ICT supporting PBL - Phases in project workICTs to support project work

Thomas Ryberg

ryberg@hum.aau.dk

Department of Communication & Psychology

E-Learning Lab – center for user driven innovation, learning and design

Program for today

12.30–13.15 Introduction and lecture by Thomas Ryberg: “ICT supporting PBL, teaching and research practices” – introducing task to work with in smaller groups

13.15–13.20 Short break – pick up coffee and cake for group work

13.20–14.30 Group work – working in smaller groups on discussing how particular tools can be adopted to support supervision and collaboration with students during their Problem and Project Based learning

14.30-14.45 Short break – preparing for presentations

14.45–15.15 Presentations from the groups and discussion of the ideas

15.15–15.30 Summing up and evaluation

Outline of presentation

• Why ICT as part of group work?– And why should the supervisor be involved?

• Phases in the project– And relevant ict-tools

• Format – first presentation then small group work (and a bit hands-on)– Double learning goal

• Intro to ict tools• Reflection on the use of technology as a supervisor

Why ICT in group work

• Project work before ICT – why use ICTs?• Some strength

– Storing and sharing– Storing and sharing between different actors

(group+supervisor+cluster+semester)– Much group work is ‘backstage’

• Some advantages of gaining insight in the group processes e.g. Brainstorms

• Coordination and communication with group e.g. Supervisor contract, minutes

• Storing resources for future projects• General increase in use of ICT – preparation for students

(competences)• Many students use tools but some also need support

PBL IN PRACTICE

Problem Based Learning – the Process

Project work : a major assignment within a given subject-related framework determined for each semester (thematic framework).

Course work (some courses have separate assessment – some are relieved through the project)

50 %

50 %

Students’ use of time - lectures, courses and project work

Connection between courses and projects

• Every semester is set within a ‘thematic framework’ e.g. ‘databases and embedded systems’, ‘regional tourism’, ‘ICT and learning for sustainable development’

• Thematic frameworks are broad, but also helps sharpen the focus of the students’ projects

• Courses are developed and taught with reference to the theme of the semester

• Some courses are ‘Project Courses’ – meant to support project work

• Others are ‘Study Courses’ with own assessment and exam (for general knowledge and skills)

Typical components of project work

• The thematic framework of the semester is presented

• Students brainstorm on ideas for projects and groups are formed

• Students produce an early problem formulation and synopsis– a supervisor assigned to the group.

• They scan for theories, methods, cases etc. that will help them solve or answer the problem they have – or help them to describe and analyse the problem domain.

• E.g. ”How does the integration of computers into the classroom affect learning?” – This problem is a very open ended question, that can be investigated in many different ways.

• The students will have to:

Typical components of project work

• Find a problem and case, identify methods on how to investigate the problem (purely theoretical, through interviews, video-observation and analysis, questionnaires, ethnographic observation etc.)

• They discuss their methods, and why they investigate their problem in a particular manner

• They identify theories or theoretical concepts that will help them understand their problem

• They (often) conduct empirical investigations, that are analysed

• All this is done in collaboration with the supervisor, who helps the students to identify relevant methods, theories etc.

Assessment of the students

• Some courses have individual examinations – oral or written – small assignment 15 pages.

• Some courses are relieved through the ”project examination”

• The written product of the project work is a project-report on app. 100 pages.

• The students, teacher and censor critically discuss the project and the students are given an individual grade. An examination last app. 2-5 hours.

• Now – unfortunately – the group work is assessed not as a group but as individual exams based on the group report...but not for long

PHASES IN THE PROJECT

Phases in project work

• Project initiation• Problem analysis • Project delineation• Working with the problem • Conclusion • Evaluation

Source: SLP-hand book: http://slp.plan.aau.dk/slpbog/ - good ressource for students and supervisors – but only in Danish

Phases of the Project (AUB)

• 1. Project start (project initiation)– use the information you have

• 2. Pre-focus exploration (problem analysis)– establish an overview by using easily accessible information

• 3. Focusing (project delineation)– structure and combine your information

• 4. Elaboration (Working with the problem)– support your focus with a number of detailed searches

• 5. Putting your project into perspective (Conclusion, Evaluation)– search on the basis of the information you currently hold

Kilde: SWIM materialet: http://swiminfo.dk/pdf/pedagogy.pdfAUB-ressourcer: http://www.aub.aau.dk/hjaelp-inspiration/

Phases of the project – related to particular technologies

• Group forming• Problem formulation• Task formulation• Data gathering• Analysis• Design• Reporting

Khalid, M. S., Rongbutsri, N., & Buus, L. (2012). Facilitating Adoption of Web Tools for Problem and Project Based Learning Activities. In V. Hodgson, C. Jones, M. de Laat, D. McConnell, T. Ryberg, & P. Sloep (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Networked Learning 2012 (pp. 559–566).

