2020/21 PROJECT LIVE EXEMPLARS
Ollscoil Mhá Nuad Maynooth University Oifig um Fhoghlaim ó Thaithí Experiential Learning Office ProjectLive@mu.ie
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www.maynoothuniversity.ie/dean-teaching-learning/project-live
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ABOUT PROJECT LIVE Launched by the Experiential Learning Office in 2020, Project Live is funded by the HEA Innovation and Transformation project "Future Ready" and aims to: • Prepare students for their chosen career by equipping them with the expected skills to be successful and providing them with insights into different industries • Enrich the curriculum by supporting academics to embed external engagement into their modules • Enhance Teaching and Learning by building lasting and sustainable relations with community and industry organisations that have impact across Maynooth University • Support external partners by providing value to their organisation
PROJECT LIVE TEAM Our dedicated team are here to support academics and organisations engage with experiential learning as part of an undergraduate or postgraduate module.
Contact us today at ProjectLive@mu.ie
Aisling Flynn
Jennifer Lloyd-Hughes
Maire Buckley
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THE IMPACT At a glance
100% Academic Participants Strongly Agreed
100% Academic Participants Strongly Agreed/Agreed
100% Academic Participants Strongly Agreed/Agreed
Project Live presented students with real world experience related to their module
Project Live had a positive impact on their teaching experience
Project Live enhanced the learning outcomes for their module
KEY STATISTICS Semester 2, 2021
P RO JEC T S In our first iteration of Project Live we were delighted to support 10 projects, with representation from all faculties
ST U D EN T S Benefitted from an engaged learning experience that helped them prepare for work, life and engaged citizenship
EXTERNAL PARTNERS Needs were met through Project Live
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THANK YOU
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to our Academic and External Partner Participants of Project Live 2020/21
Academic Partners • Nicola Mountford, School of Business • Dapeng Dong, Computer Science • Andrew Meehan, Electronic Engineering • Máire Nic an Bhaird and Laoise Ní Chleirigh, Froebel • Rachel McArdle, Karen Till and Debangana Bose, Geography • Jeneen Naji, Media Studies • Sarah Arnold, Media Studies • Aphra Kerr, Eoin Flaherty, Jane Gray and Maighread Tobin, Sociology • Laurence Cox, Sociology
External Partners • National Council for the Blind (NCBI) • Albatel Ltd • SafeAmigos • Intel Ireland • Maynooth Green Campus • Pavee Point • Beauty Buddy • Maynooth Community Employment Project • The Rights Platform • Oxfam GB
PROJECT LIVE EXEMPLARS
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Engineering and Intel Ireland
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Sociology and Oxfam GB
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Media Studies, Beauty Buddy and The Maynooth Community Employment Project
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Geography and Pavee Point
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Froebel, Maynooth Green Campus and Kildare County Council
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Media Studies and SafeAmigos
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Sociology and The Rights Platform
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School of Business and the National Council for the Blind
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Computer Science, Albatel Ltd and SafeAmigos
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ENGINEERING AND INTEL IRELAND
Processed Water Offset and Conversation Department and Lecturer: Electronic Engineering, Andrew Meehan Module: Community Based Project Learning Number of Students: 17 Level: 3rd Year Students, Undergraduate ECTS: 15
Project Description Intel Ireland Ltd has a series of projects related to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and asked us to investigate different ways of reducing or reusing processed water, i.e. clean potable water delivered by Irish Water. Engagement was via email and team meetings, with the student groups initial project solutions being assessed by Intel and the Electronic Engineering department. The final solutions were delivered via presentation to Intel and Project Live, with the grading of the same being incorporated into the overall mark. Final reports were assessed by the Electronic Engineering department.
Impact • Students see that the theory has a place in the real world. It also has helped the students realise that solutions are fairly straightforward. • Intel has received a range of ideas to help with their water offset programme. More work needs to be completed on them in order to see if they are viable but this may be possible next year.
ENGINEERING AND INTEL IRELAND
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Processed Water Offset and Conversation Module Fit This module requires students to come up with a solution to a problem that the community needs solved. It means that they need to engage with external stakeholders. Typically week 4 to 5 is when initial solutions are presented, and at least some customer feedback has been received. Feedback on initial solutions is given within 2 weeks of submission. Final reports and presentations, along with individual interviews, are conducted in week 12 or 13. There was a tutor or module owner available to discuss items with all groups, typically done in an update meeting once a week.
Academic Experience Great to be involved with an external partner. Excellent for the students to get an outsider's view of their work. Overall, Project Live helps massively with getting contacts AND they have funding which is a huge help! Top Tip: Personally, I would have set up more meetings with Intel, to get a better understanding of what they needed and to have the students do more of the project updating.
"Project Live has helped us get access into a great company with a view to solving complex and pertinent issues. This is not something that we would have been able to do ourselves".
