JISC/CNI Meeting 6 th July 2006

1. the projecta joint project with Strathclyde and Stanford Universities “digital libraries for global distributed innovative design education and teamwork” JISC/CNI Meeting 6th July 2006 Neal Juster (University of Strathclyde) Larry Leifer (Stanford University) n.p.juster@strath.ac.uk; leifer@cdr.stanford.edu

2. the projecta joint project with Strathclyde and Stanford Universities “digital libraries for global distributed innovative design education and teamwork”

3. Project Programme JISC/NSF Project 2003-2008 Digital Libraries in the Classroom Programme Transform the education process using innovative applications of emerging technologies and electronic resources

4. 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

5. 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

6. Project Vision To enhance student learning opportunities by enabling them to participate in global team-based designengineering projects that give them experience of working within multi-cultural contexts. Make this possible through a range of informationandcommunication technologies.

7. 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

8. 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

9. FORMAL INFORMAL (including tacit) Management PD History Retain Extract/ Publish Mediate Tacit PD Knowledge Learning Facilitator Formalized PD Knowledge Learners PD Practice Interpret Contextualize Apply Process Coach Team Improve React Reflect Design knowledge framework [Eris 03]

10. Design knowledge framework FORMAL INFORMAL Learning Loop 3 Instructor PD History Learning Loop 2 Tacit PD Knowledge Formalized PD Knowledge Learning Facilitator Learners PD Practice Process Coach Team Learning Loop 1

11. 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?

12. 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

13. 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)

14. LauLima Learning Environment (LLE) a workspace environment: point of need LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students FORMAL & MORE PERMANENT INFORMAL & DYNAMIC Storing and sharing content Group Collaboration/ Team communication Cross team activities Workfow management (process) Manipulation of information Capturing tacit information Knowledge structuring Retrieval of resources Reuse of student-generated resources, design concepts and sharing processes Quality assurance Metadata and standards Granularity Browse/ search LauLima system architecture

15. LauLima Learning Environment (LLE) a workspace environment: point of need INFORMAL & DYNAMIC • 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.

16. 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

17. LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students FORMAL & MORE PERMANENT • 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.)

18. LauLima Digital Library (LDL) longer term; reuse by staff and students FORMAL & MORE PERMANENT 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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)

22. use Capture: create and upload resources Wiki pages: interlink resources Groupware: communicate & share ideas LauLima LDL LauLima LLE Class activity Reuse: search and re-use previous material Digital library: find relevant information and examples Wiki pages: store development impact Class contexts

23. Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 INFORMATION INPUT CONCEPT GENERATION CONCEPT EVALUATION Wk 2 Wk 4 Wk 6 start end Model on LauLima & demo Concept map on LauLima Sketches on LauLima Typical project format

24. Learning Loop 1: supporting the design process Learning Loop 2: coaching Learning Loop 3: formalising and re-using content FORMAL INFORMAL Lecturer LDL (process, formalised knowledge) LLE (practice, tacit knowledge) information from other sources Team Coach Revised Design Knowledge Framework (after Eris, 2003)

25. 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:

26. Supporting the design process:pool laptops • Laptops were made available to teams during class – they were encouraged to use them as “project hubs”

27. Supporting the design process:interlinked Wiki pages • Students had to think about hierarchy of their resources - analysing, organising and reflecting.

28. Supporting the design process:concept maps • Creating a concept map encouraged students to reflect on what information was relevant.

29. Coaching:multi-disciplinary design team • The multi-disciplinary coaching team broadened the scope of the project. Lecturer gave tailored mini-topics highlighting key issues and tasks Coaches provided on-going process and technical support student experience Learning technologistprovided on-going information literacy support Librariangave tailored session on information searching and sources

30. Coaching:templates as shareable learning objects • Templates minimised work in transferring information, capturing rationale and linking resources to concepts.

31. Formalising & reusing content:harvesting material • Staff harvest the best material when marking student sites – then stored in LDL for both to use.

32. LauLima Workflow metadata date added file format depositor identify project name actions content placed in the LLE by students and staff – stored and made accessible though permissions feature automatically generated Stage 1 uploading title creator/author source citation subject (keywords) description media type generated by depositor academic staff identify content that warrants inclusion in LDL further subject (keywords) educational context suggested use modify student metadata generated by academic staff Stage 2 identifying check metadata accuracy modify metadata rights information further subject (keywords) LIS evaluates content following verification and metadata modification. item is placed in LDL generated by LIS Stage 3 approving Workflow LLE to LDL

33. Formalising & reusing content:metadata • Applying metadata encourages reflection, but burden of process must be minimised… for staff and students.

34. Effects on learning • Feedback indicates LauLima is a useful tool - structured exercises and Information Literacy tutorials necessary. Usage statistics for 6-week project

35. 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

36. 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.

37. 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

38. Further information www.didet.ac.uk n.p.juster@strath.ac.uk leifer@cdr.stanford.edu

39. Further Information System demo…