Rob has raised some issues regarding developing IMM in teams which I know are backed with a wealth of experience. I agree with the notion that although collaboration is essential to get projects finished, trialed, and implemented in a reasonable time frame, it is also not always a comfortable experience. I know from my own work in teams which developed the Osmosis Program, and Sarcomotion, as an academic I am used to working alone, used to directly translating the pictures in my head into flow diagrams or metaphorical examples. I had a lot of trouble trying to translate ideas to programmers and graphic designers who lacked the background knowledge of the content. It was also personally challenging. I was defensive when the way I had taught a particular part of the course for years was questioned as educationally unsound. No-one usually cares one way or another what happens in the classroom let alone asks you to justify it. However, that alone was of value, and I strongly believe it made a final product which pushed the limits of the content provider.
Shauna's [McKenna, 30 Sep 96] comment about problems with continuity probably related not so much to maternity leave or anything else, but as a reflection of two things:
1. We had no idea about the follow-up, debugging, etc., we would need to do, and, like with so many things, there were glitches which didn't show up until the program was being used in a large class with a part-time tutor at 6 p.m. We didn't have a fool-proof record management of debugging, and we hadn't allocated teaching release time to sorting it out.
2. And, I should have put this first (because its a bit of a BIG IDEA) but, I have found that students have very high expectations of a piece of IMM and will get very upset if there are gremlins in the program, whereas if it was a benchtop practical they would expect that it wouldn't always work perfectly.
I'll stop there with a closing remark that Curtin HAS done lots of very good IMM development, and a lot of the credit must go to Rob and the team in the Computing Centre. I am glad that the development process has been documented for perusal by others. I await other comments with interest.