Project Builder Guide

Step 1: Select “Create Project” to build a brand new project or “Choose Project” to continue working on a project previously created.

Selecting Create Project will open a new project form to complete. Fill out the following information:

• Short internal name: Short project name to be stored in the database (pick a name that represents your project, but it will not be displayed on the site.)
• Full project name: The project title that is displayed on the website
• Subtitle or short call to action: A short description of your project or a pitch to generate interest.
• About your project and tasks: Longer and more descriptive than the subtitle/ short call to action. Describe the goals of the project, the reason for development, what it will be used for, and other relevant information to help convince participants to contribute to your project.
• External blog/ news URL: if there is a link, blog, or any website that provides additional information to your project, include it here.
• Project image file: Upload an image that will be displayed on the website to represent your project. Image should be a 3 x 2 ratio for best results.
• Image filename: If your project image is uploaded in the Project Assets (see below) you can alternatively list the file name here for the image you want displayed as the project image.
• Project assets: This allows you to upload files (image, audio or video) that can then be included in project areas that allows markdown to be used, including the “About Your Project” section and Tutorials and Reference Guides for the tasks.
• Create project forums: If you would like to have the forum categories “Announcements,” “General Discussion,” “Questions for research team,” and “Help and Technical Support,” leave these boxes checked. Otherwise, uncheck the boxes you do not want included in your project forums. Leave all boxes unchecked if you do not wish to have any project forums.
• Research Team Members: Add information about yourself and the people involved in the creation of this project. You can include a photo if desired.
• Partners: If you want to cite collaborating institutions or funding agencies, you can list their name, web page url, and logo here.
  

Once you are done, click the “Save” button.

Step 2: Select “Create Task” to build a brand new task or “Choose Existing Task” to continue working on or edit a task previously created.

Selecting Create Task will open a new task form to complete. Fill out the following information:

• Short internal name: Short task name to be stored in the database (pick a name that represents your task, but it will not be displayed on the site).
• Task name: Name of the task to be displayed on the project page.
• Task description: Briefly describe what participants will do in this task.
• Tutorial: If your task requires instructions, enter them here. This can include steps to complete the task, ways to record good audio, or any other relevant information that will help participants complete the task. This text box uses markdown syntax for formatting. If you want to include media (audio, video, images) in the Tutorial, upload those files to the Project Assets and use the tag {local}filename{local} to include.
• Reference guide: If you would like to include background information, reference materials or examples that participants can view during task completion, enter it here. Follows the same markdown and Project Asset process as the Tutorial.
• Order of items assignment: Click whether you would like items to be in the same order for each participant or presented in a randomized order.
• When contributor reaches end of dataset: Pick whether you would like the task to start over automatically or whether you would like to allow the participant to choose to either restart the task or exit the task.
• Within or across contributors: Pick whether you would like all users to eventually be assigned all items or whether you would like items to be assigned to contributors based on order of participation.
• Task Image: Upload an image that will be displayed on the website to represent your task. Image should be a 3 x 2 ratio for best results.
• Image filename: If your task image is uploaded in the Project Assets you can alternatively list the file name here for the image you want displayed as the task image.
• Create task forum: check or uncheck the box based on whether you would like to create a separate discussion task forum in addition to any project forums.

Once you are done, click the “Save” button.

Step 3: Upload Dataset. A dataset consists of a manifest and, if required, external media files (audio, image, video, or text documents). Select “Upload Data Set” to create a new dataset or “Choose Data Set” to select a dataset you have previously uploaded.

When “Upload Data Set” is selected, a New Data Set popup window will open. Fill out the following information:

• Dataset name: This is the name that will be stored in the database.
• Dataset description: You can describe the contents of the dataset in more detail here.
• Manifest File: upload your manifest file here (see more details on manifest format below)
• Data Files: upload any external media files required for the task here (audio, video, image, text documents)z
• Randomize Manifest Order: Choose whether you want the items in the manifest to be presented in order or randomized for each participant.
  

Creating Manifests:

Manifests are required to indicate to the task workflow what data to present to the participants and in what order. For every task, you are required to upload a tab delimited file with the information required for your activity. This file should have a header describing the columns. The first column must be an “ID” with a number for each item in the manifest. If the task requires external media (audio, image, video, or text documents), one (or more) columns should list the file(s) required for that kit. Each line in the manifest file should contain all data for a discrete unit of work.

