We have just a few weeks left in the semester and a lot we need to accomplish, so I’ve rearranged a few items on calendar and eliminated a few others. I think these changes will free up your time to develop your Best Practices Articles and give you more in-class time to work on the Client Project with your teammates. Please remember that your team needs to be making solid progress on your site outside of class, too. If you haven’t been meeting regularly as a team, that needs to change ASAP.

Here’s a quick preview of where we’re headed during Week 13:

• On Tuesday, we’ll discuss various models for testing websites with users and consider some strategies we can use to “brand” our client project sites. Before you come to class, please read Chapters 7, 8, and 12 in Nicely Said, and “Super Easy Usability Testing,” by John S. Rhodes. In addition, your team should finalize the platform (WordPress, Bootstrap, etc.) and the theme/template you plan to use for your client site. (Remember: this is not a decision that should be made in five or ten minutes!)
• On Thursday, we’ll conduct a peer critique workshop for the Best Practices Article and use whatever time remains for team meetings. Please come to class with a draft of your Best Practices Article in Google Docs format (so your peers can read and comment on it).

Finally, a few words about our second exam: Because we have a limited number of class sessions left, Exam #2 will be an open-book, open-note (but not open-classmate), take-home exam. More importantly, this exam will be optional, which means that you only need to complete the exam if you are unhappy with your score on the first exam. If you are satisfied with your grade on that exam, I will simply duplicate that score for Exam #2. However, if you would like the opportunity to raise your exam grade, you can take home a copy of the exam at the end of class on Thursday and submit it at the beginning of class on Tuesday, April 28. (Please note that although a take-home exam is likely to produce higher grades than an in-class exam, a higher grade on Exam #2 is not guaranteed.)

If you’d like to meet with me as a team to discuss anything relate to Unit #4, or if you’d like to talk through an early draft of your Unit #3 article, please come see me during office hours (T 2–5, W 9–12) or email me to arrange a meeting at another time.