JISC/CNI Meeting6th July 2006
the projecta joint project with Strathclyde and Stanford Universities
“digital libraries for global distributed innovative design
education and teamwork”
Neal Juster (University of Strathclyde) Larry Leifer (Stanford University)
the projecta joint project with Strathclyde and Stanford Universities
“digital libraries for global distributed innovative design
education and teamwork”
Project Programme
Transform the education process using innovative applications of emerging
technologies and electronic resources
JISC/NSF Project 2003-2008Digital Libraries in the Classroom
Programme
Project Team
One of four US/UK collaborations in DLIC Programme
• Stanford University• Center for Design Research• Department of Mechanical Engineering• Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford
• University of Strathclyde• Department of Design, Manufacture
and Engineering Management (DMEM)• Centre for Academic Practice and
Learning Enhancement (CAPLE)• Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR)• Learning Services
Partner roles
• Stanford• Laboratory based experiments
• small numbers 10-40• Understanding impact of ICT and coaching on design
teams and processes
• Strathclyde• Adoption of ICT and pedagogy (including coaching) in
classroom • large numbers 40-180
• Evaluation of impact on student learning
• Both• Global student design projects
Project Vision
To enhance student learning opportunities by enabling them to participate in global team-based design engineering projects that give them experience of working within multi-cultural contexts.
Make this possible through a range of information and communication technologies.
Project objectives
• Teach engineering information retrieval, manipulation, and archiving skills
• Measure the use of those skills in design projects • Measure the learning performance affected by
the provision of usually difficult to access information
• Measure how alternative sources of information and ICT affects performance in different cultural contexts
• Use the measurement results to annually redesign course content and digital library use
Nature of Design Engineering
• Negotiation and resolution of open ended design scenarios
• Distributed/global design projects – need collaborative working area and communication tools
• Need access to as wide a range of information as possible on demand
• Engineering skills must be complemented with information literacy skills
• All design is re-design
Design knowledge framework
Team
LearnersFormalized PD
Knowledge
ProcessReact
LearningFacilitator
CoachApply
Extract/Publish
PDHistory
Management
Contextualize
Mediate
Tacit PDKnowledge
PDPractice
Retain
Reflect
Improve
Interpret
INFORMAL (including tacit)FORMAL
[Eris 03]
PDHistory
Tacit PDKnowledgeFormalized PD
KnowledgePD
PracticeCoach
LearningFacilitator Learners
Process
INFORMALFORMAL
Learning Loop 1
Learning Loop 2
Learning Loop 3
Team
Instructor
Design knowledge framework
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?
Classroom Model
• Project-based design learning• hands on approach, learn by doing• open-ended scenarios demanding creativity• no pre-defined information requirements• no right answer
• Learner support• blended learning• coaching team
• Approach to Project-based learning• find, create, and reuse information• using the widest possible range of resources
System
• Wiki based system ‘LauLima’• Developed from open source wiki –
‘Tikiwiki’• Extensively customised and
enhanced• Powerful permissions system for
wiki pages and ‘file gallery’ file storage system
• Two discrete parts to LauLima system; Learning Environment (LLE) and Digital Library (LDL)
INFORMAL & DYNAMIC
LauLima Learning Environment (LLE) a workspace environment: point of need
Storing and sharing content
Group Collaboration/ Team communication
Cross team activities
Workfow management (process)
Manipulation of information
Capturing tacit information
Knowledge structuring
LauLima system architecture
LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students
Retrieval of resources
Reuse of student-generated resources, design concepts and sharing
processes
Quality assurance
Metadata and standards
Granularity
Browse/ search
FORMAL & MORE PERMANENT
• LLE groupware configured as a shared workspace and digital repository -• hierarchical file galleries: organise, store and
share content• wiki pages (interlinked web pages): share,
construct, manage and present information, ideas and knowledge; homepages, project logs, templates
• blogs• communication tools: ‘shout’ facility, internal
email, forums.
LauLima Learning Environment (LLE) a workspace environment: point of need
INFORMAL & DYNAMIC
• LLE supports -• team working from any where at any time –
collaboration, communication and co-ordination
• content sharing within defined teams (permissions)
• progress and decision-making can be recorded, revisited and reflected upon
• coaches can see progress recorded in the team logs and adjust support appropriately
LauLima Learning Environment (LLE) a workspace environment: point of need
INFORMAL & DYNAMIC
• Digital Library (LDL) -• Digital Library with browse and search
functionalities• Other contextual functionality (e.g. parse
search queries to external services like EEVL, SMETE, University Library, etc.)
• Links to a comprehensive and authoritative set of external resources (e.g. patent information, major design & engineering gateways / portals, etc.)