Example Manifests:

All data needed for task included in manifest (no external media required):
For tasks that present participants with words or short text (such as survey questions), no external media files are required. You can create a manifest that includes the data (words or sentences) to be provided to the participants. For example, if you want to create a task where a prompt word is presented to participants for them to recorded themselves speaking, your manifest could look like the following:

File access: manifest plus separate media files:
For tasks that present media in the task in the form of images, videos, audio or separate text documents, you will need a manifest that lists the file names that you upload as part of the dataset. You must always have an ID column that numbers the items in the manifest. If you were creating a task with separate image files, a second column would list the file name as shown in the example below. Optionally, you could create a third column that could include a prompt or a description of the image if you wanted that presented to the participant along with the image itself.

Step 4: Create Tool. Select the Template button to create the tool for the task. The task tool template allows you to create the activity for your participant to perform. A template window will pop up and prompt you to answer a series of questions to determine the specific details of your task tool.

• Include item counter: Check yes if you would like the number of items to be displayed in your task and select “x out of y” if you would like the total possible number of items displayed (this will populate based on the number of items in your manifest).
• Include contributor progress meter: Check yes if you would like to include a progress bar that displays an individual contributor’s progress on the task. Progress can be tracked based on a participant completing a specified number of items or based on percentage of the full manifest completed. You can also decide if “skipped” or “reported” items count towards the progress.
• Include task team progress meter: Check yes if you like to include a progress meter that displays the progress of all contributors to the task. Progress can be tracked based on a specified number of participants that you want to have finish your task (for example, your goal is to have 100 participants complete all items in your task). Or progress can be tracked by percentage of the full manifest completed as a group effort.
• Time the task: Check yes if you would like to time the task or have a time limit for completing an item in the task. You can choose to display elapsed time on the screen or not. You can also specify a time limit for each item in the task. Once the specified time limit is reached the task will automatically move to the next item whether or not the participant has made a response.
• Exercise specific text: This text will display on the screen for every item in the task. User for general instructions or a piece of contextual information that will appear for every item.
• Media file type: Select the media type that will be the input data for the task (audio, video, image, or text documents). If your task does not include any media outside of what is included in the manifest, then select “None.”
• Media content column: Select the column header from your manifest for the column that lists the media files required for the task.
• Include language selection: Check yes if you want to require the participant to indicate the language that their response will be in. You can limit the choices available or allow selection from the full ISO code list.
• Prompt ID Field: Select the column header from your manifest that lists the item numbers.
• Include primary item specific text: Select the appropriate column from your manifest in the dropdown menu. This text will appear above any additional media included in the task (for example, an image or audio waveform).
• Include secondary item specific text: If your task activity requires a second piece of information, select the appropriate column from your manifest in the dropdown menu. This text will appear below any additional media included in the task (for example, an image or audio waveform).
• Include response audio: Check yes if your task requires an audio recorder to collect speech data from participants. You can also optionally choose if you want the recorder feature to include a Level Test or Level Meter to monitor audio volume level, or a Playback Widget to allow participants to listen to their recording before submitting.
• Include response text: Check yes to include a text input box to allow open ended text input from the participant. Use this option for tasks such as translation or small bits of transcription. Add an “Annotation Field Label” to display a label for the text input box.
• Judgment buttons: If your task requires a constrained choice response, add those choices here, one per line, to display single choice button response options for the participant. No submit button is required – once the participant selects a response button, the item will be submitted automatically.
• Multiple choice: If your task allows multiple responses from the participant, then check yes to display checkboxes instead of buttons. Participants will be able to select multiple options and a submit button will automatically be included.
• Allow skip: If you would like participants to be able to skip an item in the task, check yes. Otherwise check no.
• Allow “report bad item”: Check yes if you would like to give participants the option to report an item in the task if there is a problem with it (for example, no sound for an audio file).

When you are finished, press the “Save” button.

Editing Project

After you have completed these steps, your project and task will be created in prototype mode. This allows you to make any needed changes before requesting the project to be approved for publication on LanguageARC. You can make edits to the Project and Task details by clicking the “edit” button in your Project or Task. If you need to fix anything in the tool part of the task, you can use the “reset tool” option in the task edit area. However, be aware that you will be asked to complete the full tool form again from scratch so it is advisable to keep a record of your tool feature selections.

Example Project and Tasks

Click the below links to view step-by-step instructions on how to build the tasks found in the EXAMPLE PROJECT.

-Describing Animals

-Animal Survey

-Translating Animal Sentences

-Identify the Animal