The Use Of Selected Methods And Technique

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This project will focus on using an Inductive methodology focusing on the approach to understand how student view and experience with collaborative tools at Sheffield Hallam. Interviews and questionnaires will support the understanding of the context of the project and the environment the investigation will research into.

Have you ever thought about what collaboration actually means? Collaboration is defined as working with someone or multiple people to create something or achieve a goal. (Jacob 2012). Having said this when relating it to higher education, it is considered that collaboration is a fundamental development process for students to gain the understanding and knowledge of teamwork for future development. Having this skill set will allow the person to be more creative and responsive in the working environment. The growing number of collaboration tools currently on the market indicates a new trend in web-enabled communication technologies, as both schools and business are prompting providers to supply affordable ways to conduct meeting, deliver services, and collaborate efficiently (Carter Kim 2002).

Sheffield Hallam University is successful in providing access to IT services. Students have access to a variety of equipment to complete assignment. Throughout this project the investigation will be focusing on a derivable that consists of new recommendations and solutions to current using collaborative tools for Sheffield Hallam through its interactive blackboard service SHU-Space. Ideas get stronger when you share them with other (Padmasree Warrior 2009), Collaboration tools enables us to connect with other people whenever we want. The tools we use to link people, information and communities are evolving at lightning speed (Padmasree Warrior 2009). It is important to keep collaboration tools up-to-date to enable the best and beneficial services possible for the students at Sheffield Hallam in the aid of their group work studies.

After Researching into collaborating at Sheffield Hallam University it was communicated by students that there are currently limitations to the collaborative tools that Sheffield Hallam provide to assist students with teamwork. Blackboard is a virtual learning environment available to all students providing course and university information along with an interface to manage their studies. Although Blackboard has many of the collaborative tools and features it is not seen as most efficient for collaboration within teams due to the limitations its features possess.

It is important for online students to be aware of tools that can help them manage working in groups at a distance; no matter how many miles might separate team members from their peers. There are many other tools that students might consider using not only to create and track their individual and group efforts, but also to communicate more effectively (Natalie B. Milman).

This purpose of this investigation being conducted is to see whether having collaborative tools more freely available throughout the interactive system, also known as Blackboard (SHUspace) would aid students in the completion of team work and improve their success factors. Consequently the project aims is to investigate into collaboration tools. Using appropriate methodology methods, it will document how students use collaborative tools and will deliver a number of solutions and recommendations that will be criticality evaluated.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of this project is to understand the use of collaborative tools during teamwork at Sheffield Hallam in an adequate practice with additional talking about creating effective teams. It’s necessary to understand the limitations as to what collaborative tools can assist students with while studying for their degree. Almost every collaborative tool has different functionalities along with advantages that might benefits will be discussed further on in the investigation.

It is necessary to begin the investigation with the aim to understand and analyse the existing environment with Sheffield Hallam University specifically with:

Explore and report existing collaborative tools used by students of Sheffield Hallam

Investigate and evaluate the need for existing and new collaborative tools

Investigate and evaluate students' and staffs’ reaction to collaborative tools

Understand Teamwork within Sheffield Hallam

Use of appropriate investigation strategy, methods and techniques to analyse the use of collaborative tools.

Provide recommendation and solutions for appropriate collaborative tools to enhance collaboration for teamwork at Sheffield Hallam

Such information will be obtained by primary and secondary research methods providing knowledge into the current environment this will allow me to research further into collaborative tools the aim is to overcome any issues outlined making relative solutions or recommendations. The most important aspect of my project outcome is to understand the student’s perspective on collaborative tools. The aim is to gather information from students at Sheffield Hallam University only which will give the project its niche. This information will be valuable to provide a principle in which to judge suitable recommendations and solutions; each of which will be fully investigated and justified to why they would be beneficial to Sheffield Hallam University and Teamwork amongst peers. As a result this project proposes to create an understanding and awareness of collaborative tools along with the recommendations and solutions where seen fit in Sheffield Hallam University.

Focusing on these main objectives throughout the development of this investigation will help me obtain my required objective;

Research collaboration, collaborative tools and the need for collaboration within Sheffield Hallam university

Investigate in a wider context using research current literature, interviews, books and articles to understand the importance of collaboration and collaborative tools with Higher Education.

Investigate the current collaborative tool services on blackboard (SHU SPACE), to understand what is currently available for studies to aid them with their collaboration teamwork studies.

