H2O Meta > 0.5 Feature Priorities

In terms of a functional tool that will be used by professors, teachers, and other distance and face-to-face educators, it seems that there are a few major priorities. A reliable More...

The reasoning behind this prioritization scheme is clear and very helpful.  

A comment on the user visible round crank which is listed as priority 1:   this feature is problematic in that participants may be in the middle of composing their response when the round is prematurely cranked.  Although participants may have submitted a response, it may be partial, and the participant may have intentions to edit it before the round deadline.  If we implement this feature, we need to include a warning mechanism with a reasonable duration before the premature crank takes place...

I hadn't thought through both the engineering and usability issues associated with a premature crank. Your comments on possible ramifications are important to consider. Perhaps the system itself would not More...

2 Include user id in urls in assignment emails
10 Predefined attributes
15 Custom Attribute functionality
5 optional automatic expulsion on round skip
5 Invite unregistered user to join a More...

My priorities were based on classroom use, and the features that I had programmed (or failed to program) into past versions of the rotisserie.  So to me, more flexibility in asking questions and timing rounds would be most important to making the rotisserie a solid piece of software -- and one on which I could base (part of) student grades.  Then pieces like attributes and flexible routing are frills that can enhance that core.  

I also didn't list a lot of features geared toward "community," since that's not the primary mode in which I've used the rotisserie.

I've included a lot of the big ticket functionality items (custom attributes, routing, polling, invitations) b/c that's where I think we need to concentrate our efforts if the system is More...

I agree for the most part except for some of the routing.  The help was lower on my list, but I'm sure it will make it in there since not much time is required.  Functionality is definitely more important than any UI stuff.

Excluding automatic expulsion and poll-based routing, I don't know if other types of routing would actually be used or useful if used.  Routing on any attribute the user has entered may just be random, since so few online users contribute valid data when they know it isn't critical (I know I don't).  I have a hard time coming up with a concrete example that will realistically lead to an interesting distribution.

I think the following (somewhat ranked by priority) are the most important/coolest features:

o Bulk user load (5)
o Bulk project acceptance page (5)
o Help system infrastructure - support More...

These look a good set of tasks/priorities for me. The only ones that I'm not sure about is how important extra custom attributes or specialized types of polling are. I haven't seen the beta feedback from users, so I don't have special insight here, but in making the priority decision, I would try to consider what features the instructors and the students are most going to need to have a high-quality experience with this tool.

Tony

The polling and custom attributes are important b/c they allow more interesting kinds of routing.  For example, including the option to select a poll answer in addition to the standard More...

The poll is a simple way to add graphical feedback and fodder for in-class discussion.  It's quick for the instructor to set up, quick for the students to answer, and More...

Here's what I think.  Ordered by priority, 1 is the best.  Features I didn't think we should support in this rev have been removed.  Notably absent are the other types More...

,Rotisserie,5,"Add absolute date picker to date fields and to round start/end (so that the user can choose either round durations or specific end dates)"
,UI,1,"Include 'Current H2O Time' somewhere in More...