Transcript Slide 1

CSCL – a review of three
different approaches.
Simon Rae
Learning and Teaching Development,
IET
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
introduction
• The adoption of VLEs throughout HEIs has enabled
more computer supported collaborative learning. The
OU is not alone in implementing Moodle with its toolbox
of facilitating options for student interaction,
communication and collaboration.
• In this presentation I will review different approaches to
providing CSCL, two OU courses: M883 and T885, and
iCOLL (innovation through COLLaboration), an EC
funded project.
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
Description of 3 courses
• M883: Software Requirements for Business Systems
currently with just shy of 150 students having had one or
two dropouts.
• T885: Team Engineering are both post-graduate level
course with just 10 students, but international and with
100% retention!
• The iCOLL project has just completed its third seminar
with over 70 masters-level students from Turkey, Poland,
Germany, Lithuania and USA.
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
M883 - Software requirements for
business systems
• http://learn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1181
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
M883 - Software requirements for business systems
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
M883 - Software requirements for business systems
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
M883 - Software requirements for business systems
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
M883 - Software requirements for business systems
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
T885 - Team engineering
• http://learn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=976
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
T885 - Team engineering
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
T885 - Team engineering
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
T885 - Team engineering
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
T885 - Team engineering
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL
•
•
•
•
iCOLL Pilot : Feb-April 2006
iCOLL2 : Oct-Dec 2006
iCOLL3 : Feb-May 2007
http://infserv.fh-reutlingen.de/~www-elr/moodle_esb/
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
Pilot : Feb-April 2006
• independent observation of one of the student
participants:
“Maybe some real life case studies or support, not only
from readings (which students sometimes simply omit)
but by inviting to the seminar some professionals familiar
with the related topic, would be helpful. They might bring
a little experience and interesting, taken-from-businesslife, examples, of which lack I often feel in academic
teaching.”
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL – Pilot, iCOLL2 and iCOLL3
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL3 : Feb-May 2007
• “Innovative international business cases and cross-cultural team
work”. Students … co-operating to study innovative business models and to
present their solutions to a common forum. This online teamwork is moderated
by international university teachers and coached by company representatives,
acting as clients.
• Seminar aims at introducing students to cross-national teamwork
in the field of innovative business strategies, raising at the same time their
awareness and abilities in international as well as intercultural communication.
• 5 Business cases, 5 partner groups:
Turkey, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, USA.
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL3 : Feb-May 2007
• Research of Market Opportunities
for innovative mobile phones features
Bosch Sensortec asks you to explore innovative features for
mobile phones and to push product development in order to enter
new sectors of the widely saturated mobile phone market. The
widening of market opportunities aims on exploring the
international markets for newly developed features in mobile
phones – including their general marketing potential as well as
their specific national/ cultural etc. market sectors.
• http://group5-2007.icoll.eu/
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL3 : Feb-May 2007
• 1. Background
Bosch Sensortec and Bosch have a strong in-house
technology base to develop and fabricate MEMS (Microelectro-mechanical systems) products. These are based
on silicon, which is structured in a process technology
close to semi-conductor fabrication standards.
• Bosch sensors are enablers for various applications. You
can find Bosch Sensortec applications and products
under …
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL3 : Feb-May 2007
• 2. Task
Your task is, to identify new features and applications in
cell phones which seem to be attractive and which offer
an added value for various target groups and purposes
which are described below.
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL3 : Feb-May 2007
• 3. Situation
To specify the project into more details, here are the boundary
conditions:
1. The type of products the components should be integrated into:
Mobile phone, PDA
2. Applications/Features which should be found
•
•
•
•
Completely free – think of anything
Explore innovative features
The feature could be hardware related (e.g. MP3 integrated)
software related (e.g. a game)
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL2 : Oct-Dec 2006
• The Steering Committee will want to address: the
question of workload in the project, which seems to be
rather to onerous for many students.
• Assessment and Institutional Mainstreaming: … it needs
to be recognised that whether or not the seminar was
integrated or free-standing, because of the mixed
international character of the student teams, students in
any one group were operating under different conditions.
Some were being assessed and awarded credit; some
were not. Such an arrangement can be unsettling for
students and, for the future, the partners might want to
consider an arrangement where all students are seen to
be operating on equal terms.
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL - Familiarity, English, Access
pilot
iCOLL2
iCOLL3
88%
90%
90%
13%
10%
30%
32%
Familiarity
never done
online before
English
problems with
English as 2nd
language
Access
problems
30%
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL - Familiarity, English, Access
•
Not directly, but others had evident problems to speak
English properly
• I had to use dictionary several times to write some
technical sentences in my report parts, but it wasn’t
very difficult.
1. The system was down a couple of times. Could not log
in.
2. Many things goes behind the scene, like in Skype or
msn messenger, because of the non synchronic talking
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL - Workload
pilot
iCOLL2
iCOLL3
13%
3%
18% too much
28%
13%
82% about right
58%
71%
-
6%
Much too
much
Too much
OK
Too little
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL - Communication
pilot
iCOLL2
iCOLL3
iCOLL forum
100%
90%
81%
Skype / other
-
15%
19%
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL - Assessment
Happy /
satisfied with
arrangements
pilot
iCOLL2
iCOLL3
-
95%
71%
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
iCOLL - Assessment
•
•
•
•
I don’t know what they were.
I do not know how each member is assessed.
Which arrangements?
I am not participating for a grade. I feel moderately satisfied, but I
can’t assess the outcome of my group.
• No clarity/ transparency of how the work has been assessed
• It should be clear that it is not enough to post messages to have a
good grade but that these messages should be somehow
sensible and helpful. It should not be that people keep on posting
“Yes I agree” or – what was often the case - just repeat what has
already been said several times.
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
M883 - Assessment
• The assessment on the course involves three tutor-marked assignments
(TMAs) and an examination at the end of the presentation. … Each student is
allocated a tutor and each tutor-group has a maximum of twenty students. We
have divided each tutor group in student-groups of four to six students (big
enough to cater for the inevitable drop-out and small enough to be manageable
and effective). Collaborative activities, of varying complexity, to be carried out
by the student groups are included in each TMA. Collaborative Learning in a Wiki Environment:
Case Study of a Requirements Engineering Course, Minocha, S., Schencks, M., Sclater, N., Thomas, P. and Hause, M. (2007)
• An issue that is always of interest in group working concerns the rewards for
participation and ensuring that good participation is rewarded whilst nonparticipation is not. We adopted a scoring system that was based both on the
results of the group activity and an individual’s contribution to the group.
Collaborative Authoring and Learning in a Wiki Environment, Thomas, P., Minocha, S., King, D., Taylor, J., Sclater, N. and Schencks,
M. (2007)
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
T885 - Assessment
• This course requires you to submit three pairs of tutor-marked assignments
(TMAs) and a two-part end-of-course assessment (ECA). These are
unconventional compared to virtually all other Open University courses in that
each paired assignment requires you to report on two aspects of your work:
• a written report compiled by the team from work done by all members of the
team;
• a written submission by you as a team member plus an evaluation by your
tutor of your contribution to the team’s work.
• The two items will be marked separately and your individual assignment grade
will be determined from the two marks. Since the first of these will be an
identical report submitted by all members of the team, it will be marked only
once and the same mark awarded to each team member, regardless of their
level of contribution to the team report. (T885 Team Engineering Course Guide)
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology
Conclusion
• Realistic workload
• Transparent assessment strategy
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology