1. Wednesday, the 29th of August: Planning project work, supervision and assessment
Presentation of the mini project, assessment and questions
Planning a project work
Ideas of Project Work + PBL
Themes
Controlling different projects
Gabs
Blooms taxonomy
Exercise (Make 1-3 project proposals (different types) for a given semester)
Coffee break
Supervision
Tasks of the supervisor
Tools
Contracts
An example
Tasks
Group classification
Roles of the supervisor
Facilitator interventions
What about students cooperation?
Assessment
The hidden curriculum
Basic assumptions
Assessment - practice
Points
Lunch

2. Reflection-in-action, missing:
Mess at the higher levels KOM problem
How to make project proposals Examples must wait
Drawbacks of using the Aalborg model Gab’s to day
More about other teaching systems Next year
Differences in skills, e.g. DTU/Aalborg Experiences from companies
What information is available from the study board Look at the Internet
God and bad story’s I will try to remember, more next year
Supervising final project’s Compare as we go along supervision
Evaluation of presentations Put into assessment
There should be developed general guidelines for teachers from the study board. You could start with some of this material (handouts). Turned over to the study board
Maybe there should even be a booklet for foreigners entering Aalborg University Turned over to the foreign office

3. Presentation of the mini project
Each group present the results from their project yesterday afternoon
The other groups and the lecturer comments both the presentation and the results

4. Ideas of Problem-based Learning
As a learner-centred process, problem-based learning meets the learners' interests and as such gives room for developing learning motivation.
Furthermore, problem-based learning emphasizes a development of analytic, methodical and transferable skills.
Now you have learned o lot about the Aalborg model and why we uses it and what the students are supposed to do and to gain from it. Now it is time to discuss our tasks in the implementation of this model.
First something about planning a project work, and after the coffee break we will discuss how you can work as a supervisor.
First lets resume the ideas of project based learning ….

5. Ideas of Project Work + PBL
Project work is a way of organizing the learning process that lead to development of abilities to:
formulate objectives, aims and goals
start and end a project
analyse and specify problems or objectives
analyse and specify criteria for solution
write reports
collaborate, organize and plan the working process
handle projects
manage oneself
Combining these with project work it is actually a way of organizing the learning process….

6. What is a theme? A framework for teaching and learning
an area where technological development and human, social economic and political development are explicitly linked and mutually interact
As i shoved you the first day we uses themes for each semester in order to control the technical subjects within the specific semester. But a theme might be seen as a more broad frame for ….
This broad definition is mainly used at the basic year and maybe the last 2 years of the study.
The theme is mostly planned by the study board, but a lot of teachers – maybe you also might be involved in the development of them, so it might be appropriate for you to know about them.

7. Methodological themes
Specification of the overall engineering methods/disciplines to be applied - but not specification of the area of specific engineering to which the method should be applied. There must be possibility to allow a broad range of different areas, e.g.:
modelling of dynamic systems
design of engineering constructions
An often used type of theme is the methodological theme ….

8. Problem oriented themes
Concentrating on issues which are common to all engineering areas, e.g:
working environment,
natural resource consumption
pollution
Another type would be the problem oriented theme …

9. What is a good theme?
Must inspire and motivate the students, pose a challenge
Broad to be able to integrate specific technical knowledge
Clear description
what is it all about
actuality
state of the art
some of the problems to be solved
technological implications
clear relation to subjects/discipline
project examples
So what is a good theme? ….
Maybe you will never be involved in developing a theme, but when you is asked to be a supervisor on a specific semester you will be responsible for developing project proposals, and they shall of course be projects that might fulfil the objectives of the given theme, so you have to dig a bit into the theme to be able to make good project proposals, and as you can se there might be some good examples to inspire you.

10. Controlling different projects
Problem
Methods
Results
Assignment Project
Supervisor +
Students
(?) ?
Subject Project
(+)
Problem Project
When you have to develop a project proposal you might remember the project classification from yesterday, and propose a project that is well suited for the actual semester, but also for your capability.
As you can see the supervisor is able to control the problem, the methods and the results for the assignment project, where the students only know the problem and have to learn the methods and gain a result.
In the subject project the supervisor is in control of the methods and have also some control over the problem as he can talk the students into a specific problem and thereby also to a certain amount control the results.
The students might control the problem and the result them selves, if they don't follow the supervisor.
In the problem project the supervisor knows what methods can be used, but who controlles the methods the problem and the results is very much up to the cooperation between the group and the supervisor.

