1. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 INTERNET BASED PROJECT LEARNING FOR ELECTRONICS Domenico Ponta & Giuliano Donzellini DIBE – Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering University of Genoa, Italy ponta@dibe.unige.it donzie@dibe.unige.it

2. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Content What is Network Based Project Learning (NBPL) NBPL advantages The NetPro project: models and tools for NBPL NetPro pilot courses Results and evaluation

3. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 What is NBPL? PBL (Project Based Learning) is an established pedagogical approach in engineering education: learning “happens” through the development of a project It implements the constructionist & constructivist approaches the emphasis is on team work NBPL (Network Based Project Learning) is PBL supported by network services to facilitate communication, collaboration and management of project artefacts

4. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NBPL advantages a closer alignment of vocational training to working life to learn team working, management skills, self-direction and personal initiative to connect different studies and disciplines together in a way that mirrors real world tasks to introduce the work practices used in the engineering departments project teams may be geographically distributed

5. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 A specific implementation of NBPL The NetPro project: Design, develop, test and disseminate network based project learning approaches in engineering education NetPro I: 12/97 - 12/00 NetPro II: 12/00 - 12/03

6. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Partners FINEspoo - Vantaa Institute of Technology Jyväskylä Polytechnic Federation of Finnish Electrical and Electronics Industry HCI Productions Oy Employers’ Association Allianssi FUniversite de Toulouse le Mirail UKKingston University University of York NLHogeschool Holland Hogeschool van Utrecht IUniversity of Genoa University of Trento SCIENTER BGTechnical University of Sofia

7. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Objectives of NetPro Project Models and methods for NBPL Materials and tools to support the implementation of NBPL Pilot courses to test methods and tools Evaluation Dissemination of results Establisment of a NetPro User Community

8. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Project learning in NetPro Part of the learning is organized as a project developed by a team Students’ teams work on a common project forming a community A project is structured into tasks and related deliverables Content-specific learning resources may be provided locally Teams share their results with the learning community by publishing them on the web Teams cooperate and review their work through network services

9. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Project learning in NetPro A NetPro experience involves students and teachers. Teachers: create a project, define and plan project work, guide students and control student progress, monitor project development and store the results. Students: develop the project, take advantage of the cooperative learning tools, engage in discussions and reviews, publish their deliverables.

10. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools Specific tools support: Set-up, control and delivery of projects (Project Deliverables Center - PDC) Individual team’s cooperative project development activities (Student Project Side) Peer review activities among and within teams

11. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools - PDC Each project has its own Project Deliverables Center (PDC). The PDC is the core tool and allows: sharing all the public project documentation within the learning community, facilitating the teachers’ task in organising and monitoring project activities, supporting knowledge sharing among students.

12. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools – PDC - Student View

13. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools – PDC - Admin View A demo PDC

14. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools – Student Project Site Each team takes advantage of a Project Site, a shared group workspace that helps project development with: managing project tasks and deliverables, collaborative and distributed authoring and annotation of group documents (version control of documents), a repository for resources and assets needed in the project. The set-up of a Project Site does not require web authoring skills.

15. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools – Student Project Site interactive project log for recording decisions made, actions taken or milestones reached interactive meeting memo summary information about the status of the project contact info team’s members info communication tools to support virtual teamwork

16. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro Tools – Peer review Review activities enhance the learning of key concepts: Peer review is the process where a team studies and evaluates other teams’ deliverables. Peer assesment is the evaluation within a team to assess each other's contribution by awarding grades against a given set of criteria Peer coaching is the assistance of a supportive peer who helps the learner. Senior students act as coaches of the junior students.

17. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 The reuse of a learning experience Our experience has shown that NetPro projects are worth to be saved for future reuse Students can learn from previous experiences: using exemplary projects as models for their own deliverables, using part of former projects (i.e. bibliography, data sheets and research data) as a source of reusable information. Teachers can: review finished projects for creating new ones, re-use parts of the learning environment, demonstrate NBPL features to colleagues, analyse the stored material to extract useful information and use it as a reference for quality assessment, reviewing by other students.

18. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 The reuse of a learning experience Spontaneous cases of reuse proved that: the reuse of project assignments shortens the development time of a new project and improves the project quality by a proper revision project reuse among different institutions plays a very important role in promoting international cooperation and harmonisation of courses and curricula a systematic approach to archiving projects (Archiving Tool)

19. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Archiving of NetPro projects The Archiving Tool is available to the project’s owner from the PDC panel

20. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Pilot courses for testing and validation Four rounds of pilots, within the standard curricula of participating institutions, in three fields of engineering : –Electronics Engineering –Software Engineering –Media technology Several forms of inter-institutional and international cooperation –1200 learners have partecipated in NetPro 1pilots –1800 learners in NetPro 2 pilots

21. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Case study: Pilot courses in Electronics Its purpose is the management of the ”active learning” activities of an introductory course of digital design (ESD1). The projects apply or, more often, anticipate, the subjects of the lectures. In addition to NetPro tools, the local site provides subject- specific resources: –tools for Digital System Simulation –remote lab (controlling instruments over Internet –http://www.esng.dibe.unige.it/netpro/ –http://esng.dibe.unige.it/DEEDS/

22. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Case study: Pilot courses in Electronics 12 small “projects”, one deliverable due each week (strict deadline) All assignenments and deliverables in English Students can come to the lab or work remotely Extensive tutoring available in the lab Deliverable are graded and grades published in the PDC, but grades do not contribute to the final score Discussion forum available

23. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Users Evaluation Questionnaires prepared in cooperation with the NetPro Partner in charge of quality support have been used to evaluate students satisfaction The following slides report the evaluation data obtained from the analysis of the “Questionnaire for Learners” filled by the “Electronic System Design 1” (ESD1) course participants. ESD1 is an introductory course on Digital Design, delivered in Genoa to all students of Electronic, Information Technologies, Telecommunications and Biomedic Engineering. Large number of students

24. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 ESD1: Users Evaluation (1) Students in general expressed their appreciation for the pilot course, stressing in particular: -usefulness of network-based project learning approach as: -a stimulating and exciting way to approach new subjects -an interesting experiment to find new ways of learning -an experience that develops knowledge and creativity -working in group and practising on the personal computers -project learning stimulates the capacity to organise one's own time.

25. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 ESD1: Users Evaluation (2) Comparing NBPL against traditional lectures »it gives the possibility to test personal skills and to learn by doing »it improve team working and co-operation skills »it improve skills to adapt to new situations and to take initiative and responsibility »project learning is useful for learning the theory better and prepare more thoroughly for the exam »some referred to project-based learning as time consuming, sometimes even detrimental for theoretical learning »a few difficulties with NetPro and local tools, that needed to be enhanced »logistical problems with labs

26. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 ESD1: Users Evaluation (3) Students were reluctant in using the discussion forums, for the following reasons time-consuming sometimes they were not able to get reliable answers not easy as communicate directly, face to face, with tutors and peers Peer Review it was a good experience for half of students it stimulates teamwork and enhances collaboration risk of unclear and non-homogeneous peer reviews teachers should have the instruments to monitor Peer Reviews functioning and should play a greater role as co-ordinators

27. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Inter-institutional Projects Inter-institutional projects are difficult to set-up Differences in -curricula and course programs -Lecture scheduling Staff and institutional motivation But we found out that language was not a major problem…. Other lesser forms of inter-institutional co-operation have proved quite effective. –Sharing projects assignments –Reviewing projects from other institutionsReviewing projects from other institutions –Re-using of assignements and results

28. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Applying NetPro: the student’s point of view The projects should be integrated carefully with the curriculum Projects should be based on knowledge and skills within the reach of students project work must be credited avoid overloading of students Tutor support to project teams should be available Students should be assisted to learn the new method

29. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Applying NetPro: the teachers The organisation of a NetPro course is demanding in terms of teachers’ time and energies, but the pedagogical results are more than proportionate to the resources spent. It would be impossible to organise project activity with the same results with a traditional approach. Teachers’ role must be recognised and supported by institutions In the current institutional climate, only a dedicated teacher runs NetPro courses

30. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 NetPro dissemination NetPro user community Web based collaboration environment to support teachers, trainers and course designers in using NetPro models, materials and tools. NBPL Guide a database application with Web user interface, collecting data, results and experiences from previous pilots.

31. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 References NetPro Project site: netpro.evtek.fi http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storag e_01/0000019b/80/1a/2c/62.pdf

32. TAEE 2004 Valencia, July 2004 Thank you for your attention!