Where to begin on what I learned this semester, almost too many things to write about. Overall, I learned a lot about the IDET process and how integral each step really is. I think it is of utmost importance to plan and plan as effectively as possible in the beginning. Certainly you may not know everything that will come up, but having a place to start is important and will certainly guide you through the process.
Getting good feedback is essential for your project. But getting good feedback is not easy to get. Proper planning and time needs to go into getting good feedback and you need to go to people that will not just pat you on the back but look for the blindspots in your project. Having your clientele look at your materials before you publish them can really help guide the process. You will learn real quick if it is going to work by their reactions to the materials.
One of the other important things was communication in our group. We developed a system for getting work done and helping each other with each piece of the project. Luckily I was working with a great group of like minded individuals and all of us were eagerly working together for the same goal. I can see that this would be problematic if group members didn't work well together and/or didn't have a good way of communicating with one another.
Getting to the point and determining your objectives is key to planning everything with your project. This is the part of the process you want to spend a lot of time going over and over and making sure you are really getting the main objectives figured out. There is a saying "The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing" I really feel that this idea is the point of determining your objectives. You can certainly not spend enough of time working on objectives, but I don't think you can spend too much time working on them.
Overall, I learned that there is a lot to this process and it takes a lot of time and planning to get started and then a lot of good feedback to help sort the project out. You need to have a good SME and know the culture and have an understanding of the client. All this can seem daunting and it kind of is, that's why you need to have a plan to tackle it all. Without a plan you wouldn't know where to start and what to do. They say "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail" and that is definitely the case. Having a plan can really help you get through the drudgery of the work and sort through what is important. In the end your project will only be as good as the plan you create, so its best to spend some time in the beginning to develop your plan and then you will need to constantly evaluate throughout the process to make sure you are meeting your goals and that your plan is going to work. You should have a good understanding throughout the process as to whether or not you are on the right track.