Identify the framework of the research methodology/strategy the investigation will undertake

Investigate research methodologies appropriate to my investigation

Plan the implementation procedure used to carry out the appropriate means of research for the investigation

Define appropriate data capturing techniques for my investigation

Analysis the current collaboration requirements at Sheffield Hallam

Interview personal from Sheffield Hallam computing team to understand the current collaborative tools within Sheffield Hallam University and the Issues associated with them

Create an open questionnaires for all students at Sheffield Hallam to outline their awareness and understanding of collaborative tools

Conclude the condition of current collaborative tools and the features that have been research previously gathered suggest suitable collaborative tools against

Understand Teamwork within Sheffield Hallam

Research current literature, books and articles about teamwork and teamwork behaviours to understand the Reason for team work in higher education

Implementation of the collaborative tools strategy

Use of selected methods and techniques identified

Provide recommendation and solutions for appropriate collaborative tools to enhance teamwork at Sheffield Hallam

1.3 Project Scope

Many authors see collaboration between team members in higher education as an important measure when developing transferable skills for further employers. The main factors that are developed are problem solving and the ability to work effectively as a team. With new technology and collaborative tools rolling out more frequently the number of study aids students can use is ever-expanding. It is suggested that improving collaborative tools can extend the reach of research for collaboration (Malcolm Read). The use of collaborative tools is getting more acknowledged in higher education because of these advances but this project will focus on how they are used by students with suitable research techniques.

1.4 Expected Result

The outcome of this investigation is to deliver recommendations, solutions and the awareness of suitable collaborative tools to SHU Students. This in turn will assist student to student collaboration in a more efficient way while working in groups. By Implementing and fully integrating these recommendations into Sheffield Hallam’s interactive system SHU could encourage students to emerge more when taking part in group assignments, henceforth improving the grade of their studies. This will improves student’s skill set providing teamwork experiences and additional communication skills which is highly valued by undergraduate employers.

2. Project Literature

2.1 Introduction

The literature review will be a research of a number of books and online articles that will discuss the different definitions of collaboration and collaborative tools. Having this will give a clearer concise understanding for the investigation topic. The investigation will examine the characteristics that exist with collaborative tools. The study will also consist on focus on the reason team work and why it importance in higher education and therefore identifying the need for collaborative tools and the benefits they can bring to Issues relating topic for this investigation will give me an exceptional insight into how the other perceives collaborative tools.

Collaboration and collaborative tool

Collaborative tools are common more used in several of way at Sheffield Hallam University by students. The rapid changing environment and collaborative tools help create new ways of communicating and collaborating. Such tools have allowed for more flexibility between students allowing them to work at a distance.

Collaborative tools can help make the world a better place (Morgan Jacob 2012). Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together to a common purpose to achieve business benefit (Aiim 2013). It can be difficult to gather the entire team for a productive collaboration session. Not only does everyone need to be in the same place at the same time, but they’ve got to come prepared with their creative juices, focused mind-sets and positive attitudes (Gerber Scott 2012). Collaboration is key to building a connected, engaged and sustainable organisation. (Vivek Kundra 2010).

Collaborative tools allow the interaction processes and the task performance of between group members. Some of practical nature likes, for instance, the improvement of peer awareness on the on-going work. Others of a more long-term and fundamental scope such as to understand perceptive correlations between collaboration and learning. A mixture of methods to organise and extract information from all this rough material together with partial and focused in-depth manual analysis seems a more feasible and scalable framework. (Barros, B., & Verdejo, M. F. (2000).

Collaborative environment can be seen as a group effort to solve/work a problem solution towards a group. It helps coordinate group’s members for planning the tasks and structure there work. Collaboration also focuses on both the learning process and the learning results and therefore explicit presentation of the production and interaction processes (Barros, B., & Verdejo, M. F. (2000).

Key features of collaborative tools can be:

File sharing

This is by far the most important feature to look for in a collaboration tool. It’s almost impossible to proficiently edit and share files through emails, especially when there are multiple team members. File sharing allows you to upload your document to a central location which other team members can access. You should be able to share multiple file types.

Shared Calendars

Having a shared calendar can help plan and schedule team work in a virtual environment. The calendar can help the team note of important dates. It encourages responsibility and helps the team communicate.

Mobile Access

With mobile devices getting more common (tables and smart phones) the opportunity to take this into the learning environment to aid collaboration good be seen as very resourceful amongst students and staff.

Security of files

It is important to look for collaboration tools that protect your files. Team members should only be able to access the tools with and account. This limits the risk of group work getting stolen or plagiarised.

Online document

The online document is different from a file that is uploaded and shared. It is stored exclusively online and can be edited by all team members. This is a great tool to have because it can help your team create a master resource file or a project file for each project that is stored on the web collaboration tool.

