Case studies on using web-based tools (Web 2.0) for academic work

Benefits:

• Authentic learning experience by writing for a real audience
• Possible improvement of writing quality
• Feedback from a wide range of individuals
• Contribution to scholarly knowledge

Strategies:

• Avoid using Duke NetID and email for Wikipedia accounts
• Keep copies of students’ original work
• Discuss copyright and intellectual property issues
  (Why? See Tips 1, 3, 4 for explanation)

Case study:

Professor Allen would like her Engineering students to create Wikipedia entries about their research projects instead of creating a more standard written paper. She's interested in using this technique because she feels it would be valuable for students to contribute to an international resource, and to collaborate with a community of other knowledge builders. In addition, she has heard that the quality of student work tends to improve when created for a public/authentic audience, and she hopes to see richer products than those she's been used to from student papers.

She plans to ask students to create Wikipedia user names which do not connect with their real name or Duke NetID and ask them to tell her what the Wikipedia names are so that students can get credit for their work. Because Wikipedia entries can be modified by other Wikipedia users, Professor Allen will ask for a copy of the materials students upload to Wikipedia, in order to grade them accurately. She also will make sure students are aware of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines so that they know how their posted materials can be edited and modified by others, and will discuss with students her expectation that they will follow fair use and copyright standards under US copyright law.

Benefits:

• Increased engagement with course topics
• Authentic learning by using the same tools used in the real political world
• Improved critical thinking and writing by engaging with a wide audience of readers and subject experts

Strategies:

• Avoid use of Duke NetID and email for blog accounts
• Prepare students for potential for offensive language, strong opinions
• Discuss copyright and intellectual property issues
  (Why? See Tips 1, 4, 5 for explanation)

Case study:

Blogs are popular means of community conversation around political issues, with many candidates and pundits maintaining at least one. Political Science Professor Brown has asked his students to read several relevant blogs for much of the semester, and now is assigning students to either choose a blog related to the course from a list he provided and become involved in the blog discussion by posting their comments and opinions, or to create their own blog and respond to others' comments. Because he wants the comments to be available to the broader public, including experts in the field, he chooses not to use the blog tool within Blackboard (where his course materials are posted), but to direct students to public blogs. He feels that students can best apply the theoretical aspects of his course materials in a public venue with authentic readers, and also that the public venue will encourage students to put their best work forward, showing superior analysis and critical thinking skills.

Professor Brown tells his students they may want to continue their blog beyond the end of his course, and to keep that in mind if they decide to start their own.  He also tells students to create an ID in the blogging software which is not tied to their Duke NetID, real name or Duke email. He asks student to provide him with their username and a link to their blog so that he can find and evaluate their work. Professor Brown reminds students that discussions in public blogs can become very heated, just as in live discussions of politics. Finally, he points out to students that the public nature of their work requires them to be careful with regard to copyright and attribution of materials referenced in their blog.

Benefits:

• Increased opportunities for practicing language skills with native speakers, instructors and other language learners in written or oral form
• Built-in tools make it possible to archive interactions for further review and study
• Multi-user environment can facilitate student collaboration and exploration
• Conversation and visual cues offer context for language

Strategies:

• Prepare students for potential for offensive language, strong opinions and unwanted attention
• Identify virtual world locations that are set up for educational purposes, as initial starting point
• Prepare students for internet-style communications in the target language (i.e., chat often relies on abbreviations and terminology that are specific to that communication mode)
• Have students document virtual world experience in the target language and discuss perceptions, issues and challenges in class as part of the activity
• Develop alternative assignments for students who find the setting offensive, or for those who are unable to complete a project due to technical problems
  (Why? See Tips 5, 6 for explanation)

Case study:

Professor Speke would like students in her 100-level Italian culture course to interact more directly with advanced-level and native speakers of the target language and to learn more about Italian culture in preparation for their upcoming study abroad experience. She thinks that the simulated virtual world environment will give students an opportunity to practice their productive speaking and writing skills without the pressure some feel in the classroom environment. Professor Speke explains the rationale for her assignment to the students and arranges a training session to familiarize students with the technical and cultural aspects of Second Life.

She advises students to visit a virtual Italian city set up in Second Life by a consortium of universities. Her choice of this location increases the likelihood that the other people students encounter will also be focused on educational activities. Students are given three assignments throughout the course of the semester: to explore the virtual city and report back in class, and to talk with two residents or visitors to the city who speak the target language, and talk with them about why they visit the virtual location and how it compares to the real city. Finally, students are to identify and attend an event in the target language. Students carry out these tasks in the virtual world using text and audio chat and follow up their virtual world explorations with discussion in the classroom about their experiences. The instructor will drop the grade on one assignment, so students who have technical difficulties on any one occasion will not be adversely affected.

