Using Social Software for Teamwork and Collaborative Project Management in Higher Education

Na Li, Carsten Ullrich, Sandy El Helou, Denis Gillet

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) Shanghai Jiao Tong University

ICWL, 8th – 10th December, Shanghai, China

Outline

Introduction 1

Using Social Software for Collaborative Learning 2

Scenarios of Collaborative Learning 3

Bottom-up Learning Paradigm 4

Conclusion 5

Introduction

Link

Blog

Tag

Rate

Wiki

  Social software   Digital native

Introduction

  New learner – Intuitively tech-competent   New learning mode – Self-directed, purpose-driven

Motivate

  Using social software to support learning  Enhance collaborative learning activities  Create learning incentives

Using social software for collaborative learning

  Graaasp and 3A Model

Using social software for collaborative learning

  Graaasp and 3A Model (graaasp.epfl.ch)

Using social software for collaborative learning

  Graaasp features  Collaboration: space  Roles: user-defined  User generated content: tag, rate, comment, wiki,

bookmark  Gadgets: learning tools  hCard & hCalendar: tracking learning process

Using social software for collaborative learning

  Google Wave

Using social software for collaborative learning

  Google Wave features  Collaboration: google groups  Structuring Waves: tag-based structuring  User generated content: text, pictures, videos, etc  Gadgets and robots

Scenarios of collaborative learning

  Scenario in Graaasp

Scenarios of collaborative learning

  Scenario in Google Wave

Bottom-up Learning Paradigm

  Evaluation through user study   Interview with 10 students  User questionnaire

  Evaluation results  9/10 students like bottom-up learning paradigm

 Useful to organize group projects  Easy to share and collaborate

Bottom-up Learning Paradigm

  Encourage students to control learning process

  Take advantage of students’ Web 2.0 skills

  Facilitate sharing resources

  Information overflow   Recommendation of useful

learning resources

  Trust & privacy in open environment

Benefits Challenges

Conclusion

  Potential role of social software in supporting collaborative learning

  Graaasp and Google Wave scenarios   Preliminary evaluation through user study   Benefits and challenges of bottom-up learning

paradigm   More evaluation of usability and acceptability in

the future

Q&A

Thanks for your attention!

Welcome to visit Graaasp.epfl.ch