Vitamin Village 2.0 Release Notes
August 12, 2008

Introduction:

The Vitamin Village is a web-based eLearning package developed between 2001 and 2008 
to incorporate vitamins A, C, D, E and K, as well as a basic introduction to 
antioxidants. It is mainly used in first year teaching of vitamins, but also in the 
2nd and 3rd years of the 3 year BSc (Hons) Nutrition and 4 year MNutr Nutrition degrees 
taught within the School of Biosciences.

The creation and development involved staff within Nutritional Sciences 
(Drs John Brameld, Zoe Daniel & Tim Parr and Professor Andy Salter) and the Information 
Services Learning team. In 2008, management of the project shifted from Suzanne Wright 
to Colleen McCants, who undertook the much needed optimisation and rennovation of this 
virtual learning environment, with help from programmers on the Learning Team, John Horton, 
Thomas Koller and Julian Tenny.


The online version of Vitamin Village was first released with Vitamins A and K, in 
2003-4. In 2006, the antioxidants A and E were added. Vitamin D has been included 
in this latest release,  which sees considerable navigation improvements, as well. 
Special thanks to Andy Beggan of IS Learning Team, University of Nottingham, for 
useful suggestions on optimal clickflow through the programme. 




Major changes:


Navigation menu is now on the bottom of the page

Projector window resizes with browser window, allowing better legibility.

Vitamin buttons light up (or dim when unavailable for a section), to allow tracking, 
especially helpful when it is not readily apparent which vitamin is being covered.
 
Animations attached to the beginning of sections have improved and separated into 
external .swfs, allowing the user to now switch between vitamins in a section, without 
having to navigate back out or replay entry animations, thus reducing overall clicks.

Improved back button funtionality, with exit animations as user leaves any of the 
five buildings. These animations zoom back out to street menu.




Vitamin Village2.swf:
has had a small looping animation of a stork and chicks added 
to alleviate the static entry.


sources/grocers:
Vitamin Sources has seen considerable standardisaton, with new 
vegetables added  in some earlier, more barren sections. Items being dragged into 
trolley are no longer seen to pass behind store furniture. All sections now contain both 
drag/drop and popup activity. However, not all store items light up in every section, 
and dropping items into trolley does not give feedback beyond items simply 
remaining in place if suitable as a source for a particular vitamin.


Vet/Farm: 
animated entry added, sections now more legible


University:
Uni swf has been further broken down into separate swfs to solve problems 
with antioxidant vs. normal views for upper floor lecture room door menu. The uni 
lobby now leads to external swfs for Library, Exams and Lectures, in order to 
improve back button facility and speed file download time. Digestion and Function 
lectures have been improved and standardised where possible, especially for older 
vitamin sections A and K.


Chemistry:
Chemists swf has had redundant jars menu deactivated, as the vitamin buttons on the 
bottom menu now serve this function. Older vitamin sections for A and K have been 
rennovated, with graphics and functionality improved to the standard of newer areas.


Hospital/Deficiency:
Hospital swf has been separated into entry anim and lobby menu. Menu for doors has 
been improved, without need for extra instruction to navigate. Vitamin sections for 
deficiency have had non-interactive buttons deactivated. 
New areas have been created for Nursing students (a nurses lounge with notice board, 
television, character and furniture) and a Case Studies room (with various patients 
sitting in a waiting room). These new rooms are not currently available through the 
public release. Although these area rooms were requested, the content has not yet 
been developed.


Exams:
Self-directed Exams are no longer available through the Library, and are now 
available through a yellow door in the Uni lobby (rooms function list on the wall). 
A new entry animation has been added, showing a 3D type zoom into a classroom.


About:
About swf in this, UoN copyright notice, UoN and ISLT logos have been added.

Help:
Help swf has been corrected to accomodated directions for new menu location, street and 
back button functionality. Graphics have been added to clarify.



Aug 12, 2008

Colleen McCants
Multimedia Artist
IS Learning Team
University of Nottingham 

