Presented at ICWL 2010

1. 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

2. Outline
1 Introduction
2 Using Social Software for Collaborative Learning
3 Scenarios of Collaborative Learning
4 Bottom-up Learning Paradigm
5 Conclusion

3. Introduction
 Social software
Blog
 Digital native
Tag
Link
Rate
Wiki

4. 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

5. Using social software for collaborative learning
 Graaasp and 3A Model

6. Using social software for collaborative learning
 Graaasp and 3A Model (graaasp.epfl.ch)

7. 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

8. Using social software for collaborative learning
 Google Wave

9. 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

10. Scenarios of collaborative learning
 Scenario in Graaasp

11. Scenarios of collaborative learning
 Scenario in Google Wave

12. Bottom-up Learning Paradigm
 Evaluation through user study
 Interviewwith 10 students
 User questionnaire
 Evaluation results
 9/10 students like bottom-up learning paradigm
 Useful to organize group projects
 Easy to share and collaborate

13. Bottom-up Learning Paradigm
Benefits Challenges
 Encourage students to  Information overflow
control learning process  Recommendation of useful
 Take advantage of learning resources
students’ Web 2.0 skills  Trust & privacy in open
 Facilitate sharing resources environment

14. 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

15. Q&A
Thanks for your attention!
Welcome to visit Graaasp.epfl.ch