Vlabs

This week I’m continuing to work on Vlabs updates, and so far I’ve finished 12 interactives (some are still pending approval though). Each update goes through 2 rounds of approval first by another STA, then by the professor, who sometimes comes back with additional corrections. These have been going pretty smoothly, except sometimes if you do too many in a row your brain starts to melt, lol.

Here’s the spreadsheet we’re using to track progress, the yellow notes are from the professor:

 

Canvasser Tutorial for the KB

I’m also collaborating with Abriella to start to drafting out a Canvasser tutorial that’s going to become a basic training on the Knowledge Base. It’s still in the early stages, but hopefully we will have it finished in the next week or couple weeks.

In the past we’ve only had Canvasser tutorials that are specific to projects like Vlabs and Texas Beyond History, so this basic training is going to be more of a general introduction to Canvasser. In the training, STAs will design and build their own interactive game, which I think will be really fun and also a great way to learn how Canvasser works and the possible elements and effects that you can use.

 

E316M Canvas Graphics

These are the Canvas graphics that were selected for the fall American lit class. We ended up going with the dark navy buttons and ipad overlay because there’s going to be a picture-in-picture box on top of the overlay (basically a small box showing the professor as they’re going through the powerpoints).

I’m pretty happy with how these came out, especially the blue and yellow color scheme. I can’t wait to see how Tate’s animations come out so I can see how all the final  graphics look together–I think the animations will really tie everything together.

Vlabs

I thought I would never see another virtual lab interactive again, but apparently I was wrong, because there are several dozen corrections that need to be made to existing interactives. It sounds like a lot, but it’s nowhere near the number of interactives that had to be made from scratch the first time around (so many memories of Vlabs…)

I got assigned four interactives to correct that are high-priority and need to get done by mid-August, so that’s what I’ve been working on this week apart from E316M. Here is a screenshot of one of the four interactives that I’m updating:

The professor wanted to replace the images of the finches, which was slightly challenging because the new images were a lot larger than the old ones, so I had to change some aspects of the layout. I ended up resizing the interactive so the images would fit. I also created a new popup window that opens after you click on the survivorship button so there would be room for all the beaks.

Updates in Canvasser are pretty easy –all you have to do is upload the new PNG, link it to the specific interactive, and replace the corresponding object with the new image:

 

E316M Course Graphics

This past week I’ve been spending most of the time working on designs for a fall course called “Discovering History and Form in American Literature,” which is being taught by Dr. Pinto and Dr. Barrish in the English department. I actually took this class when I was a freshman (with different professors), so I kind of know what the class is like, even though the material and reading varies depending on who is teaching it. The #1 priority this week has been refining the style of the title cards, which will be displayed before recorded lectures/videos. There are 3 titles cards needed; one for lectures, weekly updates, and response. Here are the newest drafts incorporating feedback from the professors:

I’m also working on 2 stinger designs in the same style (these are for sections within a lecture/video; there’s one called “Lit Lab” and another called “Activity”). Today I met with Tate about possible ways to animate these slides, so I should have some animations mocked up to post here very soon.

Other than that I’ve been helping out with Cascade updates, giving feedback on basic trainings, plus I mocked up another potential retractable banner. More to come next week…

Final ARH303 Drafts

 

New Retractable Banner Mockups

Suloni wanted me to try some new banner mockups using the same color treatments (blue-gray and off-white/eggshell) but with a few different tile and brick textures from the UT photography folder. These are the mockups I came up with, and I tried to position the images so they wouldn’t be cut off in a weird way with the professor standing in front of them. All I did for these is lower the opacity on the pictures, add a B&W adjustment and a brightness/contrast adjustment on top, then I added the blue and off-white color on top of that using the multiply blending mode.

Other than that, I’ve just been helping out with orientation tasks and continuing to work on my podcast (GOV310).

We also got a request to set up a new Cascade site for the Center on Aging and Population Sciences (CAPS), which I’ve been helping with. Basically I just created a new web presence in Cascade and followed the instructions to set up write and publishing permissions for all the users who need access to the site. Every website in Cascade should have a corresponding group, and anybody who’s added to that group automatically gets added to that site as an editor.

This is the URL that’s been set up (a lot still needs to be added to it, obviously):

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/caps/

Retractable Banners

All the design STAs were asked to submit banner designs that could potentially be used as a backdrop for online classes this fall. We used official UT photography and branding/colors in our designs.

The first ones I submitted on Monday were a bit too saturated and distracting, plus the photo of the UT tower that I used was not placed that well–it would’ve been covered up by the professor standing in the middle of the frame most of the time. So I made some edits and tried out some different layouts based on the feedback I got from Suloni and Valerie, and I think they came out much better! Suloni liked the neutral/off-white version because it’s less distracting and doesn’t compete with anything

1st Round of Drafts:

2nd Round of Drafts:

For these I just took the opacity down slightly on the orange/off-white/blue overlays (about 90%) and I added an adjustment layer on top to desaturate them a bit more. The photos are also at about 40% opacity so they fade into the background more.

This is roughly what the banner will look like while the professor is teaching:

 

ARH303 Canvas Homepage Banner

Dr. Ann Johns requested a new homepage banner to use when she teaches ARH303 online this summer (I think it’s starting in a few weeks).

She has an existing banner that she uses for ARH301, and she just wanted a few images swapped out to use in the 303 class. She sent me links to the images she uses on her tests, and I mocked up a few different options for her to pick from:

Photo IDs