Deadlines
Please see the Calendar for the due dates.
Project Topic
Student life can be stressful! Your project should focus on addressing student stress. You are free to focus on particular kinds of stress, particular kinds of students, or specific kinds of stress-reduction techniques — as long as everyone on your team is excited about the approach you are taking. Course staff are not experts in stress reduction and will not generally nitpick your choice of technique as long as it plausibly reduces stress for some people. Possible topics might include:
- Yoga
- Music
- Exercise
- Fostering social connections (e.g. something like meetup.com)
- Gaming
- Food or cooking
- Journaling
You might choose to start by studying reputable sources of stress reduction techniques. For example, the Mayo Clinic’s list or Harvard Medical School’s list may be helpful. UCSD Student Health Services has a list as well.
Team and Project Organization
Your team should follow an Agile process using scrum. Starting week 5, you will be responsible for one of the following roles:
- Product owner (one per week)
- Scrum master (one per week)
- Development team member (allocate from the following as needed)
- Developer
- Tester
- Designer
- Technical writer
Communication is your biggest risk, since you probably have disparate schedules; this mutates into a coherence/consistency risk, amongst others. You’ve been warned!
Teamwork
Teamwork may be the most challenging part of the class. You will be working with teammates with whom you may not worked before and who may be different from you in ways that are hard to predict. Learning to work effectively in diverse teams is a learning goal of this class. It’s okay if it’s challenging!
The course staff are here for you to help you work through and problems you may encounter. We want everyone to have a positive experience. To that end, students and staff will follow the UCSD Principles of Community and the Nondiscrimination Policy. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated.
It is always easier to address challenging interpersonal situations early rather than letting them fester. If you encounter any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable or that you think should have gone differently, please contact any member of the course staff right away. When appropriate, we will try to resolve issues within the context of the course; after all, teamwork is a learning goal! However, if necessary, we may contact the Center for Student Accountability, Growth, and Education or the Office for Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. Please be aware that both TAs and faculty members are considered responsible employees and are required to report incidents of sexual harassment to OPHD.
If you observe behavior that might make someone uncomfortable but are not the target of the behavior, and you have standing to speak up, it is your responsibility to do so. If you don’t feel comfortable doing so, please set up a meeting with course staff to discuss the matter and make a plan.
Each member of the team brings unique skills, experiences, and interests. This diversity can lead to challenges. For example, one member of your team may be an expert in a technology that the team is using, while another is unfamiliar with that technology. Contributions will be judged according to individual starting points: a small contribution from a member who is new to a particular technology may be an “A”-level contribution when accompanied by appropriate learning. A larger technical contribution or, alternatively, mentoring other members of the team, may be expected from team members who are already experts at that technology. When assigning roles to team members, teams must consider individual learning goals in addition to team technical objectives.