2.1 Project Entry Levels - Berkeley-MDes/24f-desinv-202 GitHub Wiki

Project entry levels attempt to address the wide variety of educational and experiential backgrounds in your cohort. Some of you will already have experience with some of the technologies and techniques we’ll be using in the course and some of you won’t. While your levels of expertise will differ we want you to always be working at a level that is personally challenging (because that’s how we grow)!

You can only take one project on level 1. You must take one project at level 3.

You will select the difficulty level at the beginning of each project cycle. You will document how your work meets or exceeds the project definition/expectations.

When collaborating on a project, group members may be working at different levels. Your weekly submissions will capture how your individual contributions to the group fit your chosen level.

Level 1: Neophyte, aka Exploring Triceratops

  • At this level you will MEET project requirements
  • “color-by-number”
  • You will complete this project at an exploratory level, following simple steps that guide you through engaging with new technology and tools to create a predefined result.
  • Ideally you will ‘add some of your own flavor’ to the output.
  • You will follow the steps of a worked example to learn within the context of the project.
  • You will deconstruct and reassemble the worked example, in the process making a few small changes (iterating a design).

Level 2: Default, aka Challenging Myself Platypus

  • At this level you will meet project requirements AND do a little more.
  • You will challenge yourself and try something other students might not - you’ll go the extra mile in at least one dimension
  • You will name what your “extra mile” is and explain how you did this in your documentation.

Level 3: Expert, (All of the) Above and Beyond Axylotyl

  • At this level you will EXCEED project requirements.
  • It should be clear that you have gone above and beyond the project definition, working at the limit of your abilities to create something sophisticated, robust, and skillfully executed.
  • You will define and document the ways in which your project exceeds the project definition/expectations.
  • You will challenge yourself to learn something new in service of specific self-directed goals or interests outside of the course.
  • You will demonstrate significant growth over the course of the project
  • You will share your experience and knowledge with others and assist them in learning by doing in pursuit of the project goals.