Benefits:

• Communication about the nature of the course to potential students
• Improved student work as a result of providing excellent examples
• Increased visibility for instructor and department

Strategies:

• Develop separate (but linked) web sites for public and private information
• Explicitly state expectations for publishing student projects in course description
  (Why? See Tips 1,4 for explanation)
  

Case study:

Professor Iliad would like to share information about her course publicly so that it can easily be searched on the web using standard search tools like Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Her area of expertise is Pythonian Economics. Her web site will be broadly useful to the academic community and having a public web site will make it easy to share materials such as:

-her academic and research interests
-subject specific information relevant to her course
-related links to other web sites
- links to her scholarly publications
- highlights about her department
- examples of the best projects done by students in previous semesters.

In addition, potential students will be better understand the nature of the subject matter to be explored in class before deciding if the course subject matter fits with their needs.

Professor Iliad decides to create sections of her public course website that will feature students' course work, such as short papers they've written, and perhaps some video presentations which they've filmed and edited.  She includes information about this in her syllabus, informing her students that specific assignments will be made available publicly, though they will be protected under a Creative Commons license to retain intellectual property rights. All student grades and professor-student correspondence related to grades and assessment will be kept private, behind password protected sections or directly shared between professor and individual student.

Benefits:

• Quick communication to students who check their Facebook accounts frequently
• Possibility of increasing interactions among students outside of class time
• Opportunities to create links to other online tools such as Flickr
• Class groups can remain after the class ends, continuing the conversation and group engagement

Strategies:

• Encourage students to use appropriate privacy settings in Facebook
• Create a group for the class, rather than using the “friend” option between students and faculty
  (Why? See Tips 1, 2 for explanation)
  

Case study:

Professor Patel is interested in having a quick method for communicating with her undergraduate students, one which will fit well with their work styles. She knows her students already use Facebook, and decides to explore whether this application might work for her purpose. She begins by doing some reading about Facebook. She notices some students are quoted as saying they didn’t like faculty being in “their” space, but others thought it was helpful to be able to contact faculty quickly there. She also reads  about Facebook’s privacy settings, which she intends to employ. Finally, she creates a profile and begins exploring the features and options in Facebook. Because she’s using Facebook for professional purposes, she affiliates her profile with her institution’s network.

She doesn’t intend to “friend” her students because she feels it’s inappropriate for her to do so (at least, while she’s their instructor this semester), but instead creates a closed Facebook group for her class. She will ask students to join the group if they are willing, and she will approve the group membership so that no one outside the class may join. She enables all the group functionalities, including the discussion board, wall (message board) posting area, and the image and video posting area. She intends to use the group mainly for messaging her students, knowing that they are more likely to read messages within Facebook than in their regular e-mail, and to use the discussion board in place of Blackboard. She is planning an assignment using digital images, and will have the students upload the images to the Facebook group and ask other students to comment on them in Facebook.

In class, she describes what she’s done and gives students the name of the group so that they may request membership. In a quick poll, she finds that all the students do already have Facebook accounts, although some use them more often than others. Within two days, all students have joined the Facebook group and she’s able to begin messaging the class there. As the weeks go by, the Professor finds other interesting ways to effectively use the Facebook group, including posting links to online class readings, bulletins about campus events related to class topics, and more.

Benefits:

• Promotion of course work to possible attendees
• Sharing of student work with Duke community or beyond Duke
• Having students get input on work from others outside class
• Provide a means for students to comment on and annotate each others work

Strategies:

• Create a group in Flickr that is public or private, depending on the goals and needs of the course
• Explicitly state expectations for publishing student projects in course description
• Have students obtain release forms from individuals depicted in the work.
  (Why? See Tips 1, 2, 3, 4 for explanation)
  

Case study

Professor Smith has students create documentary photos as part of a course involving service learning in the community.  In the past, he has used the photos in class sessions, with students presenting and discussing their work.  In some cases, the photos have been printed and shown in exhibits on campus.

For this semester, Professor Smith would like to open up the students' work to the larger community to engage the students in dialogue with individuals outside of the class about the work.  He also wants to make available, in the long term, a sampling of student work which future students can use as examples in class discussions, or to allow prospective students to better understand what the class is about.

Professor Smith includes information in the syllabus about using Flickr, including how students will create an account and will access and join the group for the class.  He explains to the students in the syllabus and during the initial class meetings that student work will be made public and how students can choose to offer their work under a Creative Commons license as part of the Flickr community.  He also adapts a model release form for students to use when photographing individuals for the course.

During the course, students can add comments and annotations to photographs uploaded to Flickr by other students in the course.  The professor sets expectations for content for the comments and makes students aware of privacy issues - students should be encouraged to limit remarks to the photographs themselves and not comment in ways that would divulge private information about other students.  He also encourages students to use an account name at Flickr that is a pseudonym if they wish to protect their privacy.

The professor has a back-up plan in case there is a service outage or changes in how Flickr operates that might impact the course.  For example, Flickr might change the maximum size or number of images that can be uploaded by individuals with a particular kind of account, resulting in students having to upgrade to a higher level of service by paying additional fees.  He plans to use Duke's Blackboard, if services at Flickr are disrupted or change significantly, and reminds the students to save local copies of all images they upload, in case of technical difficulties.