Damien Raftery

1
EdTech 2009
Using Google Docs to support Project-based
learning

• Damien Raftery
• Lecturer eLearning Development Officer
• Teaching Learning Centre
• Institute of Technology Carlow

• Daire Ó Broin
• Lecturer
• Science and Health
• Institute of Technology Carlow

http//elearn.itcarlow.ie
2
Project-based learning

• Wide-ranging approach that uses authentic
  problems to engage students
• question creation of artefacts
  final product
• Benefits include active learning approach
• Possible problems
• difficult for students to collaborate outside of
  class
• teacher monitor progress and assess individual
  contribution
• Google Docs to help overcome these limitations?

3
The bigger pictureGoogle Apps

• forms, all online

4
Old School
5
New School
Link to Doc
Link to Doc
ONE Online Document for collaboration
Link to Doc
Link to Doc
6
The interface
7
Editing a document
8
Revision History
9
Sharing a document

• Add collaborators and viewers
• Publish as web page for all to view
• Download as PDF, Word or other formats

10
Using Google Docs to support Project-based
learning

• Collaborate and work online
• edit anytime, from anywhere
• share changes in real time, revision history
• Issues limited features, technical
• So, what happened?
• how easy was it to setup?
• how did the students find using it?
• how did we (the teachers) find using it?

11
Setup

• Short intro to Google docs
• Task 1 Create an account using student number as
  username
• Task 2 Create and share a document

12
Setup

• Mail server blocked confirmation emails from
  Google Docs
• Some students inadvertently set up two accounts
  with same username and password

13
Setup
14
Using it - Good

• The ability for numerous people to edit a
  document remotely is very useful
• Can see changes by team members almost
  immediately
• Icon at the bottom of the screen indicating who
  is currently editing is also handy
• Easy to share
• Easy to use?

15
Using it - Bad

• Discarded text
• Spontaneous deletions
• Autosave
• Adding charts difficult
• Font type and size changed by itself
• Can be very slow
• Unavailable for saving (rare)

16
Would you use Google Docs again?
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Yes

• It is very easy to work with others as a group
  even when you don't get time to meet up
• Yes, for simple documents
• Yes, if I was working within a group situation

18
No

• MS Word is easier to use and less time
  consuming.
• I found it quite difficult to use and navigate.
  I would stick to using Word and sending my work
  via e-mail.
• Typing a document on Word is much easier, with a
  much better range of tools to format documents.
• There were a of problems with members of the
  group not being able to log in and collaborate
  and this caused problems within the group. There
  were more negatives than positives to Google
  Docs.

19
Teacher Evaluation

• Giving feedback
• opportunity to monitor, comment, and flag issues
  during project
• Revision History
• Evaluating projects
• forms (self- and peer-assessment rubrics,
  reflections)
• no more emails and sheets of paper to file

20
Revision history

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Revision history

• Plagiarism
• limitation cant compare final and initial
  versions

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Forms
Online evaluation feedback forms
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Conclusion

• Successful
• What worked well
• Student collaboration outside of class
• forms and revision history
• Limitations
• Discarded text and spontaneous deletions
• Autosave
• Revision history compare final and initial
  versions
• Compared with MS Word not as easy, fewer
  features

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Conclusion

• Some suggestions
• Setup check confirmation messages arrive
• Training for adding charts, etc.
• Clearer guidelines, e.g. naming conventions
• Future work
• Alternatives Microsoft Live? Wikis?
• Thank you questions?