Re-designed university course to support boundary crossing

between academic and professional communities

Amenduni FrancescaSupervisor: Prof Ligorio Maria Beatrice

University of Bari (Italy)Email: amendoonia@gmail.com

The Problem In the Italian context, university courses are often based on theoretical knowledge and students have a few chances to develop digital and professional skills during their academic life.

University students need to develop generic skills, important in professional contexts

University courses should provide the opportunity to reflect upon their professional identity, their position in the society and in the labour market.

Our aims To develop students’ awareness of their own

professional goals;

To improve networking and professional skills;

To support transitional processess across boundaries between academic and professional communities;

To emphasize joint work with artefacts and practices!

Theoretical Background

We applied a model that inglobes different theories of collaborative work; all sharing a view of collaborative learning as a process of creating something new: Cultural Psychology (Cole, 1996) Knowledge Building Theory (Scardamalia &

Bereiter, 1994); CHAT Cultural Historical Activity Theroy

(Engestrom, 1987; Vygotsky, 1978)

Trialogical Learning Approach (Paavola & Hakkarainen, 2005)

The Term Trialogical refers to those processes where people are collaboratively and systematically developing shared, concrete “objects” together. These objects of inquiry can be knowledge artefacts, practices, ideas, models, representation but understood as something concrete to be developed collaboratively.

An illustration of the trialogical approach to learning presenting some of the basic elements of it (Paavola S. & Hakkarainen, K. (2009)

Design principlesDP1) Organizing activities around shared

“objects”;

DP2) Supporting integration between personal and

collective agency;

DP3) Fostering long-term processes of knowledge

advancement;

DP4) Emphasizing development through

transformation and reflection between various

forms of knowledge and practices;

DP5) Cross fertilization of various knowledge

practices across communities and institutions;

DP6) Providing flexible tools for mediation.

The context The institution: University of Bari, Italy Topic: Educational and E-learning Psychology

(e-learning, blended learning, socio-contructivism, new trends…)

Duration: 4 months Participants: 35 students Master’s Degree, 5 e-

learning companies, one university teacher and a group of e-learning tutors.

DP1) Organizing activities around “shared objects”

Five e-learning companies introduced themselves and proposed shared objects

Seven groups were formed to build as many objects

They worked for six weeks using different digital means, interacting with the companies and receiving feedback from real customers

Finally, students presented their objects firstly to the class and then to real customers

Companies supported the objects development in order to actually sell them

DP2) Supporting integration between personal and

collective agency Shifting from individual to group dimension and vice versa

Teacher prepared educational material to be distributed individually. The collection of such material covered the content of the course

Students individually studied the material so to become an «expert» about a piece of knowledge (similar to a puzzle piece). Students wrote individual reviews and later they discussed and combined their knowledge in group so to re-construct the whole content (as in a puzzle)

Role taking: a few roles were designed so students could cover them in turns. Examples of roles: E-tutor, researcher, product expert, supporter, maps manager)

Students were required to develop two kinds of e- portfolio: a professional one on Linkedin and a student one on Forumcommunity

DP3) Fostering long-term processes of knowledge

advancement Companies helped students in

defining usefulness and applicability of the objects

During the objects construction, company tutors answered questions and gave feedback on students work practices on professional platform (LinkedIn)

Finally, companies assessed the objects and gave further feedback about how to develop the object in the future

Along the whole course, students developed their professional network through LinkedIn.

DP4) Emphasizing development

through transformation and

reflection Students were provided by

educational material in the format of chapters and papers. This material is transformed into individual reviews and afterwards into conceptual maps built collaboratively

Each transformation is supported by reflective discussions via web forum.

“Product expert” is a student who compares his own group product and strategy with those of the other groups. This role favors reflections on weaknesses and strengths about the practices and objects under construction.

DP5) Cross fertilization of

various knowledge practices

across communities and

institutions; Companies describe their best work practices and invite students to follow their instructions

Companies give students a list of items to self-assess the objects during their development

Students and companies share a virtual space (LinkedIn group) where they can discuss ideas, post articles, drafts and so on

DP6) Providing flexible tools for

mediation- Forumcommunity is a platform in

which you can organize discussions

around different topics in forums;

Students used Forumcommunity to

organize their work around shared

objects and to discuss their ideas;

- LinkedIn is one of the most important

professional Social Networks. You can use

it to create a professional e-portfolio and

to develop your network.

- Google drive: is a Google tool in cloud.

You can use it to manage knowledge

materials and to create “shared objects”

in a collaborative way.

- Doodle is a tool used to make surveys.

- Padlet supports brainstorming

processes.

Data Collectio

nData collected:

E-portfolio (at outset, half way and at the end of course)

Discussions forum (at outset, half way and at the end of course)

Student questionnaires (pre and post course)

Company questionnaires (at the end of the course)

Data Analysis

Combining qualitative and quantitative analysis

Content Qualitative Analysis

Social Network Analysis

Positioning Network Analysis

Examples of “shared” objects

From the company questionnaire: All the companies are willing to repeat the experience; 3 are convinced that objects could be re-used in the future; 2 think that LinkedIn could be used to better know students and communicate with them

From LinkedIn e-portfolio: Students triple the number of links within their professional network (Mt1=16 -> Mt2=67), quintuple their professional skills (Mt1=3,8 -> Mt2= 22,2) and greatly increase their endorsements (Mt1=4 -> Mt2= 91)

From students questionnaire: they appreciate the improvement of their professional skills (18 students); the understanding of how digital tools can be used for professional and educational purposes (17); the group-work (15); the collaboration with companies (11); the construction of a shared object (7);

Preliminary results

Request for suggestions

We would like to gather a general understanding of the effect of the course integrating all the data: how could be this achived?

How the data we have collected can be further treated?

How the course could be improved? What should be changed?

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