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

2. ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Project team JISC/NSF Project 2003-2008 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 What is informal design knowledge? Informal knowledge is found in casual design documents (notes, sketches, photos, email, 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

6. 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

7. ALT-Spring 31 March 2005 Some Learning & Teaching issues

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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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15. 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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23. 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

24. 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)?