Teaching methods such as lectures, seminars, discussions, presentation, research based learning, 1:1 and group tutorials were used throughout the year to help me achieve the best possible grade, below I have documented each time one of these methods were used and in turn aided my projects development.
Discussions
Discussions among the teachers and my peers were made much more frequently throughout the development of the service than the one to ones on the pure nature that I was able to ask questions at any time I was around my peers.
This was a fantastic aid to my site as it allowed me to gain an insight into the opinions of others and get advice regarding how to improve or what to add to my project.
The most important part of this was the client meetings as it allowed me to check I was doing exactly what the client was asking of me. This was vital.
Presentation
The presentation of my idea to the group in the first stage was vital, as while it not only made me predefine the concept, it also allowed me to express to an audience of peers. Questions were made from the group, and also the teachers, and in answering these questions allowed me to come up with new ideas. I was also able to pose questions to the audience of my presentation to allow me to guage their reactions, and help me decide whether which adjustments to make.
A key point from this stage was gaining the thoughts on the language of the site and how it should work in relation to translating content for users of other languages. This was an important part as it allowed me to consider language lessons within the service.
Research based learning
Research was the most valuable to me of all the learning strategies listed here. Alternatives were an important thing to focus on as it allowed me to strategise what would be important implementations. I also needed to learn how to setup and run Ruby on Rails on my personal Macintosh, this was a HUGE learning curve.
1:1
The one to one sessions were vital to my project, it allowed me guidance on my project on a personal level. The tutor was able to understand the aim of the project and offer advice on key decisions that were needed to be made.
When stuck for ideas with my design, the one to one lessons were able to aid me in ideas of new research topics. Posts were suggested for me to write which allowed me to in turn think of new ideas.
They encouraged me to keep the design as simple and straightforward as possible in the aim to allow me to focus on developing my coding skills.
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