I start a WISE project and note that I can immediately navigate to any Activity or Step in the project. This deflates my feeling that this is an exciting entity to be explored. It would be better if I started with access to only the first few steps in Activity 1. I need to solve these successfully in order to unlock/reveal later steps. This would greatly enhance my feeling of accomplishment and achievement, similar to progressing through a fun adventure game.

Note: the left navigation bar should play up this "unlock" scheme. Example: I start with access to Step 1 & 2 (their buttons are bright and animated; bright conveys its clickable and animated conveys it's not completed yet). Steps 3-8 in this activity are visible but dim/inactive. Clicking on them yields a prompt telling student to solve Steps 1 & 2 first. Also, a little gate icon is present between Step 2 & 3. When student completes both Step 2, the gate icon animates and unlocks, allowing a navigation spark/icon to move to Step 3. Now Step 3 and 4 are active, though Steps 5-8 are still dim. Note that Steps 1/2 remain bright (clickable) but are now longer animated.

Note2: a password-enabled "Unlock All Steps" link should be included at the top of the Navigation Bar. If the teacher desires they can give out the password to students to allow them to reveal/unlock all Acts/Steps and have immediate full access to all parts of the project.

Note3: the steps should be relockable too, in case a teacher wants to prevent students from returning to a step for some reason after it is completed.

Matt's formulation

For a "Step" in a WISE-styled project, the author should be able to specify at least three levels of navigation access available to the User:

• a) Full Navigation. The user can click on any other Step in the navigation bar and immediately go there. That is, they can leave Step X at will for other Steps or can open other interface elements.
• b) Current Step + MyNotes Only. The icons in the navigation bar grey out and become inaccessible. The User can only work on the current Step plus can open and view the MyNotes interface.
• c) Current Step Only. The icons in the navigation bar grey out and become inaccessible. The User must stay on the current step until they complete an appointed task or click some sort of "Quit/I Give Up" button.

The Type B & C navigation level would be extremely useful for things like Challenge Questions and other types of "formative assessment" moments. These are interactions where we want to probe the users abilities at the current moment, temporarily denying them access to other parts of the project until they've either completed the Step or pressed a "Quit" button of some sort.