SOCIOLOGY AND OXFAM GB
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Social Movements in the Virus
Department and Lecturer: Sociology, Laurence Cox Module: Social Movements and Collective Action Number of Students: 90 Level: 2nd Year Students, Undergraduate ECTS: 5
Project Description Students were contributing to a much larger project - the Oxfam/LSE Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity "Emergent Agency" research project, on how the agency of poor people and communities worldwide changed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within this they were contributing case studies to one cluster of the project (on social movements, the subject of the module). The case studies had to be studies of: A) social movements not charities, state initiatives etc., B ) movements of the poor anywhere in the world, C) where a new movement / group emerged or an existing group's activities changed during Covid-19.
Students had to find at least two and possibly three different kinds of source (one academic, one activist, one media), a pull-quote and (if they did not have three sources) an image - ideally all of these. They were given a template for the case studies, a format widely used in development studies etc. and had to critically synthesise their sources. Undergraduates typically struggle to grasp the distinction between a social movement and other ways of tackling social problems; find it hard to identify who the agents in a particular social initiative are; and find it challenging to reflect on the reasons for something emerging or changing. So the selection of a viable case was itself a concrete opportunity to learn how to do this. Finding sources (and, again, working out what type of source they were academic, media, movement) was another practical challenge, as was critically synthesising these and presenting them for an external audience: being able to write other than for "academic" (being marked by Teacher) purposes is a major hurdle in many cases. Overall, the process went smoothly and showed an appropriate learning curve.
“I enjoyed applying real world issues and research to assignments. I got to experience what sociologists do after their degree”. - Student Participant
SOCIOLOGY AND OXFAM GB
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Social Movements in the Virus Impact "A flexible and practical model that can help students see the point of what they're studying and learn to act in less school child-like ways (treating the knowledge studied as real-world rather than an arbitrary thing they have to know or do for assessment purposes)".
Module Fit I organised the module around an additional staff member entering after the start of the module – and made this work by starting with general lectures on the module topic and a mini-essay assessing their foundational understanding (for 35% of the marks). Once the additional staff member was in place (around week 4) we each took one of the two lecture slots as a practical workshop helping students with their Project Live projects. The funding also facilitated him to offer one-to-one meetings with students around their projects, which were graded at 65% of the marks.
This was all supported with an introductory session from me, guest slots with the outside stakeholders, invitations to the students to join events in the wider project and access to various resources from the wider project. We also provided a dedicated database of resources that students could draw on to start their projects. Unsurprisingly having 65% of module marks for a single, unusual, assessment created some anxiety (and occasional students who turned up at the end of the module expecting to simply be able to write an essay). But on the whole this wasn’t a major difficulty – partly because it was an elective second-year module. It might have been different in a core final-year module though. Overall, many students really appreciated the engagement with Oxfam and rose to the challenge.
Academic Experience Top Tip: Do not underestimate how many students are under too much pressure to engage as fully as we would like. In this case the pressure was due to Covid, but in other years it could be due to rent levels and time devoted to paid work etc. Students are under pressure to tick modules off as completed, and this means that for some a different (real-world) exercise simply appears as a complicated and demanding form of assessment.
"It's a really important form of learning that helps professionalise student learning".
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MEDIA STUDIES, BEAUTY BUDDY AND THE MAYNOOTH COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT PROJECT Digital Media Industry & Community Convergence Department and Lecturer: Media Studies, Jeneen Naji Module: Coding Media Convergences Number of Students: 17 Level: 2nd Year Students, Undergraduate ECTS: 5
Project Description Digital Media Industry and Community Convergence engaged with local industry and community organisations in a module called "Coding Media Convergences". In previous years in this module students have worked in groups and have been asked to convert a story or poem into digital media (interactive etc.) but this was easily converted into telling the story of a product or organisation (Beauty Buddy) and helping an organisation go online (Maynooth Community Employment Project).
Module Fit In groups of 3-4, the students used existing digital media tools, platforms and techniques to tell the story of Beauty Buddy or the Maynooth Community Employment Project (MCEP). For example, students developed an online male makeup social media campaign for Beauty Buddy and another group developed a new web site for the MCEP. Partners attended students final presentations to give them feedback.
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MEDIA STUDIES, BEAUTY BUDDY AND THE MAYNOOTH COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT PROJECT Digital Media Industry & Community Convergence
Academic Experience Engagement with external partners is always very beneficial to the student learning experience, and in my opinion, can result in students taking their work more seriously. However it is much more work for the lecturer so a well resourced programme such as this (which helps connect the lecturer with the partners, and also helped me by allowing me access to a teaching assistant) reduced the burden and allowed me to engage with external partners in my module. It must also be recognised that COVID lockdowns made everything challenging particularly the group work that this project required.
Impact Beauty Buddy got some ideas from their target market and increased brand recognition. Maynooth Community Employment Project received a draft of a new web site that they could use in the future.
"Being able to see the practical implications of work instead of just read the theory is very beneficial to understanding its use". - Student Participant
"Overall it was very positive. It was well resourced and had very professional and helpful programme coordinators in Maynooth to help".
