TIF DI4 Grant Report
Liberal Arts Activities
Liberal Arts received Web and video servers, a file server, and video
production equipment for use in the production and delivery of online
Texas Politics and Spanish–language instructional material.
Texas Politics
Texas Politics is an online, interactive textbook on Texas Government
and Politics (see
http://texaspolitics.lamc.utexas.edu). The final product will be a
150,000 -to 200,000 –word online textbook heavily augmented with
video, audio, animations, graphics, photos, and other feature material.
Divided into ten chapters, the textbook will offer students and the public
at large an intuitive and engaging resource on the workings of Texas government
and politics. The project will also provide a process template for the
production of additional textbooks.
Work began in September 2001 and has employed an average of 2.0 FTEs
since then. Production is divided into five parts: text, video, features,
site design, and automation and delivery.
Text
Text writing is by collaboration between a contract writer and an in-house
content specialist, both political science PhDs. The text is approximately
60% complete. The contract writer has received $16,400 for completed chapter
drafts and the in-house content specialist has spent 920 hours writing,
rewriting, editing, and managing the writing process.
Video
Video production includes shooting original video, digitizing and preparing
video for post-production, logging and organizing footage, creating video
scripts, and producing video pieces, as well as compressing and staging
videos for delivery.
Nearly 40 hours of video of political events and interviews with political
personalities has been collected, including interviews with two former
governors and two former lieutenant governors. The in-house content specialist
has spent 760 hours preparing interviews, logging videos, and writing
scripts. Video and audio specialists have spent 1560 hours on other aspects
of video production.
Features
Features include tables, figures, images, charts, audio clips and other
digital content types. A second in-house content specialist has recently
been hired to assist with feature development. To date, content specialists
have spent 360 hours on features development, and Web developers and artists
have spent 280 hours on feature design and prototyping.
Site Design
Web developers and artists have spent 480 hours on site design and prototyping
to date.
Automation and Delivery
In September 2002, systems analysts began the process of designing and
building a system for managing the delivery of content. To date, this
has required 760 hours of labor.
Project Management
Management staff have spent 640 hours on project planning and overall
management.
A working prototype of the first chapter, The Executive Branch, (http://texaspolitics.lamc.utexas.edu/html/exec/)
is completed and has been tested in class.
Responding to a survey following use of the Executive Branch prototype
in Fall 2002 216 out of 269 students (80%) reported that they preferred
the online chapter to a traditional textbook. Integrated videos provide
the biggest advantage over traditional materials, 46.5% volunteered. On
the negative side, 11.9% reported eye strain from reading online and 19%
reported having at least a minor technical problem with accessing the
material.
Spanish Proficiency Exercises
The Spanish Proficiency Exercises consist of video clips of native speakers
performing a verbal task such as describing a member of their family.
There will be nearly a hundred such tasks, categorized as beginning, intermediate,
advanced, or superior. For each task, there will be six or seven video
clips. The first is a simplified example – scripted and spoken slowly
in clear, simple Spanish. The others will be natural responses from native
speakers from different Spanish-speaking societies. Related vocabulary,
example phrases, and grammar points will accompany each task.
A demonstration prototype is online at http://www.lamc.utexas.edu/spe/beg07.html.
Four tasks are online in this demo:
http://www.lamc.utexas.edu/spe/beg07.html
[Beginning menu] => redirected here by default
http://www.lamc.utexas.edu/spe/int07.html
[Intermediate-A menu]
http://www.lamc.utexas.edu/spe/adv04.html
[Advanced-A menu]
http://www.lamc.utexas.edu/spe/sup04.html
[Superior menu]
The project began during the spring of 2002. An average of .5 FTE have
been employed on video and text production for twelve months. Approximately
30% of the video and 20% of the textual materials have been completed
for the project.
Completion
Completion target is September 2004 for both Texas Politics
and Spanish.
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