11. Gaps Deep under- standing project project
Traditional teaching focused on a broad overview
?????
Another thing you have to be aver of is the difference between traditional teaching and project work where, depending on the choices of the project the students gain a deeper understanding of some subjects and a gab on some others. This is a strength and not a weakness if we emphasise to chose to learn methods and exemplarities.
???
The student understanding need not remember
exemplarity - interdisciplinary

12. Levels of understanding - Bloom
Knowledge
memorize
Comprehension
translation,interpretation
Application
Use, in new situations
Analysis
uncover relations between entities
Synthesis
Building something new of the entities
Evaluation
Judging
Taking about the depth of understanding the study boards often uses blooms taxonomy to describe the goals of learning of the different subjects, so you might look a bit into this as well.
Being a taxonomy it means that you have to pass one level to rise to the next. If you are not familiar with bloom i must warm you, that it seems easy to understand but it is often difficult to use in practice.

13. Planning a project work
Conclusion:
The project proposals should be in good correspondence with the theme of the semester
Propose a problem project if possible
So the conclusion of the planning process is .... And .... Bearing in mind that the subject project and the assignment project is better suited for some of the semesters and also might be better suited for you being an inexperienced supervisor. Here i am not saying that it is better to use assignment projects when you are inexperienced, in fact for my self it has been the other way around, but it depend on how much control you are daring to loose, and of course the people who have been a student at Aalborg University knows how much the students are capable of doing, so they might be more willing to let go control.

14. Exercise Choose a semester you know something about
Prepare 1-3 project proposals (different types) for the semester

15. Coffee break until 10.30

16. Tasks of a supervisor In the beginning of a project:
Help to find appropriate literature
Help establishing contacts with companies ect.
Discussing the project proposal with the students
During the whole project period:
Commenting both oral and written presentations/memos/working paper
Continues assessment of the professional level of both group and individual
At the end:
examination
So what are you supposed to do as a supervisor: ....
We will dig deeper into commenting presentations and assessing later

17. Tools for supervision Setting learning objectives - Bloom Contracts
Students peer assessment
Process analysis (only first year)
Change of the teaching role towards:
facilitation
dialogue
Now we will talk about the tools we have as a supervisor.
First we can set the learning objectives, e.g.. Using bloom in our project proposal.
At the start of a project we might make a kind of contract with the students – i will dig deeper within a minute.
You can help improving the students peer assessment, by e.g. Encouraging them to comment on each others working papers, which will improve the quality of the papers you have to read.
At the basic year we use a written process analyse to improve the students teamwork and project skills.
But the main tool you have in the daily confrontation with the students is to be aware of facilitating more than teaching and to use dialogue, more about this later.

18. Why Contracts: Create common expectations and clear agreements.
Content could be:
face to face meetings? (whenever possible)
how often are you going to have meetings? (once a week)
how long meetings (1 hour)
where? (in the group room)
agenda
chair of the meeting
students own objectives for the period
supervisors objectives for the period
areas of response to the Aworking during the period:
Language, structure, details, methods
external contacts
response to the group process
It might be a good idea to make a kind of formal contract with the students to create …

19. An example: project supervision
Prepare the meeting by reading the working papers, reflecting the project structure and details, and formulate your own objectives for the meeting.
let the students be responsibly of the agenda
start discussing the agenda
points in mind:
the contract (formative evaluation)
external contacts
the structure of the project
the working process
Ask questions about the content of the working papers
A general example of what to bear in mind at a meeting with the group …

20. Tasks for a group meeting
Planning tasks
Subject tasks
Social aspect
where in the process?
where in the educational progress?
which type of project?
types of students, experienced project managers, good or poor, social aspect
Depending on:
We might look at your tasks as planning tasks, subject tasks and also a kind of social aspect, and you have to act different depending on …

21. Characteristics for a well functioning group:
Common goal or objectives
Agreement about group standards
The members ”plays” all the necessary roles
All group members respect the others
How do you see if it is a good group?

