I think our project went really well this week. The faculty seemed impressed with what we could bring together in the time that was cut due to COVID. We practiced the presentation as well before the actual presentation and felt very confident in what we were saying/doing. The only thing that may have been different is to try our best to watch us limit our time on speaking over certain things. I know when I spoke on the complications of the Corona Virus, I definitely rambled a lot. Still, otherwise, I felt I did well for my part. I cannot judge my other members, for I know they always excel in their area. Our challenges were mainly focused on our coffee shop tabs. We had problems figuring out what to write for those positives and negatives and not spend as much time as we did in those areas. I also noticed we went over time we present, but I don’t think this will impact our grade. The project went well, and I could not have asked for a better group to work here. The team did a fantastic job, and my only regret is not having this group for the rest of my collegiate career. Our dynamic was excellent, and we knew what was expected of each other. I look forward to hearing about the good things we all do in the future.

I think my group did a great job of creating a site that was interactive and interesting, and enjoyed doing so. I think the feedback we received after our presentation was very helpful, and while I would agree that there were things to be changed, I think we were all very happy with the final outcome. We all did a great job of communicating our ideas, what we thought needed done and how to go about creating this site. We practiced multiple times before presenting and I think this helped us in being ready for the final presentation. This again shows how well we worked together on this project. I think all my group members did a fantastic job of contributing and being ready when the time came to present our project. The only challenges we encountered were those that were due to the current state of the world and collecting content. I think our site could have been a little more personal to us if we were able to go out and get our own videos and photos. I think we also could have made it interesting by interviewing students at coffee shops, but what we made in-spite of it all was the greatest we could have come up with. I think everything else went well beyond that. I will say this was one of the more enjoyable group projects I have done in my college career and am glad that I was apart of a hard working group.

I find myself almost sad to be writing this final post. My group wasn’t incredibly close personally but we got along and in some way it is a bit of a goodbye. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the people that I was paired with. 

Throughout the setbacks we experienced we were calm, collected and willing to adapt to an ever changing and “unprecedented situation.” Regardless of where we found ourselves in the country or how bogged down we were with other classes, all of the group members were phenomenal to work with and I would not be more proud of the finished product. 

During our presentation I felt that we were prepared, and ready to explain the work we had done. I think it went well, despite being a bit over time and a little rushed. We enjoyed it and like I said earlier I am proud of the site we made. 

I think this whole unique experience, with online classes, and working on our project from home, it has given us a taste of the chaos that real jobs endure everyday, especially in the media industry. I’m grateful for my experience, and my group for the fabulous job and the wonderful experience. I hope they go on to do incredible things within their respected fields.

I can’t believe I forgot the second to last blog post. We love to see a messy and stressful final two weeks in the semester. Anyways, I think this week we had a really good experience during our practice presentation, however there were a lot of small improvements that we could make on the aesthetics of the site. 

Before we changed it to the final product it was a bit messy and hard to navigate, once we all came together however to figure everything out it seemed to properly come together into a final project we could all be happy about. 

An important aspect of our presentation that I wanted to work on was the fluidity of our speaking and how we tossed the floor back and forth to each other to give a good overview of the project. Last week it was clunky and poorly organized and after our presentation today you can tell we were much more prepared for the speaking aspect. 

We came together last week and communicated efficiently to create the best product that we could and seeing during finals is really fulfilling. I’m very grateful for my group and the work we all put in over the last couple of months.

At some points in the semester, I didn’t know if we were going to make it. This semester was definitely challenging, but it did go way faster than expected. Building an entire website from scratch is something I have never done before, so completing this semester with a full website created by our group is incredible. Although there were some low points, I’m glad everything turned out the way it did.

To reflect, the main thing I would’ve done differently is focusing on not procrastinating. Our group left getting media for the website to the last day which stressed me out. Because of this, we also weren’t able to get much of our own content for the website, as we resorted to using media from the internet. However, we definitely weren’t prepared for the Coronavirus pandemic to completely throw us off course. We also procrastinated with getting the website together until crunch time, but I’m glad we all did what we needed to in order to put together our website about coffee shops and what they mean to college students. We were challenged by not being able to physically meet as a group, as this would have allowed us better communication with the ability of capturing media. However, I think we did work really well together. The group dynamic was great and everyone got along perfectly. Thanks for a great semester!

