Tim Holden--Virtual Flip Book

Another possble element we could have in our site is a virtual flip-book.
Some examples of virtual flip-books:

http://www.glyndwr.ac.uk/ebooks/prospectus/?#/1/

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/cssplay-peter-rabbit.html

These two flipbooks are made using different techniques. The top example is made using software, whilst the bottom one is made using only CSS.
I think, if we have time, adding this in will be a nice addition to the modules page on our site.

New images- college/Julie Jolly

I have decided to work on the images below since they show students in the images. I will see which one   or ones will be best suited to the designs in the designing stage.  I will use Photoshop  to edit and manupulate thes images.

........Julie Jolly..........

extra images-Julie Jolly

Just some more  images - a  bit  of a frosty day!  

---tim---
Good photos. Pity it's so frosty, but they can be used as example photos of what can be done with photoshop.
---tim---

Banner- images/Julie Jolly

I have been taking various images of the college and will using Photoshop  to edit and improve them as at the moment they look dull.

---tim---
good, they can also be straightened using photoshop.
---tim---

Storyboard - Emrys Williams

This is the design for the homepage, containing a banner, a logo, a navigation bat, slideshow, text and an image.

 This is the design for the 'how to apply' page, containing a banner, a logo, a navigation bar and instructions on how to apply for the course through text

 This is the design for the modules page, containing a banner, logo, navigation bar, information about the different modules through text and a video on the different modules.

 This is the design for the funding page, containing a banner, logo, navigation bar and information on funding through text.

--- Tim ---

I like these designs since they are simple and straightforward. A site designed to promote a course should be simple to use, quick to browse and easy to understand. No one wants to spend hours trawling through ambiguous links or confusing text when what they want to know is the base facts about the course, such as what does it entail and who can apply.

The next step will be to add colour to the design. Colour theory has been discussed in the initial investigation.

---Tim---

---Emrys---

In response to Tim's request for colour I have updated the storyboard.

The new design for the homepage.

The new design for the application page.

The new design for the funding page.

The new design for the module page. 

---Emrys---

Individual element - Emrys Williams

My individual element is to do the flash animation for the website, which everyone has agreed is going to be the slideshow on the homepage.  The images in the slideshow have to be relevant.  http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/fd/com/g405e This link has a good example of a shideshow under the 'further information' tab.  Using the images that Julie has gathered, however they are of different sizes so that will have to be taken into account.

http://www.printmornyc.com/ this is another great example of a slideshow, it is exactly what I will be trying to do with this website's slideshow, every slide is relevant.  However, one thing I would do differently is decrease it's size.  If you're not interested in the slideshow then it's going to be difficult to ignore due to how it takes up most of the screen.  http://ecoforms.com/ this website has an even better example of a shideshow, for it is relevant to the website it's on, it's of a descent size and it's not too distracting.

--- Tim ---

Perhaps I can get a video of an image being edited in photoshop to use in muy video, then use that image in your slideshow. That will give the site a slightly more unified feel

--- Tim---

Individual Element - Tim Holden

My individual element will be a movie made with windows movie maker.
I have looked at two different videos promoting courses.

The first video is for an american computer science course.

This video is more high octane than the next.
It has slanted camera angles, short quotes from students, electronic music background, tasters of lessons and voice over narritive.
Contains many elements i could use in my video, such as voice over narritive, quick descriptive scenes and music.
Aimed more at a younger audience, as it is portrayed as being 'cool' and 'hip' and so on and so forth.

The second video is an interview with a student undertaking a computing course in a British university.

This video is an interview with a student that is taking the course
In the interview, she covers several topics, namely;

Who she is
What course she's doing
What she's learning
Why she's ejoying it
Recommends the course to others

This video contains few elements, so whatever I did would have to be a bit more elaborate, maybe cutting to images of work or a video of a program running  would improve the element.

This video is aimed at mature students who worry about fitting a university course around a busy work and family life.

In my opinion, a combination of both videos would suit our site, as we wish to attract both mature and younger students, so maybe the interviews could be with both mature and young students, background music would be mellow yet appealing to both audiences and it should contain enough technical information to appeal to young students but  not so technical so as to put off those with limited experience with computers.
The purpouse of my would be to promote the course, demonstrate skills learned and maybe an alternative to reading text.

Contents

Using software
Interview a second year student

Using photoshop, flash, html and java would be good.

Interview with second year students

what have they learned
what do they particualrly enjoy
why would they recomend the course

Individual elements- Julie Jolly

My individual elements that I have been preparing for the website will be images taken by myself for a slide show. I have selected an image from my PC Hardware lesson which will show the PC support side of the degree. I have also taken a snapshot of my own HTML code which show a snapshot of the website creation in a learning stage. This would cover the part for Web designing module. I will tomorrow be taking further.

images of one of us working in the classroom. Multimedia would be snapshot of an image I have manipulated using Photoshop to show multimedia studies module.I will look at using an image which is free stock image showing databases module. I have also added a free stock image of students with their degrees.

 

Banner investigation evidence

http://www.abergelegolfclub.co.uk/

The above is a banner that I have looked at and will be looking to implement a similar design to our website. Because our target audience are students I will not need to have  a  show of the landscape  surroundings. It will also not need to have so much sharpness as this again is not necessary for our target audience.

