

Submission of prototype with video captured using macbook screen recording alternative. The script for the video was written by Spruha and Indra.

New learning: Integrating of audio with scratch, how to change the bitmap images, how to add an animation effect using scratch, how to construct a wholistic learning system in short span.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Data Viz

Date: 27/10/2021

Varun (David) John presented the interactive slides from his presentation on data visualizations' and dashboards' needs. We discussed rich contexts and ways in which specific type of visualizations are useful. I could not participate much in this meeting due to personal occupied time for paper submission deadline.
Assignment for exploring the flourish studio tool and deciding our data for visualization.

Deliverable:
31/10/2021: Our team's Abhinav picked up the initial data set. We decided to go with https://www.kaggle.com/aljarah/xAPI-Edu-Data dataset after one round of reflection along with entire team, as the previously chosen dataset did not have educational story coming out of it.
16/11/2021: A data story reflecting change in grade of students with increase in activity on course resources has been created. We did not go for a lot of dynamic visualizations as it was not identified after trials. The final visualization story can be seen here: Team 2 Data story

Limitation identified:

The data has to be selected after evaluating carefully where dynamic story could emerge, otherwise it does not make much sense to use dynamic tools.

New learning:

Emerging dynamic ways of visualisation trends helps make the change of factors we try to highlight very clearly visible, specially on a temporal scale.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Virtual Interaction Hosting with GatherTown

Date: 3/11/2021

Assignment for exploring the GatherTown virtual hosting environment independently or as a team and posting the findings on discussion forum.

Deliverable:
Post on discussion forum at the bottom

New learning:

How to host an expo of own projects.. how to host virtual meeting spaces for interactive virtual conferences ahead.