Visual Story Arc

This last week was a trip back to the VERY analogue world - post it notes.

Having laid out dozens and dozens of post it notes that were color coded into chapter topics, side bar information and deeper learning, interactive assignments and download sheets, it was time to put it all together!

This was a major job.  I did it over a couple of days.  It had been easy to put topics in chapters in my proposal, but creating a story arc - a journey for the learner - was something MUCH more difficult.   

In speaking with Professor Kramer, the idea that there should be a takeaway for the learner with EVERY lesson was playing big in my mind.  And that there should be a story for every chapter - another BIG challenge!

After two days of rearranging post-its, I spoke it aloud as a presentation to some of my peers.  The combination of presenting it aloud and getting instant feedback tied up some loose ends in the story and I ended up with 4 distinct chapters, ALL with takeaways and each lesson builds on another.

The scope was still LARGE. Fortunately Eric had suggested I turn this into "swim lanes" of a story that worked for capstone, for release 1 and for future releases.  This saved the day.

As a "Side story" I had a massive computer failure this week. My edit suite iMac Pro died in the middle of a job - this left me reeling.  I configured and extra iMac to take its spot for a few days, but just the time in doing all this cut into work and school.  This got topped off with a corrupt Time Machine restore to my iMac Pro when I got it back argh!!!

Fortunately I am zealous about backing up! (if that's a thing) 

I haven't lost much, but I have lost time!  This week it will be full steam ahead on writing my copy for these chapters.