Using Shared Workspaces in Higher Education

We evaluate the use of BSCW shared workspaces in higher education by means of a comparison of seven courses in which this environment was used. We identify a number of different functions for which the BSCW environment has been used and discuss the relative success of these functions across the cases. In addition, we evaluate the cases with the 4E model of Collis et al. (2000) which predicts the chances of acceptance of ICT in an educational setting. Effectiveness for the given task appears to be a prime success factor for using ICT. But an effective tool may fail due to other factors like ease of use and organisational, socialcultural or technological obstacles. The particular strength of a shared workspace, for which BSCW is most effective and efficient, is providing a repository for objects of collaborative work. Other types of usage showed mixed results. In the future we expect that learning takes place in an integrated, open ICT environment in which different kinds of tools are available for different purposes and users can switch between tools as appropriate. We could observe this in several of the case studies, where non-use of BSCW did not mean that a particular task was not performed, but, on the contrary, a more efficient solution for the same function was available. Shared workspaces have proven to be highly useful, but it seems advisable that their purpose be limited to what they were originally designed for

Introducing semi-open learning/teaching into fundamental programming subjects

Due to the development of Internet applications, semi-open learning is increasingly being introduced into traditional face-to-face learning and teaching. In several engineering degrees many subjects are developed using a project based learning paradigm and therefore the introduction of semi-open elements seems quite natural for these subjects; it is not the case, however, of the fundamental programming subjects which are still developed using a traditional blackboard approach and have a clear lack of experience in introducing both project-based learning and semi-open learning and teaching approach. In this work we bring the two year experience gained during the innovative teaching project “Semi-open learning through sharing of information and knowledge in a virtual environment”1 at the Industrial School of Terrassa, Polytechnic University of Catalonia. The aim of the project was to develop and evaluate a methodology that would allow the introduction of semi-open learning into fundamental programming subjects using web applications. We will show here the main aspects of such methodology as well as issues we were faced to during its implementation and evaluation in a real learning/teaching environment. Our approach was implemented using the Basic Support for Collaborative Work (BSCW) though it is independent of the web application used. An additional feature of the BSCW system we have explored is the log file information on students’ actions kept by the BSCW server. We use an ad hoc software that processes the log files and stores the information in a database, which can be then used for statistical analysis. The information resulting from log files analysis is a very helpful tool for the teachers to monitor the students’ activity during the course development and intervene whenever necessary, for instance, to detect low activity students and avoid students’ abandonment. We will discuss the benefits of our approach in improving the overall learning outcome of the students and also its drawbacks especially as regards the additional amount of work it could imply for the teachers.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Evaluating groupware support for software engineering students

Software engineering tasks, during both development and maintenance, typically involve teamwork using computers. Team members rarely work on isolated computers. An underlying assumption of our research is that software engineering teams will work more effectively if adequately supported by network-based groupware technology. Experience of working with groupware and evaluating groupware systems will also give software engineering students a direct appreciation of the requirements of engineering such systems. This research is investigating the provision of such network-based support for software engineering students and the impact these tools have on their groupwork. We will first describe our experiences gained through the introduction of an asynchronous virtual environment ­ SEGWorld to support groupwork during the Software Engineering Group (SEG) project undertaken by all second year undergraduates within the Department of Computer Science. Secondly we will describe our Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) module which has been introduced into the students' final year of study as a direct result of our experience with SEG, and in particular its role within Software Engineering. Within this CSCW module the students have had the opportunity to evaluate various groupware tools. This has enabled them to take a retrospective view of their experience of SEGWorld and its underlying system, BSCW, one year on. We report our findings for SEG in the form of a discussion of the hypotheses we formulated on how the SEGs would use SEGWorld, and present an initial qualitative assessment of student feedback from the CSCW module

