Presentation for course for assistant professors at AAU (Aalborg University)

1. ICT supporting PBL -
Phases in project
work
ICTs 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. PBL IN PRACTICE

6. Problem Based Learning – the Process

7. Students’ use of time - lectures,
courses and project work
50 % Project work : a major assignment within a given subject-related
framework determined for each semester (thematic framework).
50 % Course work (some courses have separate assessment – some are
relieved through the project)

8. 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)

9. 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:

10. 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.

11. 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

12. PHASES IN THE PROJECT

13. 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

14. 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.pdf
AUB-ressourcer: http://www.aub.aau.dk/hjaelp-inspiration/

15. 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).

19. 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

20. 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

21. Project start and problem analysis
• Brainstorms and diagrams
• Different ways of doing brain
storms
• Supervisor contract
• Pictures from SLP book

22. Some tools
• (Online) mindmapping
– Wisdomap
– MindMeister
• Post-it for several users
– Wallwisher
– Linoit.com

23. INITIAL PHASES –
LITERATURE, LINKS AND
OTHER RESOURCES

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. PRODUCTIVE PHASES

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. GENERAL PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

33. 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

34. 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)

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

36. 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/1UF8IGux5tvz3Tme0p9Gra0
• 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)