Title of Case Study: / CABWEB Portal - Online Activities in Support of Internationalising the Curriculum
Institution and initiating department/faculty:
University of Salford, Information Systems Institute ( SalfordBusinessSchool from 1 Aug 2006)
Departments/faculties in which initiative implemented/to be implemented:
Departments/institutions of CAB project partners and HELP network members
Key Contact: / Others involved:
Name: / Frances Bell (CABWEB and HELP contact) / Name: / Dr Elena Zaitseva
Address: / Tel: / +44 (0) 151 231 3765
5th Floor Maxwell,
University of Salford,
Salford
M5 4WT / Email: /
Name: / Dr Frank Thissen(JILID Community contact)
Tel: / +49 721 98 900 56
Email /
Name / Janice Whatley
Tel: / +44 (0) 161 295 5175
Tel: / +44 (0) 161 295 4254 / Email /
Email: /
Abstract
This case study describes a portal for international collaboration online whose use has generated interesting insights into such staff and student collaborations. Although the development was planned and evaluated, the collaborative activities were not necessarily a direct result of institutional strategy, being more likely to spring from an academic’s practice-based interests. The study concludes by exploring the synergy between online collaboration and more traditional internationalisation activities. Submitted: June 2006.
Background – contextual issues giving rise to the initiative
CABWEB originated from a lunchtime discussion at ALT-C 2000 (Association for Learning Technology Conference) between lecturers from the UK and Germany who shared an interest in student collaboration online. Their initial experiment in collaboration was supported by the University of Salford Teaching and Learning Quality Improvement Scheme (TLQIS) and grew to involve institutions with whom University of Salford maintained links, institutional or personal. The initial partnership of colleagues from four institutions collaborated to develop a Socrates-Minerva proposal using European Union funding for development of the partnership. The proposal was successful and funded a two year project with a partnership from UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and Poland.
Salford was the lead institution in this bid, and has a strong emphasis on internationalisation within its strategic framework, including a strategic priority to “develop the internationalisation of the curriculum and the contribution that the international dimension makes to the student and staff experience.”
Internal collaboration within Salford to develop a symposium for an international conference on Networked Learning broadened the CABWEB view of internationalisation. This helped to situate online collaboration within internationalising the curriculum.
Description of activity or initiative
The CAB project funded by Socrates-Minerva had the following specific objectives:
- To establish a network for collaboration and to encourage internationalisation
- To facilitate online collaboration between students and staff within this network, with an emphasis on critical evaluation and reflection
- To explore what makes the network sustainable rather than ephemeral
- To explore any possible relationship between student learning styles and their responses to the collaborative activity
- To explore how emotions and language barriers impact on online collaboration.
- The HELP network of academics, learning technologists and others who usually meet online to arrange student collaborations and to share their experiences and thoughts about online collaboration and learning (contact Frances Bell)
- Provision of collaboration spaces and support for organising and designing student collaborative activities whose responsibility is the staff concerned
- The JILID community, a global network of people who are interested in the research and collaboration on intercultural aspects of learning and the design of educational media (contact Frank Thissen).
Evaluative comments
During the lifetime of the CAB project 24 student collaborations, 4 joint activities (where students and tutors were involved) and 3 tutor discussions (on HELP) were organized. At the time of writing there have been 3 more HELP discussion events since the end of the project. Over two and a half years, 1921 students engaged in international collaborative activities in collaboration spaces on CABWEB or previous CAB discussion boards. Formal evaluation was conducted as part of the project and indicated high levels of satisfaction in both student and staff members of the portal. 84.7% of students who completed the online survey agreed or strongly agreed that their participation was beneficial. The benefits and negative aspects that students and tutors identified have been explored more fully in project reports and research publications, as well being discussed on HELP. However we can summarise these here.
Benefits
- cultural exchange – students were interested to exchange ideas and also to see if culture ‘made a difference’ to how other students saw their work
- language learning – almost all of the collaborations used English as the language of collaboration and it was clear that improving their English language skills was a significant motivator for many non-UK students
- development of critical, reflective and evaluation skills – many of the activities involved peer review of student work and reflective aspects, including on the role of the activity in their learning
- creativity and inspiration – some of the students were genuinely inspired by the opportunity to share their work with students from another country, and others were excited by the idea that this collaboration could be done online
- help with coursework – those students whose work was evaluated (in time) were able to improve their work.
