A Very Big Adventure

1. A Very Big Adventure Using the Moodle to enable multi-institutional collaboration in teaching computer ethics Joe Griffin, Dept of CSIS, University of Limerick, Ireland

2. Overview • Fundamental questions • Subject domain • Multi-institutional approach • Collaborative Learning • How Moodle was used • Future research ideas

3. Some fundamental questions • How do you motivate students? • How do you make learning a very big adventure? • What happens when students collaborate? • How do you ensure learning takes place?

4. PISE • Professional Issues in Software Engineering • “The legal, ethical and social consequences of the design, development and use of computer systems” • Objective: • To encourage students to develop the ethical foundations of good professional practice in computing • A major theme is the relationship between ethics and the legal and social consequences of being a computer professional

5. Multi-institutional approach • Previous study focused on the use of collaborative learning involving students from three institutions using B****b**** • University of Limerick, Ireland • Sacred Heart University, USA • de Montfort University, England • This study involved two universities, UL and University of East London (UEL). • Courses had similar focus • Pedagogicalapproach was teaching and learning collaboratively in groups

6. Why Collaborative Learning? • Collaboration with other students has been shown to stimulate activity, make learning more realistic and to stimulate motivation • Research has also shown that moral dilemmas in computer ethics encourage group discussion • Teamwork encourages social facilitation, better learning and higher cognitive skills • Groups can produce better solutions to moral and ethical problems than individuals • Collaborative learning supported by instructional technology can lead to deeper understanding and new knowledge creation

7. Problems with Collaborative Learning • A major problem with the use of group-based approaches is individual assessment • Free-Riding: some individuals gain more (in terms of grades) than they have put into the process (this grows more problematic with larger groups) • Domination by the stronger students

8. Moodle use • Management: self-organisation of students into groups, selection of topics, tutorial times and presentation times • Accessing learning materials and other resources • Communication • lecurer to lecturer • lecturer to student • student to lecturer • student to student • Collaboration using self-regulated discussion groups • Assessment of individual contributions

9. Moodle activities • Groups • Forums • News • Social • Case study • Glossary • Resources • Plain text • Uploaded file • Web link • Web page

10. Topics • Introduction and socialisation • Forming groups • First glossary entry • Upload group minutes • Interim reports

11. Assessing contributions • Quantity • 186,000 forum views • Rated • Analysis of cognitive presence [Garrison et al, 2001] • Triggering • Exploration • Integration • Resolution • Grading of threaded discussions

12. Future work • Repeat cycle with new collaborators • Extend network to involve universities from Asian countries (EU/Asia fund) • Develop more exercises for virtual learning community establishment and sustainability • Incorporate more activities (journal, workshop) to enhance collaborative learning

13. Contact details Joe Griffin Department of Computer Science and Information systems University of Limerick Limerick Ireland Email: joe.griffin@ul.ie