FORMAL & MORE PERMANENT
LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students
Digital Library (LDL) supports - • Longer term storage of quality resources
• Including student generated• Retrieval of resources• Reuse by staff in support of classes• Reuse by students in design learning and
project work
FORMAL & MORE PERMANENT
LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students
LauLima
• Will be made available for free down load soon• Conflicting shareware licences
• Being adopted more widely at Strathclyde and Stanford
• Growing use at other Universities
Class contexts
• LauLima has been used in several teaching and learning contexts:• PDP industrial projects (4th & 5th years)
• 40 teams of 4• Cross-Atlantic operations management class project (2nd
year)• 100 students UK, 100 US (Iowa)
• Formula student (cross-departmental, several years)• 40 students
• Paper bike • 16 students – 3 Universities (Olin College)• See Larry
Class contexts
• 3rd year product design engineering class, working in teams of 4• 100 students total
• 6-week project to design and prototype a:• Can crusher (2003/04)• Ice crusher (2004/05)• Fruit squeezer (2005/06)• Can crusher (2006/07)
Class contexts
impact
use
LauLima LDL
LauLima LLE
Classactivity
Capture: create and upload resources
Wiki pages: interlink resources
Groupware: communicate & share ideas
Digital library: find relevant information and examples
Wiki pages: store development
Reuse: search and re-use previous material
Typical project format
endWk 2 Wk 4start Wk 6
Concept mapon LauLima
Sketcheson LauLima
Modelon LauLima& demo
INFORMATIONINPUT
CONCEPTGENERATION
CONCEPTEVALUATION
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Coach
Lecturer
FORMAL INFORMAL
LLE (practice,
tacit knowledge)
LDL (process,
formalised knowledge)
Teaminformation from other
sources
Revised Design Knowledge Framework (after Eris, 2003)
Learning Loop 1:
supporting the design process
Learning Loop 3:
formalising and re-using
content
Learning Loop 2: coaching
Changes to class framework
• The class has been altered over the last 3 years using LauLima to facilitate Project Based Learning improvements in the 3 loops of the Design Knowledge Framework:
CLASS FEATURE LEARNING LOOP
Pool laptops 1
Interlinked wiki pages 1
Concept maps 1
Project logs 2
Multi-disciplinary coaching team 2
Harvesting material 3
Metadata 3
Supporting the design process:
pool laptops
• Laptops were made available to teams during class – they were encouraged to use them as “project hubs”
Supporting the design process:interlinked Wiki pages
• Students had to think about hierarchy of their resources - analysing, organising and reflecting.
Supporting the design process:concept maps
• Creating a concept map encouraged students to reflect on what information was relevant.
Coaching:multi-disciplinary design team
• The multi-disciplinary coaching team broadened the scope of the project.
student experienceLearning
technologist provided on-going information literacy support
Lecturer gave tailored mini-topics highlighting key issues and tasks Coaches
provided on-going process and technical support
Librarian gave tailored session on information searching and sources
Coaching:templates as shareable learning
objects
• Templates minimised work in transferring information, capturing rationale and linking resources to concepts.
Formalising & reusing content:
harvesting material
• Staff harvest the best material when marking student sites – then stored in LDL for both to use.
Workflow LLE to LDL
content placed in the LLE by students and staff – stored and made accessible though permissions feature
academic staff identify content that warrants inclusion in LDL
LIS evaluates content following verification and
metadata modification. item is placed in LDL
LauLima WorkflowLauLima Workflow
further subject (keywords) educational
context suggested use modify student metadata
check metadata accuracy modify metadata rights information
further subject (keywords)
date added file format
depositor identify project name
title creator/author source citation
subject (keywords) description media type
metadata
actions
generated by depositor
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
generated by academic staff
generated by LIS
uploading
identifying
approving
automatically generated
Formalising & reusing content:
metadata
• Applying metadata encourages reflection, but burden of process must be minimised… for staff and students.
Effects on learning
• Feedback indicates LauLima is a useful tool - structured exercises and Information Literacy tutorials necessary.
Usage statistics for 6-week project
Student survey
• This year’s graduating MEng cohort have used LauLima for 3 years.
• Comments from “exit” interviews:• Some felt forced to use LauLima
• Use in appropriate classes – i.e. Global design• Supports team management and information
sharing• Liked access to previous student examples
• Benchmark of quality – not re-use!• Staff find it useful to track progress – students find
it time consuming to upload files
Conclusions
• Support:• Pool laptops provided project hub• Wikis encouraged sharing and reflection in design
process• Concept maps helped create knowledge structures
• Coaching:• Necessary to provide IL as well as design support • Structured logs can assist with autonomous learning
• Formalising knowledge:• Diverse resources go through two-stage process before
being stored in LDL• Student generated material provides a rich source of
informal information that is difficult to obtain elsewhere.
But…
• Students still rely on sources they are familiar with• Goggle not ‘digital libraries’• Narrow and shallow search
• Student reluctance to add metadata• Poor file descriptions and names
• icecrusher1, icecrusher2….• Little recognition of need for metadata tagging
Further Information
System demo…