Sheffield Hallam currently uses Blackboard SHUSpace to engage its students in a virtual learning environment. Blackboard provides a number of collaborative tools and features which allow students to collaborate successfully with other peers. Such as discussion boards, email, (ADD MORE TOOLS). These collaborative tools help students communicate with peers while undertaking modules or assignments. In the perspective of the students it seems there are slight limitations what these services can offer the students and sometimes they’d have to other services which are not provided by Sheffield Hallam University, some believe that SHUSpace doesn’t advertise additional outsourced collaborative tools efficiently.

Tips for getting students to adopt collaboration tools

Simple, Fun, Build for users, understand the need and expectation, defined a specific reason to use the tool, reward scheme, Support, find the value, integrate it into the culture of the Sheffield Hallam University

Defining Groups and Teams

The distinction between a work group and team is an important dynamic when talking about collaboration and this is why it has included it in this investigation. There are many ways in to describe the nature of group/team work and why it is needed. At Sheffield Hallam group work provides a solution to the problem of dealing with hundreds of individual students. However group work is not only about dealing with the large amount of student numbers, but also forms part of developing students employability skills. Most people participle in group work on a daily basis in life to life situations. It is seen as human nature.

A team is a structured group of people that come together to share a common goal that is achieved through the joint efforts of all and can be seen as more effective and productive collaboration between one-another. Whereas a group can be seen as a number of people that work together as individuals tasks to tackle a common goal (Levis 2005, Wheelan 2010).

We need teamwork in everyday life to carry out pretty much any task this is especially true with higher education. It is believed by some authors and studies that the size of the group can be significant on the complexity of the task (Outshoorn, Wheelan 2010). From an employability point of view the experience of working in a team will stead the student into an employable candidate (Levis 2005).

Sequentially Sheffield Hallam procedures and assistant with team work of their students should be

Gathering this information has help me understand how different author’s opinion towards teamwork. It has supported a wider understanding of the collaboration and has enabled a clear delineation to be used for the purpose of this investigation.

Conclusion

In conclusion the literature review has shown useful research into collaborative tools and how and why they are used in the environment around us, Along with the definition of team work. The appraisal of existing work that I have gathered will help assist the project to achieve its objective of making a suitable deliverable for Sheffield Hallam.

3. Project Methodology

Introduction.

The project methodology will justify the methods chosen to gain the information required to complete this Investigation. It will talk about appropriate strategies, methods and techniques with sensible justification given for their choices.

Deductive and Inductive Methodologies

Theories and research are an important way to identify that the investigation is going in the correct direction, to start of the investigation the project needs a specific a hypothesis that is viable (Bryman & Bell 2011). Once the decision on the investigation focus was identified suitable research methods can be acknowledged before the implementation (Quinlan 2010).

To undertake the investigation about collaborative tools at Sheffield Hallam University the use of the model based on Klob’s experiential learning theory has been implemented and expanded on. The two fundamental approaches of Klob’s experiential learning cycle are deductive and inductive, Kolb says that ideally the process represents a learning cycle or spiral where the learner 'touches all the bases', in example a cycle of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. Immediate or concrete experiences lead to observations and reflections. These reflections are then integrated into intangible concepts with suggestions for action, which the person can actively research and experiment with, which in turn enable the creation of a deliverable (Kolb 2013).

Deductive approach works for more general to the more specific theories. Sometimes this is called the "top-down" approach (Bryman & Bell 2011). The deductive approach is typically used in natural sciences, whereas an Inductive approach works the other way around moving from specific observation thoughts, experimenting and feelings towards the concepts. This is commonly known as a "bottom up" approach (Bryman & Bell 2011). The inductive approach typically used in the Social Sciences. The advantages of using these different approaches when writing the investigation helps identify the direction of whether that would be Abstract Concepts "thinking", Active Experimentation "doing", Concrete Experiences "feeling" and Reflective Observation "watching" (Kolb 2013).

For the purpose of this investigation an inductive methodology strategy will be used as the bases for this project. The reason for this is because the project is set on creating a deliverable or solution to the observation the results may find.

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

4 Implementation and the use of selected methods and technique

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Analysis Method

4.3 Collaborative Tools Analysis

4.4 Analysis of the Academic Environment

4.3 Conclude findings

5 Solutions and Recommendations

5.1 Analysis

5.2 Proposed tools

5.3 Benefits

5.5 Training and implementation

5.6 Development time scale and project plan

5.7 Cost

5.8 Potential Risks

6 Future Investigations

6.1 Discussion of results

6.2 Further development

6.3 Project management issues