14,881 research outputs found
Introducing New Methodologies for Identifying Design Patterns for Internationalization and Localization
This paper describes a new methodology for deriving interaction design patterns from an analysis of ethnographic data. It suggests using inductive and deductive analysis processes to identify and articulate patterns that address the needs of culturally diverse users of interactive, collaborative systems. This might inform the internationalization and localization process of computer supported collaboration systems
A case study in online formal/informal learning: was it collaborative or cooperative learning?
Developing skills in communication and collaboration is essential in modern design education, in order to prepare students for the realities of design practice, where projects involve multidisciplinary teams, often working remotely. This paper presents a learning activity that focusses on developing communication and collaboration skills of undergraduate design students working remotely and vocational learners based in a community makerspace. Participants were drawn from these formal and informal educational settings and engaged in a design-make project framed in the context of distributed manufacturing. They were given designer or maker roles and worked at distance from each other, communicating using asynchronous online tools. Analysis of the collected data has identified a diversity of working practice across the participants, and highlighted the difficulties that result from getting students to work collaboratively, when not collocated. This paper presents and analysis of participantsâ communications, with a view to identify whether they were learning collaboratively, or cooperatively. It was found that engaging participants in joint problem solving is not enough to facilitate collaboration. Instead effective collaboration depends on symmetry within the roles of participants and willingness to share expertise through dialogue. Designing learning activities to overcome the challenges that these factors raise is a difficult task, and the research reported here provides some valuable insight
Improving instructional effectiveness with computerâmediated communication
This study explores the use of asynchronous ComputerâMediated Communication (CMC) in the delivery of instructional content, and points up the interaction among learners, as well as between learners and instructors. The instructional content in the project described was available to learners online as Microsoft Word documents, with email being used for communicating within the student group. Many students, as well as some of the instructors, felt uncomfortable with the flexibility and openness that a CMC environment allowed. However, once familiar with this process of instruction and interaction, learners were able to work consistently at their own pace, and understand that instructors are interested in every individual learner's opinion and in the collective views of the group. It was evident that a CMCâbased instructional delivery system, when carefully planned, has the potential to facilitate that outcome, and to improve instructional effectiveness
Detailed empirical studies of student information storing in the context of distributed design team-based project work
This paper presents the findings of six empirical case studies investigating the information stored by engineering design students in distributed team-based Global Design Projects. The aim is to understand better how students store distributed design information in order to prepare them for work in todayâs international and global context. This paper outlines the descriptive element of the work, the qualitative and quantitative research methods used and the results. It discusses the issues around the emergent themes of information storing; information storing systems; information storing patterns; and information strategy, making recommendations; establishing that there is a need for more prescriptive measures to supporting distributed design information management. This work will be of great value to industry also
Collaborative pedagogy and digital scholarship: a case study of 'Media Culture 2020'
This paper presents an educational case study of âMedia Culture 2020â, an EU Erasmus
Intensive Programme that utilised a range social media platforms and computer software
to create open, virtual spaces where students from different countries and fields could
explore and learn together. The multi-disciplinary project featured five universities from
across Europe and was designed to develop new pedagogical frameworks to encourage
collaborative approaches to teaching and learning in the arts. The main objective of
the project was to break down classroom and campus walls by creating digital learning
environments that facilitated new forms of production, transmission and representation of
knowledge. Media Culture 2020 was designed to pilot a novel mode of âblended learningâ,
demonstrating a number of ways in which âWeb 2.0â networked technologies might be
adopted by academics to encourage open and collaborative modes of practice. The project
utilised a number of social media platforms (including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Google
Hangout, Google Docs and Blogger) to enhance the learning experiences of a diverse set
of students from different cultural and international contexts. In doing so, Media Culture
2020 enabled participants with a diverse range skills and cultural experiences to develop
new working practices that respond to the convergence of digital media and art, as well
as the internationalisation of media production and business, through the use of open,
interactive software
Co-ordinating distributed knowledge: An investigation into the use of an organisational memory
This paper presents an ethnographically informed investigation into the use of an organisational memory, focusing in particular on how information was used in the performance of work. We argue that understanding how people make use of distributed knowledge is crucial to the design of an organisational memory. However, we take the perspective that an âorganisational memoryâ is not technology dependant, but is an emergent property of group interaction. In this sense, the technology does not form the organisational memory, but provides a novel means of augmenting the co-ordination of collaborative action. The study examines the generation, development and maintenance of knowledge repositories and archives. The knowledge and information captured in the organisational memory enabled the team members to establish a common understanding of the design and to gain an appreciation of the issues and concerns of the other disciplines. The study demonstrates why technology should not be thought of in isolation from its contexts of use, but also how designers can make use of the creative flexibility that people employ in their everyday activities. The findings of the study are therefore of direct relevance to both the design of knowledge archives and to the management of this information within organisations
Assessing the impact of âmore-flexibleâ learning as part of a study program
With the increasing use of Flexible Learning approaches in Higher Education at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), measuring their effectiveness, from both an educational and a participant's point of view, is of particular importance. In response to the limited scientific contributions on this topic, this article presents a possibility of how an assessment can take place: this study analyzes 62 undergrad-uate student responses to a Blended Learning task and compares the participant findings with a pre-existing educational competency framework
Teaching and learning in virtual worlds: is it worth the effort?
Educators have been quick to spot the enormous potential afforded by virtual worlds for situated and authentic learning, practising tasks with potentially serious consequences in the real world and for bringing geographically dispersed faculty and students together in the same space (Gee, 2007; Johnson and Levine, 2008). Though this potential has largely been realised, it generally isnât without cost in terms of lack of institutional buy-in, steep learning curves for all participants, and lack of a sound theoretical framework to
support learning activities (Campbell, 2009; Cheal, 2007; Kluge & Riley, 2008). This symposium will explore the affordances and issues associated with teaching and learning in virtual worlds, all the time considering the
question: is it worth the effort
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