Making Plans for Web Pages

This page was created by Elizabeth Willott, copyright 2001.

Some Keys to Goal-Setting:

Know what you need to accomplish, why, and with what resources
Plan do-able sized pieces
Stick to a reasonable schedule (people WILL be sick around Thanksgiving)

Creating an Action Plan that Works
The key points of an action plan include:

Overall Aim: What is the project about? What's the aim?
What are the resources, including personnel, for achieving the aim?
What are the specific goals that, if met, will achieve the aim?
You will likely have 6-8 specific goals (one way of organizing is for each person to name/take a specific goal or for teams of 2 to take a couple of goals each)
For each goal, what are the subgoals, in do-able chuncks, with completion times, that allow each goal to be completed.

For example, here's what I use in preparing a set of lectures for a chapter in 181 lecture class.

Overall Aim: Convey what I think are the most important ideas needed to understand how the information in DNA is used to generate particular phenotypes (using, for example, Chapter 12, Purves).
Resources: This year's text and electronic resources; last year's figures; my web and lecture notes from last year. I have several people who are prepared to proof my exam questions, but I need to leave them plenty of time to do that--I cannot expect a turnaround time of less than one week.
Specific goals that enable me to meet my aim:
- Prepare on-line pages so students can access what I think is important.
- Prepare web-based lecture presentation using figures from the text so students so the text complements my lecture (and vice versa). This also means less orientation time for students in my class, since they can look at the figures before class--wastes less in-class time.
- Prepare exam questions that require thinking to answer. Strict memory doesn't promote adequate understanding. To meet this aim, I need to have my questions checked by several people since making questions like this is difficult. This requires advance planning and execution on my part.
- Generate appropriate sub-goals. NOTE: Because I have other commitments on my time, I need to make defined sub-goals that will take 1-2 hours at most to complete.

My Subgoals should take no more than 1-2 hours each, since that's about the largest chunk of time I have at any one time. Here are my sub-goals:

What are the key points to cover? I read the chapter, study the figures, and make handwritten notes or notes in word on this.
How do I wish to alter the figures that I will use in class? I write on the figures, then alter them.
What resources am I using from last year and how will they need altering? I check these out.
Construct my outline page and create the skeleton web format.
Finish constructing the web site, incorporating the figures that I have altered.
Draft the text I will use to guide me through the lecture.
Create a draft of exam questions pertinent to the chapter and give to my reviewers, asking them to return to me by a given date.
Prepare/modify any resources I post on the web that are to assist the students in learning this chapter's material.
Run through the lecture a minimum of twice, making alterations to the web pages used in class and to the written notes.
Print out the written notes in larger font size so I can more easily check my place in class.
Revise the exam questions given the feedback I have received.

Then I put these on my ToDo lists for the week and schedule them in as I can. (Yes, it really does take 15-20 hours prep per chapter!)

For your web-projects you will have group goals like:

Understand the paper well enough
- Decide what are the most important points to come to understand in the paper. (done at meeting in September if not before)
- Meet with the mentor and come to understand the paper. (hopefully already accomplished)
Discover people's strengths and desires regarding the project; reach decision about who is responsible for what and ask them to prepare sub-plans for their area of responsibility, including completion dates
Decide what figures to include and arrange for permission for copyrighted figures; have back-up plan if permission doesn't arrive. (I would suggest this be a group decision, because often so much hinges on the figures--if no figures at the beginning of November, then you--as a group--may run into difficulties.)
Decide what date to bring the work together and view it as a group. Ideally, you would want to do this before Oct 18, so you know you have a viable plan.
Because of the November 8 goal, you will likely want to attempt to view your pages as a group prior to then, so on or before November 8 you can get help and iron out any problems. This sets some other 'deadlines' for you as a group and as individuals.

A Mock Plan for the GROUP might be:

Read the paper and generate questions for mentor. DONE
Meet with mentor and get initial understanding of paper's importance and the techniques used. DONE
Decide each person's contribution to the project and request a plan from each, with completion dates. DONE (?)
Decide on figures for the pages and request permissions. DONE (?)
Decide on date to "bring it all together". We will meet on _____. Judy will bring text for the Introduction; Joan will bring text on Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Alice the Transgenic Mouse work; Sam the figures in Adobe Photoshop 5.5 format saved as jpg files (and the permissions); Zack will have made the bare bones of the html coding and be ready to put in Judy's, Joan's, and Alice's text on Intro, Nucleic Acid Hybridization Studies, and Transgenic Mouse studies respectively. Mary will work with Zack showing him how to put in images and orient the page appropriately using tables.
Complete backups will be kept by Mary, Zack, and Judy.
Sam will have given permissions to Willott before ________.
We will put the entire project (albeit not perfect yet) up _________, so we can proofread it by _________ and notify our mentor so he/she has the week of ________ to check it and give us suggestions that we can modify the week of _________ and have the final product ready Dec. 1.

A Mock Plan for the Individual, Zack, might be

Meet with group on ______ to finalize original plan (will likely need modifying if we can't get the permissions we want.
Attend session on html coding at library on __________. Check with Willott what other resources are available for learning html.
Create an address file with everyone's email so I can easily communicate with the whole group--If I miss another meeting, they're going to misunderstand me--I really DO want to work with them and do this.
Meet with group and mentor on ___________ to come to better understand the paper. Before that, spend 1-2 hours with paper on _______ so I can ask intelligent questions of the mentor.
Learn to make a very simple web page using the resources on the web (Willott's guide on the Honors pages) and by going on Thursday, _______, at 6:30 to get help from the TA in the BLC.
Create a very simple web site skeleton pages with a button bar format at top and/or bottom of the page. Decide on colors, font, and other aspects to give the site an appropriate identity.
Meet with group on ___________ showing them what I have done and what I next propose to do over next two weeks to be ready for their input. Arrange time to meet with Mary, 5-10 minutes is probably all that's needed, so she can show me what she can teach me later. This gives me a place to start thinking about potentials.
Review pointers on effective page organization of text so that if Joan brings me a really wordy page, she and I can quickly convert it to point form.
Schedule meetings with Judy, Joan, and Alice to incorporate their text into the pages. This has to be before _________, because that's when we'll put it all together. So, try get stuff from them at least one week before, so _______.

Obviously, this includes his reasoning, but the final version for him might be:

Meet with group __________ to finalize tentative plan (modify if we don't get permission for figs)
Prepare for meeting with group and mentor _________.
Meet with group and mentor ________.
Attend html class ___________.
Make mock page by _____________, putting in tentative links, and showing the color/font plan that I suggest will help build site identity.
Meet with group again to give my plan and get theirs and make group plan to give to Willott __________.
Complete mock-up of pages, the bare skeleton that Judy, Joan, and Alice will give me the text for.
Check with Mary potential for figures and how that affects how I present text.
Meet with group, get material then from Joan, Judy, Alice, or arrange time to get material from Joan, Judy, Alice on ______________.
Meet with Mary on ________ to learn how to add figures and to complete layout of text and figures. After this, give site back up files to Mary and Judy.
Proof the site. Ask my younger sister to find the spelling and typo errors. Give her two days and a dollar an error. Make the changes.
Meet with group to view the site and find more errors. Make changes.
Notify mentor. Notify Profs. Willott & Dixon.
Make suggested final changes _______.

There is a great set of tapes called: Setting and Achieving Goals that I (Willott) would be happy to lend out if you are interested in finding out more about goal setting and planning.

I also have some other handouts and books on the subject.