22. Co-operation: group classification
Integrated
Instrumental
Hierarchic
Chaotic
Role casting
All
Some No
Work sharing
Control/Leadership
Yes
Few
Power
Equal
Equal/?
Unequal
Personal Engagement
High
Fair
Different
Low
Group identity
Conflict solving
A simple classification of groups could be:
The integrated group where all members are equal and share roles, work and leadership. They respect each other and have equal power in the group. This gives a very high group identity and personal engagement. But the main point about this group is that they don't ignore conflicts, in fact they have realized that a lot of progress in project work might come from conflicts if they are discussed and dealt with. So the group work actively with identifying, discussing and solving conflict.
In this way it differs from any other group classification and it makes the best projects and learns the most also as individuals. But is is not possible for all people and groups to be that way.
The instrumentional group reach a fairly good result by sharing roles and work so that each job is handed out to the person that knows most about it on beforehand and they use control and leadership as a tool more than giving power to someone. Usual there is a fairly high personal engagement with each persons tasks, but the group identity is low. This kind of group is good to get things done and might be preferable sometimes in a company, but being students it would have been better if they have shared work and roles so everybody learned more about their week sides.
In the hierarchic group there is a battle of controlling the group. Usually there is 2 power constellations and this affect the group work. Roles and work has to be decided from the top of the group and usually peoples engagement is rather different. As the group often is working more like two groups there is a very low group identity. These group seldom exist more than one semester.
Finally the chaotic group where nothing is done because there are no engagement and no driving force. This kind of group is usually the result of the other students judgement of the group members, meaning that they are the left over when the groups are formed. It is persons that no other will have in their group because they have behaved badly or don't do their job, so it is a kind of rest group, and if it turns out chaotic then the student probably will fail and stop

23. Roles of the supervisor
The group member
Takes over responsibility for the project work
Very active in choice of theory and methods
Gives answers in stead of asking questions
The visitor
Stands on the sideline, ready to kick or withdraw
Points out directions where to seek answers
The students own the project
The consultant
Only activated on request
Only answers the questions asked
leave all decisions, planning and control to the group
Now you know something about how the groups work, but how would a supervisor show up, what role would he have according to the group?
The group member

24. Roles of the supervisor - 2
Discuss the following questions:
Is one of the roles better than the other?
Do all groups need the same role?
Could it be useful to change roles during a project period?
Do you think your role will change when you gets older and more experienced?
I will like you to use min in small groups to discuss the following questions: ...
Then write down suggestions

25. Roles of the supervisor - 2
Discuss the following questions:
Is one of the roles better than the other?
The students learn the most from the visitor
Do all groups need the same role?
No, e.g.. A hierarchic group don't need a consultant
Could it be useful to change roles during a project period?
Yes, in some periods try to be a consultant
Do you think your role will change when you gets older and more experienced?
Often young supervisors become group members
To summe up my believe i have answered the questions my self:

26. Facilitator interventions
summarizing
mirroring
asking open-ended questions
use why, how, what, where
dynamic list of question
feedback as rethinking loudly
The visitor is the supervisor that acts the most as a facilitator and the way you can act is:

27. What about students cooperation?
How can the supervisor find out - and what to do? 
ask to the way the students organize the work and discuss the working process
ask to special project functions
discuss objectives for the organizational aspects
individual consultations
feel the atmosphere - be present
let the student discuss
try to involve all the students
A lot of supervisors is not concerned about how the group cooperates, because they think that the students has learned that at the basic year, and also they don't like to question the students about what is often regarded as more personal things.
This is a shame, because the process of working together always can be improved, and the supervisor can help just showing an awareness about the process.
Better co-operations improves both the projects and the learning process, and knowing about the co-operation and working process makes it easier to facilitate the group.
So i will recommend that you is concerned about the groups cooperation, but how to do?

28. What about students cooperation? - 2
Put on the students agenda when starting the project:
level of ambitions
how to share the work
discipline of meetings
how to solve conflicts
social relation
Another good idea is to put co-operation issues on the student agenda at their first or second meeting

29. Assessment - the hidden curriculum
The aim of the study
goals
objectives
Teaching and learning methods: PBL and project work
Forms of the exams and criteria
The last item of this course is assessment which is a kind of hidden curriculum in the Aalborg model. What is interesting is how the aims of the study, its goals and objectives is assessed continually during the project work and finally at the project exam, and how these things affect each other.

30. Basic assumptions
Examination is dominating the students learning approach
Criteria for evaluation are crucial for the learning process
Personal skills, metalearning etc. need formative evaluation forms
Evaluation is a basic part for the learning process (reflection)
Education is forming identity
Usually it is assumed that
This is probably true, so we have to be careful about our assessment to match the goals we want the students to achieve by making their project.
This means that if we want the student to get a deep understanding of the theories and methods they uses, then we have to ask questions that challenge this understanding, in stead of just checking wheater the student can use a specific method.
This is in fact what i told you to do at the weekly meetings, so the students gets used to this kind of assessment and direct their own learning approach in the direction of a deeper understanding of the theory and methods.
This is then of course also the kind of questions to be asked at the final examination after each project period.

