1. Improving Learning Object Development with Scenarios
Rachel S. Smith Kathleen Willbanks
Senior Interface Designer Marketing & Operations Manager

2. Agenda Introductions (who we are) & Survey (who are you?)
What is a scenario?
Why scenarios are used
How scenarios are used
Writing scenarios
Elements of a scenario
Personas
Examples
Deriving requirements from scenarios
Kinds of requirements
Getting requirements out of scenarios
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3. What is a scenario?
Description of an activity that takes place while someone is using a product or service
User-focused and product-focused
From one sentence to several paragraphs in length
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4. Why Scenarios Are Used
To help developers visualize how their product or service will be used by real people
As a reference at various points during development to make sure we’re on the right track
As a quick way to test a working product to see if it meets our initial requirements
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5. How Scenarios Are Used To gather user requirements for a project
To do user testing even before anything has been mocked up or built
To check storyboards and mockups to see if they are on the right track prior to implementation
To check the work-in-progress during implementation to make sure it does what we wanted it to do
To check the completed work before we release it to make sure it does what we wanted it to do
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6. Writing Scenarios Keep your project (product or service) in mind
Don’t focus on technical solutions
Think about what the experience will be like for users when your product is done
Think about best-case, worst-case, and normal-case applications
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7. Elements of a Scenario Prerequisites One or more personas
What has happened prior to this scenario?
One or more personas
Who is involved?
Description of activities
What is happening?
Results
What is the ending state of the scenario?
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8. Elements of a Scenario: Prerequisites
What has happened prior to this scenario? For example:
A student has enrolled in a course and been given the course URL.
An instructor has had accounts set up for all her students so they can access a module sold on a subscription basis.
Sometimes prerequisites refer to previous scenarios.
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9. Elements of a Scenario: Persona(s)
A short description of a specific imaginary person
Identify primary user types for your product or service, and create a couple of personas for each user type (i.e. students)
Personas can be reused; keep a library
Useful to help focus our scenarios by forcing us to think about actual people
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10. Persona Ingredients
Biographical information about the imaginary person (name, age, occupation)
Brief sketch of typical day or activities
Personality traits that affect how the person does work related to your product
Information about his/her level of experience with the technology you are using
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11. Sample Student Persona
Kerry is a third-year student at California State University Long Beach. She has been studying French for several years, including high school classes as well as university courses. She is interested in 19th-century French literature and plans to double-major in French and English Lit. She lives on campus, has a computer of her own, and is familiar with using the web and .
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12. Sample Instructor Persona
Dr. Zauzig teaches advanced French language courses at CSU Long Beach. She is not very interested in technology, but she understands that her students are, and she is able to get some help from the IT department when she needs it. One of her graduate students knows how to make web pages and often helps her. Dr. Zauzig has been collaborating with Dr. Wilson, another professor at a different campus, to create an online unit that they both can use in their courses.
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13. Exercise: Writing Personas
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14. Elements of a Scenario: Activities
What is happening during this scenario? Examples:
A student is trying to complete a certain assignment using the unit.
An instructor is trying to assess student progress.
Activities will vary depending on the nature of the product.
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15. Elements of a Scenario: Results
What is the ending state of the scenario? Examples:
The student has completed her assignment and is ready to send it to the instructor.
The instructor has finished assessing student progress and is ready to write feedback for the student.
The ending state of one scenario often sets up the next scenario.
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16. Writing Scenarios: Example
Example Project: online module for teaching French literature (exact content is not specified for this exercise).
Developers: two faculty (content experts) and two graduate students (technical developers).
Primary user types: students, instructors
Secondary user type: administrators
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17. Scenario 1: Learning a French Poem
Persona: Kerry
Pre-requisites: Kerry has enrolled in the class and has a login/password for the online course materials.
(See handout p. 3 for text of this and other sample scenarios.)
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18. Exercise: Writing Scenarios
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19. Deriving Requirements from Scenarios
Using scenarios to develop a requirements document
Assumptions: basic facts or limitations we know we have to work with
Requirements: basic functions that the module must carry out so users can perform their task(s)
Issues: unresolved questions that arise as we work
This is one of several ways to use scenarios during learning object development
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20. Kinds of Requirements
User requirements: functions that someone using the system will see or do.
Example: user needs to save his work; there must be a control that allows him to do this.
System requirements or technical requirements: behind-the-scenes technical functions that the system must be capable of doing in order to support the user requirements.
Example: when user activates the “save my work” control, the system must allow the user to name the file and then write it to a disk.
You don’t need to separate the types of requirements at this stage.
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21. Getting Requirements from Scenarios
Examine each scenario and ask the following questions:
What is the user trying to do?
What part of the task is facilitated by the system or product?
What part of the task is independent of the system or product?
What has to happen “behind the scenes” while the user does this task?
What does the user see on the screen while he is working on the task?
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22. Deriving Requirements: Examples
See handout pp. 3-4.
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23. Your Turn Continue developing scenarios & personas
Start pulling assumptions, requirements & issues
Questions?
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24. Thank you! This presentation will be available at this URL:
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