Summary Schedule

Detailed Schedule

Basics of Building Online Micro-services

Week 1: Service (Tuesday Oct 25)

• Introduction to the course: Overview of goals and expectations
• A brief introduction to online micro-services
• Tutorial: Introduction to building web services with ruby, sinatra and heroku
• Assignments:
  • Review the course policies and information.
  • Set up an account on the course slack, download a client and enable notifications
  • Set up a GitHub account and DM it to the instructor to get access to the course code repo
  • Complete through the Interactive Introduction to Ruby and skill up on the foundations of Ruby
  • Submit the first Skills Dev: Build a basic web app/api that provides information on this course. Due: Tuesday Nov 1, noon.

Week 2: Data (Tuesday Nov 1)

• Why Data matters to microservices?
• Introduction to data formats and databases in microservices
• Tutorial: Working with ActiveRecord and SQLite
• Assignments:
  • Skills Assignment: Build on Week 1 and prepare a JSON-Based API. Due: Tuesday Nov 8, noon.
  • Complete a technical discovery exercise and contribute the outcome to the #share channel as a post.
  • In addition review the resources from this week and read about SQLite, ActiveRecord and designing APIs
  • Complete the interactive guide for SQL

Week 3: Interface (Tuesday Nov 8)

• Introduction to Designing Microinteractions
• Tutorial: Adding light-UIs and conversational interfaces through SMS and Twilio
• Assignment:
  • Skills Assignment: Build a basic chat bot. Due: Saturday Nov 19.
  • Complete a technical discovery exercise and contribute the outcome to the #share channel as a post.
  • In addition review the resources from this week and read about desiging SMS chat bots.

Week 4: Recap (Tuesday Nov 15)

• Recap and Review of working in Ruby and Developing Sinatra applications
• Introduction to final project, starting points for designing your bot.
• Assignment - Final Project Preparation: Develop a proposal, feature prority matrix and workflow diagram(s). Due: Tuesday Nov 22, noon.

Prototyping across Platforms

Week 5: Slack (Tuesday Nov 22)

• Rapid Review of Project Proposals and Workflows.
• In-Class Exercise 1: Wizard Of Oz with Slack
• Tutorial: Introduction to Slackbot Webhooks
• Assignment - Final Project Preparation: Explore and document technical needs for the project: 1 x Data diagram, 5 x discoveries, 1 x documented experiment Due: Tuesday Nov 29, noon.

Week 6: Slack, OAuth and Twitter (Tuesday Nov 29)

• Rapid Review of Data Diagrams
• In Class Exercise II: Designing Personality
• Slackbots in depth.
• Tutorial: Building bots, services and interactions for Slack
• Introduction to Twitter and OAuth
• Skills Assignment: Submit the Skills Dev: Slackbot. Due: Tuesday Dec 6, noon.
• Final Project Preparation: Implement an experience prototype Due: Tuesday Dec 6, noon.

Office Hours: Advanced Topics

• Tutorial: Sending and receiving email from your app.
• Tutorial: Building bots, services and interactions for Twitter

Applied Exploration

Week 7: Alexa (Tuesday Dec 6)

• Rapid Review: Experience Prototype Demos
• Introduction to Voice Interactions and Amazon’s Alexa
• Tutorial: Building bots, services and interactions for Alexa
• Skills Assignment: Submit the Skills Dev AlexaBot. Due: Tuesday Dec 6, noon.
• Desk Crits and Reviewing Proposals for Creative Projects / In Class work on Creative Projects

Final Review (Monday Dec 12)

Students will prepare a digital presentation and showcase outcomes from the course for invited guests. Each group will be given 15 minutes to present their work (including a technical demonstration of prototypes) with 15 minutes for a response from invited critics.

TBC - Provisional Schedule as follows:

• 2:00-4:00pm ET – 4612 Forbes Avenue

Final documentation and deliverables will be due on Thursday December 15th (midnight) and should respond to feedback from guest critics.

Note: This schedule (and the modules described) may be subject to change at any time.