Integrating groupware technology into the learning environment

This paper presents the hard lessons learned from the introduction of groupware technology within a final‐year software engineering module. The module began in 1997 and is now in its fourth year. The paper provides a detailed account of our successes and failures in each year, and describes what the authors now feel is a successful model for integrating groupware into the learning environment. The paper is important because it provides a longitudinal study of the use of groupware within a learning environment and an insight into the key success factors associated with the use of groupware. Success factors relate not only to the technology but also to social factors such as group facilitation and social protocols, to factors associated with monitoring and assessment, and to factors related to the skills development associated with being a member of a global team

Using computer-supported collaborative work in fundamental programming subjects

Fundamental Programming subjects are compulsory for several technical engineering degrees. Typical face-to-face teaching may cause a lack of continuous learning and support for students, as teachers are only available at tutoring hours. Our long experience in face-to-face teaching of Fundamental Programming subjects in technical engineering studies has yielded the need for introducing ComputerSupported Collaborative Learning aspects in the teaching and learning process, on the one hand, as a necessary means for continuous learning and support and, on the other, as an effective way of increasing the motivation of students. In this paper we show how to use the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning paradigm in semi-open teaching of Fundamental Programming subjects. We achieve this through the paradigm of Project-Based Learning that is very suited for the Fundamental Programming subjects’ domain. The key point in our approach is the design of a proper methodology that is later implemented using the Basic Support for Collaborative Work (BSCW) software. This software has several properties that make it appropriate for our methodology, though our methodology can be implemented as well using other similar software. Thus, BSCW facilitates the design of different workspaces such as repositories to provide continuously updated materials and discussion forums to generate knowledge and to provide support to students. Moreover, its tracking and awareness facilities make it very useful for the tutors and the students. All in all, we believe that the proposed methodology helps increasing the learning outcome as well as academic results of the students. We have carried out an experience for one semester and the results are promising.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Usage, attitudes and workload implications for a Web-based learning environment

At the University of Twente, a locally developed Web-based learning environment called the TeleTOP system is being implemented throughout the university after being first developed and used in the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology, followed by use in the Department of Telematics. Studying the usage choices of instructors with regard to tools offered by the system, as well as the instructors' workload implications and attitudes, is valuable not only for the implementation activities in the rest of the university, but more generally for those studying the impact on educational practice of Web-based learning environments containing course-management tools. This paper reports on a study of thirty-three TeleTOP using instructors from the two faculties at the end of the 1999–2000 academic year. The results show that instructors feel that a major benefit of using the system is that it is a catalyst for a re-evaluation of one's own teaching; many instructors do not make use of the tailoring options; decisions about use of the system and the provision of feedback are based on the current instructional practices of the instructor; and instructors perceive increases in their workload to be a problem (whenin fact the actual amounts of time spent vary considerably and include instructors with minimal investments)

An agent system to support student teams working online

Online learning is now a reality, with distributed learning and blended learning becoming more widely used in Higher Education. Novel ways in which undergraduate and postgraduate learning material can be presented are being developed, and methods for helping students to learn online are needed, especially if we require them to collaborate with each other on learning activities. Agents to provide a supporting role for students have evolved from Artificial Intelligence research, and their strength lies in their ease of operation over networks as well as their ability to act in response to stimuli. In this paper an application of a software agent is described, aimed at supporting students working on team projects in the online learning environment. Online teamwork is problematical for a number of reasons, such as getting acquainted with team members, finding out about other team members’ abilities, agreeing who should do which tasks, communications between team members and keeping up to date with progress that has been made on the project. Software agents have the ability to monitor progress and to offer advice by operating in the background, acting autonomously when the need arises. An agent prototype has been developed in Prolog to perform a limited set of functions to support students. Team projects have a planning, doing and completing stage, all of which require them to have some sort of agent support. This agent at present supports part of the planning stage, by prompting the students to input their likes, dislikes and abilities for a selection of task areas defined for the project. The agent then allocates the various tasks to the students according to predetermined rules. The results of a trial carried out using teams working on projects, on campus, indicate that students like the idea of using this agent to help with allocating tasks. They also agreed that agent support of this type would probably be helpful to both students working on team projects with face to face contact, as well as for teams working solely online. Work is ongoing to add more functionality to the agent and to evaluate the agent more widely