Collaboration between team members, instructors, and customers is necessary to provide the best chances of success for group projects in Informatics. In the past, student project groups have used Oncourse as the primary vehicle for managing group projects, and while some aspects of the system are helpful (e.g. Group Spaces, Drop Boxes, Discussion Forums), they are not sufficient for the types of structured development projects that are implemented. We are excited about the possibility provided by Oncourse CL and Eportfolio to support the efforts of the students as they work on their projects.

Use of Technology

The features that we employed in the original Oncourse system for group projects were the following:

There are a number of features that we would like to see incorporated into Oncourse CL:

1. Group member definition
2. Group spaces
3. Drop boxes

Eportfolio was added to our project site as well as the capstone course site. The capabilities of the software prior to the September 8 update limited the usefulness of the Eportfolio application for our review. Never the less, we configured multiple Eportfolio matrices according to how we would structure a project.

There are a number of features that we would like to see incorporated into Oncourse CL:

1. The ability to define groups and group membership within a course.
2. The ability to define new roles, so that permissions can be more flexibly defined.
3. The ability to link to external systems and pass the group and user identity so that the external system can be seamlessly linked. This would allow for integration with commercial products like Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Project Manager.
4. The ability for groups to create links to group project spaces (like a web site).
5. The ability to create aggregator sites, which would allow instructors to have parent projects and sub-projects within a defined structure.

There are a number of features that we would like to see incorporated into Eportfolio:

1. The ability to have a dynamically scalable number of columns for matrices. For matrices with this option, create a new column after a column becomes locked. This will allow for an unlimited number of iterations for certain types of documents and support multiple project lifecycle styles, such as the classic waterfall model or the spiral/iterative model.
2. The ability for the project owner/instructor to create new matrices.
3. The ability for the project owner/instructor to remove matrices.
4. The ability for the project owner/instructor to more fully edit existing matrices.
5. The ability for the project owner/instructor to unlock previously completed cells.
6. The ability to define a group matrix, which any member of a defined group can deposit documents. Documents would still be linked to the person that deposited them.
7. The ability to package the contents of a matrix to a CD or DVD. It is possible to have the scaffolding be simple HTML.
8. The ability to undo reviews to a cell.
9. The ability to conduct a discussion thread-style within the review process to allow for rebuttal.
10. The ability to copy an entire matrix, or export and import functionality.

Instructional Design Plan

Potential to Impact Student Learning

Assessment Plan

Plan for Colleague Development

Describe your role and activities as a mentor:

• What mentoring activities were implemented to assist colleagues?
• How did you help to develop colleague's instructional technology skills?
• How do you think your contributions to the Knowledge Base will help colleagues planning similar projects?
• Is your project approach potentially applicable to other contexts or disciplines?
• What tips would you offer?

Mentoring activities include introducing faculty colleagues to the new features of Oncourse CL in a "just in time" fashion. In general, faculty within the School of Informatics have been positive about the new features. At the same time, people's perceptions of the new Oncourse CL are that it is not quite soup yet, pointing to new features that arrive. The faculty members see the new changes as a sign of instability, rather than a set of enhancements. I have worked with our system's staff to set up several Oncourse CL project sites for some of our committees.

Final Comments on Project Results

• Do you think you met the goals of your project?
• What, if anything,would you do differently?
• Did you have any unexpected outcomes? (positive or negative)
• Would you recommend this teaching approach to colleagues?
• What other comments or suggestions would you offer to complete this report?

Because Oncourse CL does not support group definition in the current release the only way to support group activities is by creating separate group sites for each team. This presets both advantages and challenges. The first advantage is that separate group sites will allow for groups to customize their use of Oncourse CL based on their specific needs. This closely matches professional practice, in which groups are empowered to define environments to maximize their productivity. The second advantage is that group sites can live beyond the terms of the academic year, which sometimes is necessary. The main disadvantage is for instructors like me, who manage large numbers of groups in a course. The scenario of use is that we will be faced with more than 30 group sites at the top level of Oncourse CL this year. Each subsequent year will potentially add the same number more. It is sometimes necessary to refer to past projects, and so we are expecting the burden of keeping track of the groups at the top level will be burdensome.