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)

n.p.juster@strath.ac.uk; leifer@cdr.stanford.edu

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

www.didet.ac.uk

n.p.juster@strath.ac.ukleifer@cdr.stanford.edu

Further Information

System demo…