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MOU – How to Get It Done

Following is an excerpt from the CLASS™ Instructional Designers Handbook – you need a great sense of humor to work in the field of on-line course development!

What the heck is a frameset anyway?
The frameset is a wonderful thing… it links the course's different sections together, allows for student tracking, makes it possible to link the course to the glossary, exam, and notebook databases, it slices, it dices, it juliennes.

Frameset information comes in a variety of ways, including:
a. left-hand navigation menus
b. tracking information that is coded on every page
c. links between the top frame (the toolbar) and the rest of the course

But, alas, all these wonderful things come at a cost. You actually have to prepare your course for frameset implementation. If you are in an environment that requires outside contractors and contracts, be certain to detail the specifics of your expectations and the cost of delivery.

How can I tell when my course is ready for the frameset?
Ideally, the frameset is put on the course after every html page and file has been finalized, meaning:

all the images are in the right place, both on the page and in the file structure (meaning that there are no loose images running rampant through your course; they all need to be in the appropriate media folder)
the Flashes, sound files, and videos are embedded
the back and next buttons have been linked
everything that you don't want to get burned on to the final course CD must be out of the final folder (things like temporary notebook files, graphics that were never used)
no files have any capital letters in them (e.g. Mapquest.jpg, monkeyChow.gif, etc.)
no files have any dashes in them (e.g. Map-quest.jpg, monkey-Chow.gif.) If you insist on naming things in a funky way -- and I know right now who you are -- then you need to use the underscore, like map_quest.jpg or monkey_chow.gif.
the headers look exactly the way that you want them to look, and
the template has been finalized.

Why all the info? Part of frameset implementation requires hand-coding on every html page, and it's very easy (VERY easy) to overwrite the information when you do anything to the template.

The Quality Assurance (QA) team needs to go through every html page to make sure that they all appear to be correct. Making minor changes to content isn't a big deal, but formatting or template changes are. It will save tremendous headaches later on if you take some time to make sure.

How much time should I allow for the frameset information to be coded?
In general, allow for a week to put all the frameset information on the course. (The week estimate might change if your course is exceptionally long.)

But wait, you have more problems than just a week for the frameset. You also have to tack on some additional time for the pre-frameset tasks.

Day 1
- You provide me with the information that I need for an MOU (see below). In turn, I create the MOU the same day (because I'm just THAT GOOD). The MOU is logged by Laura and faxed to NET.

Day 2
- At the point that the Powers That Be at NET receive the fax, they're on the clock. They have five business days to respond to the MOU. While sometimes the response is quick, just assume that it will take a full week.

Day 9
- NET provides Char with a cost estimate for frameset implementation and any other miscellaneous deeds necessary for the course. Let's assume that the bid meets with approval.

Day 10
- I contact Steve at NET and discuss what is needed. In most cases, he will begin working on the frameset within a day or so. Now you have to allow for a week (remember the guideline from above?)
- At this point, STOP ALL WORK ON THE COURSE. This is where we have the greatest potential for disaster (namely, overwriting Steve's work).

Day 17 - 18
- With any luck (and barring any unforeseen complications such as accidentally overwriting the frameset information), the frameset will now be fully implemented in your course. It is now ready to begin more formal QA checking.

As you can see, you should allow around three weeks from the time that you give me the information to the time that the frameset has actually been completed for your course. Bear in mind that these are ONLY rough estimates. Actual mileage may vary due to driving habits.

Yeah, yeah, timelines, shmimelines. Assuming that I am going to pay attention to your warning, what kind of information do I need to give the almighty, omnipotent Caesar for the MOUs?

Number of units, lessons, and a rough estimate of the number of pages
Number of notebooks, along with the html mockup pages for them
Number of Web board/discussion group/newsgroup thingies that you will need for the course.
Two types of the table of contents.
- One will be for your left-hand navigation. This will need to have abbreviated lesson names and should really have chopped topic names as well. The left-hand menu bar doesn't allow for a lot of space, so we have to conserve space wherever and whenever we can.
- The other will be for the site map. This can use longer titles.
- In both instances, provide html pages for every unit intro page, lesson intro page, and every topic page.
Number of exams. Make sure that you give me the paper copies of the exams. You also need to tell me where you're hiding the electronic copies of the exams.
You should also take some time before giving me this information to make sure that your course is actually ready to go.

Once I have your information, then I can make your MOU. Just because I'm paranoid, I'll generally run the MOU by you to make sure that everything's correct before sending it off. I'll also need the MOU creation fee of $50 at that time. Thank you, please drive forward to the next window.

Sample Memoradum of Understanding (.doc)

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