Major Assignment 2: Tutorial

Using Flash, you will design a tutorial. This tutorial will be an instructional software program. You will choose your instructional topic and it must be approved by me. Your program will include 15 to 20 screens, text, instructionally appropriate images, and transitions (only if appropriate--use sparingly). Use of video and audio is optional. However, if you do include video and/or audio, make sure it is included for an instructional reason, and not just because it is novel, or because it is possible to include these forms of media. The intent of this tutorial is to teach a simple concept (for example, identifying the nine planets of our solar system) or procedure (for example, how to tune a guitar). 

Note: you are not creating a presentation, or presentation visuals, so your project should not look like visuals for a group presentation. This tutorial will be designed for one person at one computer, not a projection screen. This means you will use small font sizes, among other things. Your tutorial should not even remotely resemble a typical group presentation slide show. Do not use any bulleted text.

You will turn in:

  1. A fact sheet (300 to 400 words) describing the project, it's goals, purpose, target audience, etc.. This fact sheet should be posted on the web as HTML.
  2. The tutorial, posted on the web (as an SWF file).
  3. The source files for your tutorial (the FLA file, etc.). Name your file with the title, “lastname_tutorial” (e.g., Jones_tutorial.fla). You will upload these files to a space on my UMDrive.

Here are some basic examples: Note I am expecting more than a simple "page-turner" like these. Feel free to use the ideas in these files. One thing to fix about these tutorials is that they generally use type that is too large for one user at one computer. If you are using a typeface (font) size of more than 20, it is probably too large. Remember--one computer, one user. This is not a group presentation.

Tutorial Grading Rubric

This chart shows how I evaluate your tutorial. Every aspect listed down the left side receives a score from 5 (high) to 1 (low). The text is a description of what a particular number means for a particular aspect of your tutorial.