M253 Students Study Guide Mrs. Fatheya Al Mubarak – AOU Dammam

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak2 Course Guide P1 1. Introduction and overview – a high-level view of what you will be doing in M253 Team working in distributed environments. 2. Before you start – a summary of what you will need in order to be able to study the course successfully. 3. Course components – a description of the different components of the course and how they relate to one another. 4. What the course is about – an explanation of what you might expect to gain from the course (expressed in terms of learning outcomes). 5. Study support – an introduction to the important role that your tutor will play in supporting your study of M Credits and qualifications – an explanation of how M253 relates to other courses in the Computing and other degree programmes. 7. Assessment – a brief summary of the assessment on the course. 8. Studying with other people – advice on working with other students and how to avoid plagiarism. 9. Getting started – a description of what you need to do before starting the course, in addition to reading this Course Guide. 10. Getting help – a summary of other ways of getting help.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak3 1 Introduction and overview M253 Team working in distributed environments is a practical course on working in distributed (or virtual) teams – teams in which the members are not located together. The major feature of the course is its focus on practical, collaborative work rather than private study.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak4 No units associated with the course You will have : Resource Sheets on LMS Read and learn basic skills Activity Sheets (Scenario) your team will be expected to complete a number of tasks. These tasks could include an analysis of the problem described in the scenario

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak5 Assessment by 3 assignments: 2 tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) 1 end-of-course assessment (ECA) All three assignments are described in Activity Sheets (on LMS) Each assignment will take the form of a progress report, which teams will submit to their tutors, as follows: 1 A team submission for the assignment. This will report on progress in completing the tasks and the team- work processes that your team has been engaged in. Each team will prepare and submit this part of the report as a team. 2 Short reports prepared by each individual within the team. This allows you to describe your own experience of working in the team and your reflection upon the team-working process. You should rest assured that we have attempted to keep the total study time for the course within reasonable bounds. We have worked to a study time of approximately 100 hours for the whole course. The course guide is important

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak6 2 Before you start  We have not assumed that you will have any specialist knowledge of, or experience in, distributed team-working before you start M253.  Prerequisite knowledge: Reading and writing skills Time management A self-discipline to study the course Ability to use: a personal computer, word processing application, communication software ( ), and have access to the internet. Experience of using forums or any electronic conferencing system (ex: LMS forums).  Computing facilities It is essential that you have the necessary computing equipment Regular access to use: a computer, connected to the internet and containing a web browsing software and word processing application  AOU network services In order to study M253 you will need to have access to the AOU-LMS provides you with TMA download and submission tool, wiki, forum and course website link  An experience in using LMS is expected

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak7 3 Course components This course guide was from the OU reference which differ in no. of milestones, course period and course assessment. Please refer to the LMS for AOU

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak8 The Course Guide (this document). A Study Calendar that can be downloaded and printed. An Expanded Study Calendar that provides a detailed summary of your activities week by week. Resource Sheets, which we have provided as background reading for you to consult during the course. Activity Sheets, which describe the major tasks that your team should undertake during the course. The Online Applications CD-ROM. The course website. A team forum and wiki.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak9 Activity Sheets The course has been structured around 3 Activity Sheets that describe the main practical activities on the course. (Activity Sheets Milestone 1, Milestone 2) constitute formal assignments: each of them describes a series of tasks that must be completed by a certain date. By that date you should have submitted your work for TMA submission tool on LMS (Milestone 0) contains a formative assignment that is designed to help your team work together at the start of the course and the other is the Scenario, which is a case study that forms the context for Milestones 1, 2 and 3.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak10 Resource Sheets The Resource Sheets are short documents on topics that are relevant to the course. They have been written in order to help you with the practical work, to help you with communicating and collaborating with the other members of the team, and to give you some background and context to the practical activities that you will be undertaking. If you have studied other Open University courses then you can think of the Resource Sheets as replacing the units or set books on other courses. We chose not to publish the Resource Sheets as units in order to emphasize that they can be studied in any order and independently of each other. The Resource Sheets that are relevant to each week’s activities are indicated in the Expanded Study Calendar.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak11 CD and Website CD-ROM Remember to use the Online Applications CD-ROM and read its associated documentation. The CD-ROM contains much of the communication software that you might wish to use. Please ensure that you have the most up-to-date versions installed – check this CD-ROM even if you have previously installed software provided by The Open University. Course website The course website is an integral part of the course and you should aim to visit it regularly. On the website you should find the following information. This Course Guide. The Study Calendar and Expanded Study Calendar. Links to other OU sites and systems such as online forums and the eTMA system. Stop presses and news items. News from the course team. Documents to download, including the Activity Sheets and Resource Sheets.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak12 Forums and wikis Each team is provided with its own forum. It is important that you check this on a regular basis, since your team forum will be one of the major ways in which you will communicate with your team members. Your tutor may also use it to communicate with you, and they will also dip into it to see how your team is progressing. You will find a link to your team forum from the M253 course website. If you cannot get access to your team forum then please contact your tutor for advice. You may also want to use your team wiki as a shared space for collaborating online. Wikis are particularly useful for writing and discussing drafts of documents (such as your team reports) before they are published elsewhere.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak13 4 What the course is about One way of describing M253 is that it is a course on experiencing and evaluating (the use of computer-based communication for) shared decision-making (at a distance); or alternatively, that it is a course on carrying out a team project where the members of the team are not co-located – in other words, a distributed team. Learning outcomes The learning outcomes for M253 describe what you should know, understand and be able to do when you have successfully completed the course. In M253, the learning outcomes are developmental. This means that you will be working towards the learning outcomes as you undertake the different activities on the course. Our aim is that you should be able to demonstrate achievement of all the learning outcomes by the time you have completed the course. Each of the Activity Sheets has some learning outcomes associated with it.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak14 5 Study support Tutorial support (meetings): Help the group by providing: support, information, general supervision and guidance. Assignment marking Provide you with your work assessment, team and individual feedback. Team forums Will be used to assess your team work and your comunication * For details of how to contact the course team, please look at the course website.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak15 6 Credits and qualifications Refer to your transcript on SIS and academic study plan to check The credit hours and points awarded on completing this course

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak16 7 Assessment TMA1 10% TMA2 10% MTA 30% Final Exam 50% Each assignment on M253 has two sections: one that is prepared by the team and the other that is written by the individual student. Each student submits their own assignment, containing their answer to both sections.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak17 8 Working with other people Needs: Collaborative working Time management No Plagiarism or syndication When quoting acknowledge your sources You can discuss the questions with other students but when the time comes to write the assignment, make sure that you do this on your own and do not share the work with others.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak18 9 Getting started Make sure that you can access your team forum and team wiki. This will be essential for communicating with your team and with your tutor. 2 Download the Milestone 0 Activity Sheet, and the Resource Sheets relevant to this milestone, from the M253 course website. This website will be essential for keeping up to date with developments during the course. It is where the Activity Sheets will be published. 3 Start a project log book.

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak19 10 Getting help There are many options available to you for obtaining help during your studies, including: the other members of your team – as co-workers with you on the course, they will be a valuable source of advice and expertise; your tutor – by effective use of LMS tools and

18/10/2009Mrs. Fatheya AL Mubarak20 PART TWO: WEEK-BY-WEEK ACTIVITIES Refer to your LMS webpage to read and achieve your activities According to the Course Calendar