- lack of interaction (or limited interaction) – not all students took part
- (perceived) insufficient subject related knowledge/skills for activity
- timing issues - collaboration as additional, time consuming task, lack of mutual benefits, and timing difficulties related to scheduling
- gaps in expectation – where students from different subject disciplines may approach the task differently
- language issues - limited language abilities of peers or too complicated language of native speakers; communication problems
- cultural differences – where the content of students’ work related to their own culture (national or subject), others may be puzzled by this.
Bell, F., Zaitseva, E. & Zakrzewska, D. (2006), Evaluation: A Link on the Chain of Sustainability, in User-Centered Design of Online Communities, eds N. Lambropoulos & P. Zaphiris, Idea Group, Hershey, PA.
Advice to others
We would encourage others to get involved in international collaboration. It can be hard work, but provides opportunities for interesting and relevant student learning activities. Members of the academy who have not tried this before are recommended to get involved in international collaboration themselves, to give them a better insight into its possibilities for their students. Project partners and HELP members who have engaged have learned more about what is needed in an international curriculum, and experience the opportunities and pitfalls of online collaboration. All are welcome to join CABWEB HELP, consult our resources and join in with the discussion, where they have access to the valuable resource HELP members, many of whom have significant experience of online collaboration.
Reflection/any other comments
Research was conducted on various aspects of the development and practice of CABWEB, and discussion forum archives testify to reflection of HELP members. Picking out two reflections from the many:
- when organising cross-institutional activities within a limited time-frame, it can be difficult to embed the activity in the curricula of all students involved, leading to asymmetric and short-term collaborative activities
- it is not yet clear if these academic-led short-term collaborations can and will align successfully with strategic institutional collaborations where complementary internationalised curricula can support more substantial student collaboration.
Further details [urls; relevant references/publications; alternative contact names]
Web Sites
CABWEB Portal
HELP Network
Relevant Publications
Bell, F., Caruana, V., Lees, M., Whatley, J. & Zakrzewska, D. 2004, Symposium: Internationalising the Curriculum: a dubious concept, variously interpreted - what is going on in the UK and Europe?, paper presented to Networked Learning Conference, 2004, Lancaster University, England, UK, eds. P. Goodyear, C. Jones, V. Hodgson, C. Steeples, S. Banks, V. Lally & D. McConnell.
Bell, F., Whatley, J. & Zakrzewska, D. 2004, Trans-national online activities for students - a pragmatic approach, paper presented to Networked Learning Conference, 2004, Lancaster University, England, UK, eds. P. Goodyear, C. Jones, V. Hodgson, C. Steeples, S. Banks, V. Lally & D. McConnell.
Bell, F. & Zaitseva, E. 2005, ''Only Connect': Complexities in International Student Communication', E-Learning, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 342-55.
Bell, F., Zaitseva, E. & Coates, N. J. 2005, Respecting Difference: Developing Governance of International Online Student Collaboration in Virtuality and Realism in WWW-based Communities (Invited Session), paper presented to HCI International, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA., ed. P. A. Kommers, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Bell, F., Zaitseva, E. & Zakrzewska, D. 2006 (Accepted, in press), 'Evaluation: A Link in the Chain of Sustainability', in User-Centered Design of Online Communities, eds N. Lambropoulos & P. Zaphiris, Idea Group, Hershey,PA.
Whatley, J. & Bell, F. 2003, 'Discussion Across Borders: Benefits for Collaborative Learning', Educational Media International, vol. 40, no. 1-2, March-June 2003, pp. 139-52.
Zaitseva, E., Bell, F., Whatley, J. & Shaylor, J. 2004, Peer-Evaluation In Multi-Cultural Context: Language And Culture Issues In International Collaborative Project, paper presented to CELDA Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, eds. P. Isaías, Kinshuk & D. G. Sampson.
CABWEB Portal - Online Activities in Support of Internationalising the CurriculumHigher EducationAcademy – November 2006 – Page 1 of 4