ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Using knowledge structures to enhance reflective practice Lou McGill, University of Strathclyde Allison Littlejohn, University of Dundee

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Project team JISC/NSF Project Stanford University - Centre for Design Research University of Strathclyde Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management Centre for Academic Practice Centre for Digital Library Research Learning Services

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Project vision To enhance student learning opportunities by enabling them to participate in global team based design engineering projects that give them work experience within multi-cultural contexts. Make this possible through a range of information and communication technologies.

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 What is design engineering? What characterizes project based design learning? hands on learn by doing extreme constructivism What are the defining attributes? open-ended scenarios demanding creativity no pre-defined information requirements no right answer How does one approach these scenarios? find, create, and reuse information using the widest possible range of resources not just engineering

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 What is informal design knowledge? Informal knowledge is found in casual design documents (notes, sketches, photos, , blogs, draft documents) Informal knowledge is created during design activity and reflection. Authorship is often ambiguous. Difficult to capture, share and re-use How do we support students to do this? Information Knowledge Design Process FORMAL INFORMAL

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 LauLima Learning Environment (LLE) a workspace environment: point of need LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students INFORMAL & DYNAMICFORMAL & MORE PERMANENT ICT infrastructure Storing and sharing content Group Collaboration/ Team Communication Cross team activities Workflow Management (Process) Manipulation of Information Capturing tacit dimension Knowledge Structuring Retrieval of resources Reuse of student-generated resources, design concepts and learning processes Quality Metadata and standards Granularity

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Some Learning & Teaching issues

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Classroom example Ice crusher project 3 rd year project to develop a proof-of-concept model of a domestic ice crushing machine Collaborative team-based project Combination of face-to-face and online activities Reflective learning/Problem-based learning To understand the importance of reflective practice, information and knowledge construction to the design process Learning literacies Tool literacy – shared workspaces, wiki environment Digital literacy – creating content Information literacy – sourcing, organising content Critical literacy – evaluating content Communication and Team literacies – collaborative design

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Ice crusher project Format Week 1 – Introduction Week 2 - Searching, storing & organizing information Week 3 - Exploring & selecting concepts Weeks 4 & 5 - Developing & testing concept Week 6 – Demonstration of final concept and presentation of content on LauLima Assessment a series of reflective project logs final presentations using team wiki pages demonstration of proof-of-concept models

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Concept mapping Teams were asked to develop a concept map and then asked to reflect on how far it helped them to: Understand connections and relationships between concepts – mapping the design problem Break down the problem into manageable chunks and assign team roles Identifying search terms - broader, narrower, related, synonyms, acronyms, alternative spellings, etc. Organise their information within file folders Uploading files – applying indexing terms In reflective logs students also identified this activity as an effective ice breaker for the teams

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ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Student reflection Team reflection on how the concept mapping activity supported their understanding of the design problem, the development of a search strategy, allocation of roles and organising their content (see printed sheet) on concept generation and evaluation on concept model and the design process Consensus of experience and understanding – engage with questions at a team level Provided tutors with an ongoing record of team understanding and approaches (in conjunction with other content)

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ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Issues Impact on Learning – Which learning? Impact of concept mapping exercise and reflection on final design Impact on their learning – information literacy, organisation, team working, communication Some other issues Re-use – granularity issue, de-personalisation, rights ownership Team reflection vs. individual reflection Role of tutors – training they need to be facilitators in an electronic environment Linking to formal e-portfolios

ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Activity/Discussion In pairs Try to identify a learning activity or learning project which may benefit from this type of approach (ie concept mapping/reflective logs). What impact is this likely to have on the outcome of individual learning objectives? (ie will it help students produce a better output, improve their learning literacies or both?) Who would support this learning – do other people need to get involved (librarians, IT staff, educational developers, learning technologists)?