Phases

• Idealised – but good point of departure– Often work more in spirals – jumping back and forth– Can also be negative to delineate the problem too early

• From divergence to convergence– From messy ideas to problem – gradual delineation– Important to get many ideas in the beginning – but also to keep track of

them– Help groups maintain focus when groups enter the phase of delineation and

working with the problem

• Pre-group establisment– A phase where supervisors can participate

Pre group establishment

• Where students exchange ideas

• How do you do it?• Some places supervisor far

removed from the process• Forums in Moodle as a tool to

discuss ideas for projects– Transparency between

students and supervisors– Supervisor can pitch own

ideas for projects

Project start and problem analysis

• Brainstorms and diagrams• Different ways of doing brain

storms• Supervisor contract• Pictures from SLP book

Some tools

• (Online) mindmapping– Wisdomap

– MindMeister

• Post-it for several users– Wallwisher

– Linoit.com

INITIAL PHASES – LITERATURE, LINKS AND OTHER RESOURCES

Initial phases

• Find loads of inspiration and texts – but also keep track of and maintain overview of material– But this often become too tied to the individual project

– resources will not be re-used

– Students don’t get back to the resources

• 2 tools for group work – or general academic use

Zotero.org• Bibliographic reference

manager• Plugin for Firefox browser

or stand alone – sync with Zotero-server

• Easy-capture of references• Create closed groups or

open bibliographies – e.g. student groups or research projects

• Customised thematic bibliographies

Delicious.com eller Diigo.com• Online representation of

bookmarks / favourites• Share, connect to and

explore others’ bookmarks• Exploration phase – but also

retaining and sharing• Easily monitor what your

network bookmarks – or see what’s popular, or browse particular ‘tags’

• Creating streams of potentially relevant material

PRODUCTIVE PHASES

Productive phases

• From project delineation to project end – increasing need for textual production – for the project but also:– Minutes from supervision (ask students to produce

minutes from meetings)

– Agendas

– Outlines of project

• Shorter document that all in the group including supervisor has access to

• This can be done in Google Docs

Google Docs• Web-based – collaborative writing

• Synchronous writing (almost real-time...almost)

• Online/offline repository for docs, spreadsheets, presentations (and other files)

• Create “web-pages” (online pres, docs, forms)

• Work on shared research articles, projects and comment on e.g. Students work (one version to rule them all)

• Open documents which can be edited by everyone with the link

Productive phases

• As text production increases – management becomes important

• Complex system for version management and handling documents

• An easy to use is dropbox - not advanced version control – but easy!– No synchronous editing – conflicting versions

• Excellent tool for sharing with supervisor

Dropbox.com• Sync files between own

computers (work, home)• Create group folders• Desktop-client and web-access• Research projects – students

group projects• Flexible, easy to use, possible to

invite outsiders

GENERAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Work and Collaboration

• Negotiation of meaning– Interplay between ‘participation’ (discussion) and ‘reification’ – continuous

dialogue on goals, process, problem while also retaining and capturing these negotiations

• Coordination – Pooled interdependence; meaning a shared understanding where the individual

contributions are crucial, and where the whole has influence on the individual. – Sequential interdependence; where single contributions are needed for

progression in the project, and finally – reciprocal interdependence; referring to the situation where result of the

individual is input for the others and vice versa• Resource management 

– The task of organizing and sharing materials and tools– resources found or produced by students themselves or recourses made

available for them by e.g. the supervisor.• Source:

Tolsby, H., Nyvang, T., & Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L. (2002). A Survey of Technologies Supporting Virtual Project Based Learning. In S. Banks, P. Goodyear, V. Hodgson, & D. McConell (Eds.), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Networked Learning - A research based conference on e-learning in Higher Education and Lifelong Learning (pp. 572–580). Lancaster: Lancaster University. Retrieved from http://www.networkedlearningconference.org.uk/past/nlc2002/proceedings/papers/40.htm

General project management

• Synchronous Communication & Coordination– Skype, Google Hangouts, Adobe Connect, Chat

• Asynchronous Communication & Coordination– Online groupware, discussion forums, group wall,

mailing list

• Resource management – Sharing files and resources (dropbox, diigo)

• Project management and planning– Calendars, Project management tools (milestones)

Resources

• Jane’s pick of the day:– http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/

• Jane’s list of tools:– http://c4lpt.co.uk/directory-of-learning-performance-

tools/

– http://c4lpt.co.uk/directory-of-learning-performance-tools/collaboration-spaces/ (collaboration tools)

• Social Software in Project Collaboration (Brian Møller - ELSA) – http://www.hum.aau.dk/~brianms/pbl/

Small task to be done in groups

• 1. Start by presenting your own use of ICTs for: Research, Teaching, Group supervision (use or fill out the online document)

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UF8IGux5tvz3Tme0p9Gra0NlbUPKTyzhpIHOScgaChY/edit

• 2. Collectively discuss use of ICTs in relation to supervision and the different phases in project work

• 3. Collectively pick particular phase(s) of the group work and choose particular technology/ies

• 4. Prepare a short presentation on the selected tool(s) and describe how you believe these could be used in your supervision practice(s)