---Emrys Williams---
While I do like the images I do think that the difference in size would become a bit of an issue in the slideshow.

Initial Investigation

--- Julie jolly --- Task 1

What subject:

The subject is FDSC Applied Computing Degree

Client Requirements:

The client requires a website promoting this degree

What purpose or message:

The purpose is to attract students to the computing degree and encourage a larger audience for enrolment. 

Target Audience:

The target audience for this project will be people of the age of eighteen and over. It would target those that have an interest in learning about Computers on a wider scale. It does however differ in that this degree can be studied whilst staying at home in the local college in Dolgellau (Meirion Dwyfor ). There are no commitments in providing student accommodation. Since it covers six modules in the first year and will require a lot of time and dedication and follows onto in-depth of these in the second year it would require a student available to commit to this study on a full-time basis. The target audience would therefore be people who would be looking to study without incurring extra accommodation costs, but would have the time to study on a full-time basis.

--- Julie ---

Funding:

This is also available to all students accepted on the course through a student loan

scheme.

------ Julie ------

My evidence of  web site investigations
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/studying/courses/undergraduate/2013/computing 

http://www2.gre.ac.uk/study/courses/fd/com/g405e

The above are two website advertising   a computing degree. Although I had looked at many others I selected these two in particular since I felt they had much simpler layout to follow. I have selected some images from free stock for possible use in some of the pages. These are loaded onto the popplet site. I know that as a group we will be looking at slide show, a video and a Photoshop banner.

Computing, Foundation Degree (Bexley College)

• Back to programme list

·         Overview

·         Key Facts

·         Contents

·         Fees and Finance

·         Further Information

This programme develops the knowledge and skills appropriate for employment as computing and IT professionals. It provides opportunities to study areas to current industry standards, in a programme that is constantly being updated to cover new developments.

The programme reflects current trends and skills needed in the sector. It covers all the main branches of computing including programming using Java and C#, internet technologies, network systems,mobile devices, communication systems, UML in systems building and the use of SQL in database development.

It also includes an element of work based learning which allows students to engage an employer and to add to further career development. Upon successful completion of the Foundation Degree, students can progress into the final year of the BSc (Hons) Computing degreeat the University of Greenwich.

Gains from the Foundation Degree:

• This programme will enable you to study areas to current industry standards
• It is constantly being updated to cover new developments
• It reflects the current trends and forecasts skills needs in the sector

This is a snap shot of the overview page. I will put these two for the group to see and discuss their research findings.

Tim: These sites are two good examples. Both sites provide clear and concise information, and sections are clearly labeled.

----- Julie ------

We have discussed our findings and this is documented in our meeting agenda.

Further to this my individual elements(slide show images) as agreed in our group meeting are displayed in our group blog. I will be looking at banners before deciding upon its design.

.......Julie........

It was decided that our banner would be a compostion of the college site images. there would be three to four images which then would be merged together to created a slighty blur  background for the banner. The college icon and name would appear as text at the front.
For this individual element I will be taking my own shots of the college and using the photshop skills to create the backround along with the college logo and name.

.........Julie........

http://www.abergelegolfclub.co.uk/

The above is a banner that I have looked at and will be looking to implement a similar design to our website. Because our target audience are students I will not need to have  a  show of the landscape  surroundings. It will also not need to have so much sharpness as this again is not necessary for our target audience.

 Text Content -

• welcome blurb
• College  logo and name

--- tim ---

Consideration of colour theory

this is the homepage for colege llandrillo. The colour scheme is an analogous (means that the colours are all very close to each other on the colour wheel) selection of blues, so, our site's colour scheme should use the same colours in order to a) assure users that they are still viewing a course run by Coleg llandrillo, b) give a feeling of unity between course site and college site and c) blue is a cool, neutral colour that is neither offensive or dull, it is also a modern colour, which is a good thing when considering a technology course!

---tim---

Resources - Emrys Williams

Today we have made a list of what resources we feel we will need in order to complete our project.  We decided that we would need:

• Computers, monitors, keyboards ect.
• CS6 Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.
• Microsoft Office.
• Movie Maker.
• Internet connection.
• People with the skills to use these resources.
• The most important resource of all, time in which to do the project.

First entry - Timothy Holden

FdAc Applied Computing Creative Media Group Assignment, Team Members;

Timothy Holden
Julie Jolly
Emrys Williams

This is our first entry, although we have done a fair bit of work so far. We have brainstormed the fundementals of the site, such as Subject, client requirements, purpose and target audience, and came to the conclusion that our subject would be providing prospective students with all the information they would need in order to decide upon taking the FdAc applied computing course at coleg meirion-dwyfor. The requirements were that it must contain varying examples of creative media techniques, such as Flash elements, Photoshop images and Movie videos. We also decided that its target audience would be both mature students and students leaving college, and so it would have to be appealing, informative and usable by both groups.

We have used Popplet.com a lot in order to document our group work, such as moodboards, text content and layout possibilities.

We have had two official meetings and have an agenda and minutes for both of them.

Our next steps are to document the extensive research we have done into other course sites, write a short report on rescource considerations and make definite decisions regarding the elements to be used and who will make them.

---Tim Holden----