(4-1) Success

This week, I successfully implemented the authentication process of my side of the ERIC API.

The issue turned out to be 2 issues with my keys. The first issue was the fact my keys were 1028 bits, rather than 2056 bits (which is what the implementation of the ERIC API relied on). Additionally, my public key for the game server was not the same as the one the game server has implemented. I'm not sure how this happened, but after noticing (and solving) this problem, the authentication process was successful.

Next week, I plan on finally moving forward with development. I plan on further implementing the following things.

• The entire user experience (look and feel of the site)
• Updating and pulling reward data for a user
• Pulling a user's cardbook from the game server

Additionally, if I am able to achieve these goals within the next few days, I will attempt to work on a poster to present at my school's research symposium. 

(3-17) User Experience

This week, I focused on the ERIC API and the user experience of my site.

In terms of user experience, I focused on the teacher's side. I developed an interface for them to easily view, add, and delete rewards. The teacher can also view every student in the student database. Additionally, I created and implemented a many to many relationship between the relationship and student table. I am currently working on buttons for the teacher to issue achievements to students.

As for the ERIC API, I completely wiped the database and keys in order to possibly solve the authorization issue. However, the issue persists. Previously, the error was due to me sending the TCG administrator the incorrect public key (I sent them their public key instead of mine. Oops). I believe the issue now could lie in an incorrect creation of my public and private key. I used openssl to create a private key, and used the private key to create a public one with openssl as well. I will continue looking into it next week.

In conclusion, for next week, I plan on continuing the work I've done this week.

(3-11) Additional Work

This week, I added basic "share to Facebook" and "share to Twitter" buttons. Additionally, I reworked the site to have a richer user experience. However, this is still a work in progress. Additionally, I modified my site to log whenever someone logs in (for analysis purposes).

We hit another wall with the ERIC API. Somewhere in our process is some kind of authorization error that's stopping any communication from happening. I am currently troubleshooting.

This week, I plan on continuing developing the user experience of my site, and repairing the ERIC API. Secondly, I would like to log how often a user shares their game data to Facebook. Lastly, I would like to make some client for a teacher to add rewards to issue to students, and a place for students to see rewards they have/have not earned.

(3-2) Finalizing the Site

This week, I submitted the IRB to the board for approval, and I made my web application look better by designing the login/signup screen, having a home screen, and displaying cards in stacks (1 card appears as a card, 2 of the same card appear as two cards on top of each other, and 3 or greater of the same card appears as 3 cards).

There was a bug with the ERIC API involving the location of the folder on my web server, which caused issues when trying to get data from the remote server. This task has taken the longest due to  errors such as this (for all data has to be 100% correct in order to be authorized).

This week, I plan on continuing the development of my site by adding animations, adding buttons instead of hypertext links, and perhaps choosing a better color scheme. Additionally, I will continue implementing the ERIC API.

(2-24) Finishing the IRB

This week, I finalized the IRB form. I plan on submitting it this week. Developing the survey turned out to be harder than I expected because we have to ask many quantitative questions that would help identify trends. I initially missed a lot of these possible questions, such as their preferred platform to play games. Additionally, the phrasing of certain questions, such as questions involving game attitude, mattered ("video games" and "computer games" have different meanings that would affect the result of the surveys).

Additionally, I have spent some time working on the user experience of the application. Rather than simply having a blank screen with text, as I originally had so I could focus on functionality, I now have nice login and signup screens.

Next week, I plan on submitting the IRB, finalizing the look and feel of my application, ensuring my app looks nice on mobile, and continuing to implement the ERIC API.

(2-16) Surveys

This week, I finalized the survey questions required for the IRB application. There will be 2 surveys for students to take - one before, and one after.

The pre survey will contain questions involving game attitude. I believe this data will help find correlations involving system effectiveness to students who enjoy video games vs. students who do not.

The post survey will involve questions from the System Usability Scale, and the Technology Acceptance Model. These questions will aid in assessing the overall effectiveness of my system.

This week, I also tried to further the implementation of the Eric API. However, I ran into an issue involving the step in which the students grant my app privileges. When a student tries to log into the game server using their login credentials, it replies with "wrong username or password". This is most likely an issue with the data i'm sending to the game server's entry point, and the developer and I are currently working towards a solution.

My plan for this upcoming week is to submit the IRB and solve the ERIC API issue.

(2-6) Additional Help and the IRB

This week, I began filling out an IRB application. IRB stands for Institutional Review Board, and they're responsible for protecting human research subjects. Since the user study tied to this project involves humans, we fall under this category.

To apply, I have to fill out a few forms, and complete a course that will provide me with the necessary training required to preform a clean study.

Additionally, I have to learn how to make effective surveys to be given to participants before and after the test. I've been tasked to study the “System Usability Scale”, and the “Technology Acceptance Module” - two trainings that will help me accomplish this goal.

I also had to learn how to protect the anonymity of my participants. The difficulty arose when my advisor and I had to find a way to link a survey ID to a student - that way we can compare the data from one student before the test, and after. We came to the conclusion I personally would never have anything to do with the handling of this ID - my advisor will. All I will need to deal with is the accounts created by the user on my platform, and linking that account to a TCG account. We decided to worry about dynamically pulling student grade data later, for the teacher can manually issue rewards through the game server.

In terms of the ERIC API, I reached out to my advisor for help, for I came to the conclusion I lacked the knowledge required to understand the API (remote database management, encryption, etc.). After a few meetings, I feel I have enough footing to effectively begin implementing the API. All of the setup is completed, and all I have to do now is add users, and learn to pull the data for a particular user that I need.