Mats Daniels
Computer Systems
Department of Information Technology
Uppsala University
The objective of this project is to investigate and develop approaches to include non-local experts in local courses. The focus will be on project oriented courses using the Open Ended Group Project approach [Daniels, Faulkner, Newman, CSEE&T, 2002]. Part of the effort will be directed to use of technical support. The study will aim to:
· Design, implement, and analyze some concrete examples of use of non-local experts.
· Draw general conclusions of the individual examples, especially concerning learning outcomes and costs (both in time and money).
Project
Overview
The project will be broken down into the plans for each year of the three year funding period.
Year 2002
This first stage will largely be a planning stage. This includes a literature survey, establishing contact with non-local experts, identify the courses where the experts will be involved, and survey potential technology to support the interaction between non-local experts on one hand and students and local experts on the other hand.
Final selection of aspects to study, e.g. time spent by expert, and methods for data collection will be investigated and decided during this stage. The focus in the data collection investigation will be on methods for unobtrusive data collection, since an aim in this project is to use such a mechanism.
Year 2003
The second stage will largely be devoted to running pilot versions of using non-local experts and data gathering in some courses. Preliminary candidates for courses are Computer Systems II, part 3 [the Runestone project], IT in Society, and the IT project [RoboCup].
Changes to the implementation, based on the experiences gained and analysis of the collected data, will be made.
Year 2004
The final stage will be a second run of the same courses gathering the same type of data. A final evaluation of the different settings will be made and generalizations will be identified. The results of this project will, apart from reporting on the main objective of looking into project-oriented courses, also be used to outline how to incorporate non-local experts in non-project oriented courses.
The results, and contacts made through this project, will be a base for a workshop in Uppsala in the fall 2004.
This project is expected to result in at least one publication per year during the last two years.