1. Damien Raftery Lecturer & eLearning Development Officer Teaching & Learning Centre Institute of Technology Carlow Using Google Docs to support Project-based learning Daire Ó Broin Lecturer Science and Health Institute of Technology Carlow http://elearn.itcarlow.ie EdTech 2009

2. Project-based learning Wide-ranging approach that uses authentic problems to engage students – question creation of artefacts final product Benefits include active learning approach Possible problems – difficult for students to collaborate outside of class – teacher monitor progress and assess individual contribution Google Docs to help overcome these limitations?

3. The bigger picture: Google Apps & forms, all online

4. Old School Document for collaboration

5. New School ONE Online Document for collaboration Link to Doc

6. The interface

7. Editing a document

8. Revision History

9. Sharing a document Add collaborators and viewers Publish as web page for all to view Download as PDF, Word or other formats

10. Collaborate and work online – edit anytime, from anywhere – share changes in real time, revision history Issues: limited features, technical … So, what happened? – how easy was it to setup? – how did the students find using it? – how did we (the teachers) find using it? Using Google Docs to support Project-based learning

11. Setup Short intro to Google docs Task 1: Create an account using student number as username Task 2: Create and share a document

12. Setup Mail server blocked confirmation emails from Google Docs Some students inadvertently set up two accounts with same username and password

13. Setup

14. Using it - Good The ability for numerous people to edit a document remotely is very useful Can see changes by team members almost immediately Icon at the bottom of the screen indicating who is currently editing is also handy Easy to share Easy to use?

15. Using it - Bad Discarded text Spontaneous deletions Autosave Adding charts difficult Font type and size changed by itself Can be very slow Unavailable for saving (rare)

16. Would you use Google Docs again?

17. Yes “It is very easy to work with others as a group even when you don't get time to meet up” “Yes, for simple documents” “Yes, if I was working within a group situation”

18. No “MS Word is easier to use and less time consuming.” “I found it quite difficult to use and navigate. I would stick to using Word and sending my work via e-mail. ” “Typing a document on Word is much easier, with a much better range of tools to format documents.” “There were a of problems with members of the group not being able to log in and collaborate and this caused problems within the group. There were more negatives than positives to Google Docs.”

19. Teacher Evaluation Giving feedback – opportunity to monitor, comment, and flag issues during project – Revision History Evaluating projects – forms (self- and peer-assessment rubrics, reflections) – no more emails and sheets of paper to file

20. Revision history

21. Plagiarism – limitation: can’t compare final and initial versions

22. Forms Online evaluation & feedback forms

23. Conclusion Successful What worked well – Student collaboration outside of class – forms and revision history Limitations – Discarded text and spontaneous deletions – Autosave – Revision history: compare final and initial versions – Compared with MS Word: not as easy, fewer features

24. Conclusion Some suggestions – Setup: check confirmation messages arrive – Training for adding charts, etc. – Clearer guidelines, e.g. naming conventions Future work – Alternatives: Microsoft Live? Wikis? Thank you & questions?