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Learning Research Methods
with Elgg A two year project To develop an Elgg-based community over two years of an undergraduate
programme to more formally learn Research methods early in Yr 2 and, then, to
support the same student group as they decide and progress research topics
for their 3rd year Dissertation. Proposal Oct 2007 – Feb 2008 Students use WebCT and Elgg to learn about
Research Methods. This online environment is supported by 12 on-campus
sessions. The aim during
this period is to help the students familiarise themselves with the Elgg environment and be confident in posting in a
blogging environment, working with access restrictions, understanding the
privacy/publication dichotomy, leveraging the power of the tools in the Elgg environment for learning, creating the beginnings of
a learning community. To encourage
this, the students will work in small groups to create ‘Blog Carnivals” on
research related topics for publication to the Internet. The original
lecturer will be supplemented by other staff members who are experienced
researchers. Feb 2008 – Sept 2008 Students will
take this time to decide on their topics for a Year 3 Study project, using
primary research. It is the aim of this period to assist
students in maintaining their learning community in Elgg
so that they can draw on past Forum postings, and other resources, as well as
ongoing blog posts to help them focus their research topics. October 2008 – May 2009 Students from the
original cohort will be completing their Year 3 Study project. It is the aim of this period to assist
students in maintaining their learning community in Elgg
so that they can draw on past experience in Elgg,
and shared current experience to help them progress their research topics to
completion. Some funding
assistance is being sought for the later stages from the Terry King School of
Computing Phone: 023
92846426 Email:
terry.king@port.ac.uk |