Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning

This research paper presents a group project framework for a second-year programming course, which was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework offers well defined stages of the group project which allow students to work on their choice of a real-world problem, integrate their learnings...

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Main Authors: LAU, Yi Meng, SHIM, Kyong Jin, GOTTIPATI, Swapna
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/6862
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/7865/viewcontent/Design_and_Supervision_Model_of_Group_Projects_for_Active_Learning.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.sis_research-78652023-08-02T07:47:15Z Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning LAU, Yi Meng SHIM, Kyong Jin GOTTIPATI, Swapna This research paper presents a group project framework for a second-year programming course, which was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework offers well defined stages of the group project which allow students to work on their choice of a real-world problem, integrate their learnings from previous courses, and present a working solution. In the group project, students actively participate, reflect, and contribute to achieving the goals set in the learning objectives of the course. Our framework incorporates key features from Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1984) and principles of active learning from Barnes (1989) to achieve active and experiential learning through active supervision. The use of group projects as a teaching pedagogy is widely adopted in many universities. Students work together, develop a plan, and demonstrate their abilities in building on existing knowledge acquired from previous courses, and apply them appropriately for problem solving. Prior to the pandemic, it was the norm for students to work on their group projects together by meeting physically on campus. Key benefits of working together physically are having the support of one another and the ease of communication. With the onset of the pandemic, safe distancing measures, and restrictions put in place have made it challenging for students to work on group projects together. During the pandemic, many courses were forced to move online with limited face-to-face learning opportunities on campus. This posed great challenges to the faculty in terms of effective supervision of students and their project progress. To mitigate the challenges, we devised a flexible strategy that makes use of both technology-based and non-technological means for monitoring students’ group project milestones. The faculty receives continuous updates from students as they work towards each milestone. These milestones serve as important checkpoints for students. Continuous checks at different milestones help the faculty adopt appropriate intervention measures as issues arise. The group project learning framework consists of three main stages, namely Group Formation, Scoping of the Project, and Group Solutioning. The framework is overlaid with Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory concepts to describe the learnings, milestones, and deliverables of each stage. Each of these stages adopts Barnes’s principles of active learning to enable active participation, reflection, and contribution by students. We evaluated the success of this framework through a comprehensive student survey analysis. The survey asked specific questions to students on all stages of the group project and the overarching component of teamwork and working online. We also present our findings and lessons learned for improvements of the framework. We believe that our framework will be valuable to educators in computing programs that wish to adopt effective supervision measures for group projects. 2021-10-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/6862 info:doi/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637162 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/7865/viewcontent/Design_and_Supervision_Model_of_Group_Projects_for_Active_Learning.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University COVID-19 group-based learning experiential learning active learning Databases and Information Systems Higher Education Programming Languages and Compilers
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic COVID-19
group-based learning
experiential learning
active learning
Databases and Information Systems
Higher Education
Programming Languages and Compilers
spellingShingle COVID-19
group-based learning
experiential learning
active learning
Databases and Information Systems
Higher Education
Programming Languages and Compilers
LAU, Yi Meng
SHIM, Kyong Jin
GOTTIPATI, Swapna
Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
description This research paper presents a group project framework for a second-year programming course, which was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework offers well defined stages of the group project which allow students to work on their choice of a real-world problem, integrate their learnings from previous courses, and present a working solution. In the group project, students actively participate, reflect, and contribute to achieving the goals set in the learning objectives of the course. Our framework incorporates key features from Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory (1984) and principles of active learning from Barnes (1989) to achieve active and experiential learning through active supervision. The use of group projects as a teaching pedagogy is widely adopted in many universities. Students work together, develop a plan, and demonstrate their abilities in building on existing knowledge acquired from previous courses, and apply them appropriately for problem solving. Prior to the pandemic, it was the norm for students to work on their group projects together by meeting physically on campus. Key benefits of working together physically are having the support of one another and the ease of communication. With the onset of the pandemic, safe distancing measures, and restrictions put in place have made it challenging for students to work on group projects together. During the pandemic, many courses were forced to move online with limited face-to-face learning opportunities on campus. This posed great challenges to the faculty in terms of effective supervision of students and their project progress. To mitigate the challenges, we devised a flexible strategy that makes use of both technology-based and non-technological means for monitoring students’ group project milestones. The faculty receives continuous updates from students as they work towards each milestone. These milestones serve as important checkpoints for students. Continuous checks at different milestones help the faculty adopt appropriate intervention measures as issues arise. The group project learning framework consists of three main stages, namely Group Formation, Scoping of the Project, and Group Solutioning. The framework is overlaid with Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory concepts to describe the learnings, milestones, and deliverables of each stage. Each of these stages adopts Barnes’s principles of active learning to enable active participation, reflection, and contribution by students. We evaluated the success of this framework through a comprehensive student survey analysis. The survey asked specific questions to students on all stages of the group project and the overarching component of teamwork and working online. We also present our findings and lessons learned for improvements of the framework. We believe that our framework will be valuable to educators in computing programs that wish to adopt effective supervision measures for group projects.
format text
author LAU, Yi Meng
SHIM, Kyong Jin
GOTTIPATI, Swapna
author_facet LAU, Yi Meng
SHIM, Kyong Jin
GOTTIPATI, Swapna
author_sort LAU, Yi Meng
title Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
title_short Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
title_full Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
title_fullStr Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
title_full_unstemmed Design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
title_sort design and supervision model of group projects for active learning
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2021
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/6862
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/7865/viewcontent/Design_and_Supervision_Model_of_Group_Projects_for_Active_Learning.pdf
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