HOLY COW, WE ARE DONE! (well, I’m writing this the day before we present our final project, and I still have to do a PowerPoint for my other class, but I am sure we will do great.) This semester FLEW by; I almost don’t know what to say! Obviously, with everything going on in the world, it’s a little different/challenging to act like anything is changing, but hey, take the wins as they come! I have summer classes to look forward to as well, so that is exciting! haha

As for my group, I could not ask for a better group of people to work with, I know some of the other groups have really been struggling with lack of communication from team members and lack of effort. Still, this group we assembled here is the definition of power in numbers. We started a little rocky thanks to some “flakes” from the other Ideas we had for the project, but once we got this ball rolling (ironically the same time COVID got rolling), we could not be stopped! Everyone knew what they were good at and took care of business, no slacking off, and no cold shoulders. Could not ask for a better group, I’ll miss them and you Ellie! I wish we could have presented in class so everyone could see the hard work we put into this, but it is what it is!

Have a safe and healthy summer! Hopefully, classes will be smooth come next fall!

Well, we are here. After 15 weeks of this class, 5 of which have been online, it has come to an end for blog posts. To be honest, these posts have given me some clarity these last couple of weeks as it helps to write out how things are going with this assignment. I want to thank first my group members for this fantastic work they have done. Our project would not be where it is today unless they worked as hard as they did. We have worked hard to make sure the website we created is a flowing and free-thinking site where it can be viewed as extremely user friendly. After practice presentations this week, m group worked towards taking the suggestions of our instructor and make improvements to the site. The chief complaints were the time we spent on the coffee tab and how it could be made to improve reading quality and overall flow. Tomorrow I will work to fix my portion of the website so we can be ready for the presentation Tuesday. I have no doubts about my group’s capability to present next week, we are a well-knit and efficient working group. This class has been a privilege, and I enjoyed the time spent in and outside the classroom here. Moving forward, I will look back on my work on the site and see how I can improve my skills used here for the future.

This week our group made the plan after our practice presentation to fix all the things suggested. This included making a tab for each coffee shop, adding positive and negative things about each coffee shop and overall making the site a little more focused on the students rather than the shops themselves. We also started working on locating a video that could be used for the site. Because Johanna did a similar project with the DN, we were able to find one and Sara is working on putting it up on the site. This week we all thought of ways that could make the site a little bit more student focused, and add a little more interactive elements. We came up with the idea that students could leave a review of each shop and rate them out of 5 stars. Sara really worked on putting this idea into fruition and up on the site. Because we are using a free version of wix, the site wouldn’t allow us do to this for all of the shops we have featured. But, the idea point is still clear on what we were attempting to do. Overall I think we have created a good project and that our final presentation will go well.

Hello! Wow, second to last blog post already, where has the time gone? I guess when you’re all cooped up inside for who knows how many weeks, time just sort of blends together. Either way, it has been a blast, and I look forward to finishing off as strongly as possible!

We did present this week and got some great feedback. Thankfully we presented early on in the week, so we have enough time to go through and make the necessary changes that were suggested with plenty of time to spare. I have to finish off four significant projects by the end of the week, so I am focusing on those before spending my weekend knocking out some important changes to the website. One of the critical things you mentioned in the feedback was how the coffee shop page strayed a little too far from our overall topic, so my teammates are making some changes to that first and foremost. Another thing that we noticed on our own was how small everything looked. Obviously, everything is sort of proportional, depending on your screen size. Still, since I plan on screen sharing on my desktop for the final presentation as I did on the practice presentation, we want to make sure it looks right.

Our group, the Sad Journalism Kids, just got done presenting our project over what coffee shops mean to college students. Even though this was just a practice presentation, I truly believe we have done a great job and will do great for the final presentation. We plan on fixing the overall size of the graphics and the text on the website because it all looks different on Swazy’s computer. He will make the needed changes on his end to enlarge everything to make all aspects more legible for the final presentation. We also need to add a short summary of the Coffee House and fix a few minor details on the student testimonies page. Overall, we are in great shape for next week and will continue to work throughout this week to make it perfect.

Our group met on multiple occasions over Zoom to discuss the progress of our website and practicing the presentation. We were challenged by fitting all of the information we need to say in under 15 minutes because we all have a lot to say about this topic. In the future, we will practice our presentation more to ensure we do not exceed the time limit.