31. Supervisor and (external) censor
Assessment - practice
Peer group
Project group
Supervisor and (external) censor
So how is an examination carried out?
The Peer group is seldom used after the basic year, but there is plays an important role as it takes part in the assessment by asking questions to the other group, enhancing the peer assessment.
An often used model is :
After the presentation, there is a short discussion about how it was done in order to help the students improve their presentation technique, and then there is a break where the examination team decides what mark they will give the project at the moment. This is a mark based on the written report and the ”defence” of it that the students just have made. It might be regarded as an average of what this group is able to accomplishes by half a years project work at this specific semester.
Then there is 2....
And 3....
Where you should remember to ask questions that challenge the students understanding.
You are allowed to use as much as three quarters of an hour questioning each student, but it is more normal to use about ½ hour as an average, and it is not as if you ask one student each for ½ hour. It is more like you ask several questions and the student answering switches for each question.
There is often 5-6 students in a group, so you might need more than one break before you think that you have heard enough to mark the students individually.
While the student wait outside the marks is given, based on : ....
1 and 2 you have already given an average mark. Now you look at each student as an individual and judge their presentation, their part in the discussion and how well they have answered the individual questions. Based on 2, 3 and 4 you mark each student individually.
This is normally not very difficult as to mark the students relatively to each other. E.g.. There is often a middle group in the group, e.g.. 3 persons and perhaps one person slightly better and 2 persons slightly worse. What sometimes is a bit difficult is to
Make the specific mark. In the mentioned case you might have doubt about whether the middle group should be marked 8 or 9, which again means that the bottom of the group should have 7 or 8 and the best student 9 or 10.
Then you can use the mark for the project report and the presentation to adjust you level. It would be nice if the average of the individual marks is almost the same as the report mark, given for half a years work. So if you think the project was to 9, then you should give 2 times 8, 3 times 9 and one 10.
This might seem difficult, but it is not and you will be given an experienced censor to help the first time, or you might become censor for an experienced supervisor.

32. Points
Criteria and methods of self and peer assessment has to be integrated in the summative examination
Evaluation/reflection has to be part of the learning environment - both as structures and at the informal level
Supervisor has a role to play in facilitating students peer assessment
So, if we want to enhance the students learning approach and lead them to a deeper understanding by making projects, then....
The first point we try to enhance by our questions at the meetings with the students and at the basic year we teach them methods for self and peer assessment of both their oral presentations in the group and their written working papers
Reflection is enhanced and as a structure a lot of us uses the 3 times planned reflection we discussed yesterday.
You have a role to play, because you can encourage the students to assess them self within the group.

33. Project supervision Changing focus from product to process
Students opinion
Example of supervision - Video

34. Lunch until 12.45

35. 12.45 Introduction to role-play
Exercise: Role-play of a supervising situation
Coffee break
Exercise continued
Assessment of course (reflection-on-action)
What have we accomplished according to your expectations?
What is missing according to your expectations?
Which subjects from the course do you need the most in the next months?
Are you well "equipped" to start teaching (both as lecturer and supervisor)?
If not: What do you need more?
Would it be a good idea to meet again and share experience e.g. in November and again after the Project exam in January 2002?
End of course

36. Role-play
Six role plays/advising situations that describe various group situations will be held. The particular topics the groups will work with and where the group work will take place will not be stated in advance but is chosen by the group, e.g. your project from yesterday.
The role plays illustrate an advisor meeting.
The group will have already given an agenda to the advisor (which topic the group wants discussed at the advisor meeting) played by a person from another group.
The group's members assign roles between themselves, so that the outlined situation in the role play occurs.
Each role play lasts approximately 7 minutes.
Each play is commented by 6 observers.

37. Assessment of course Reflection-on-action:
What have we accomplished according to your expectations?
What is missing according to your expectations?
Which subjects from the course do you need the most in the next months?
Are you well "equipped" to start teaching (both as lecturer and supervisor)?
If not: What do you need more?
Would it be a good idea to meet again and share experience e.g. in November and again after the Project exam in January 2002?