GEOGRAPHY AND PAVEE POINT
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Traveller's Tales: Collaboration between Pavee Point and Maynooth University Department and Lecturer: Geography, Rachel McArdle, Karen Till, Debangana Bose Module: Public Engagement and Spatial Justice Number of Students: 4 MA, 16 UG Students Level: Postgraduate and Undergraduate ECTS: 5
Project Description Staff and students of the MA in Spatial Justice in the Department of Geography worked with the Pavee Roads Home (PRH) research group in 2019-20 to develop two online StoryMaps, one family-based and one place-based. PRH developed in North Dublin in 2018-19 as part of a local men’s health initiative in the Traveller’s Health Unit (THU) of Pavee Point, a national organisation for Irish Travellers and Roma people, and evolved to include research about the history and heritage of Travellers more generally. Our collaboration with PRH last year resulted in the digital presentation of research conducted by and for Travellers to become available to a larger public, including settled peoples. The StoryMap project was launched on the PP webpage and was featured for Culture Night in September 2020 and 2021, and is available at: https://paveeroads.paveepoint.ie/
Building upon this partnership with PRH, Maynooth Geography commenced on new community mapping research projects in 2021. This semester the primary goal has been to develop a Community Mapping Toolkit, so that local research leading to the development of a StoryMap can be created by other community groups. The toolkit would also contribute to the launch of a new community mapping project in Coolock with Pavee Point. Due to Covid, we had to run all classes, workshops with partners, and interviews online. Nonetheless, the students learned a great deal about collaboration, how to work with partners, and the importance of learning from local experts when developing a research project by and for the community. They also learned and reflected on the process of conducting ethical and responsible forms of research, and a highlight for many of the students was the workshop on ethics led by Pavee Point's co-director, Martin Collins. MA students also gained new skills in qualitative methods, through interviewing former MA students, to develop the toolkit, while the undergraduate students learned to review policy documents and research reports published by Pavee Point on topics related to homing and unhoming.
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GEOGRAPHY AND PAVEE POINT
Travellers' Tales: Collaboration between Pavee Point and Maynooth University Module Fit
Academic Experience
• Weeks 1-4: Introduction to the Partners and Project
This has been a great experience and one we would highly recommend. Project Live and the Experiential Learning office were crucial to our research and publicly engaged teaching this year.
• Weeks 5-8: Research Training with Guest Speakers • Weeks 9-12: Working on the Final Project
Impact PP partners engaged with Geography students and staff in developing a draft toolkit. Staff initially worked with partners to review other toolkits as models for the students, after which the students worked to identify and develop relevant sections, draft section summaries, glossaries, images, and bibliographies. Students also documented student perspectives in collaborating on the PRH StoryMap for the toolkit based on their interviews. Meanwhile, the external partners and Geography staff conducted interviews with PRH research participants. Bringing together these various components meant raising awareness regarding the lack of Traveller's histories and geographies in academic, public and mainstream publications in Irish society. The draft toolkit will be further developed by Pavee Point so PP and Travellers’ communities have a resource. In addition, PP community development officers noted how this project has resulted in their own team gained more experience, and hence, more confidence, in their own research skills and how beneficial the partnership has been.
Top Tip: The advice we would give would be the need to be clear to students about expectations and to manage the relationship between the partner and the students.
"Project Live was a fantastic experience and we would highly recommend it to other academics and partners. It enabled us to develop a nationally significant research project with our partner Pavee Point. The Project Live coordinators were always there to help answer our questions, and were flexible as the project evolved”.
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THE FROEBEL DEPARTMENT, MAYNOOTH GREEN CAMPUS AND KILDARE COUNTY COUNCIL Tairseach
Department and Lecturer: Froebel, Máire Nic and Bhaird and Laoise Ní Chléirigh Module: The Language of Love / Teanga an Grá Number of Students: 12 Level: Postgraduate ECTS: 2.5
Project Description Tairseach is the name of the community engaged learning project we deliver through our module The Language of Love/Teanga an Ghrá. It is a Project Live initiative we ran with the support of the Maynooth Green Campus (MGC) team. Grounded in a pedagogy of community-engaged learning, Tairseach embeds the SDGs across MU curriculum. It explores and enhances biodiversity in the rooftop garden atop the School of Education and highlights the rich biodiversity of the magical campus of MU! Tairseach also addresses environmental issues through enhancing natural outdoor learning spaces and by strengthening local and campus social capital. A key feature also is collaboration between Froebel and other departments. For example, a Geography postgraduate student, uses the work of Froebel students to develop a GIS, capturing and analysing spatial and geographic data for The Tairseach Tree Trail across both campuses.
Impact • Newly qualified teachers moving into primary school education are effectively attending to the SDGs, by bringing their higher levels of eco-literacy to the classroom, and encourage the children in their classes in tending to the Earth • MGC benefitted from this collaboration through enhanced biodiversity in the School of Education rooftop garden, and increased exposure of their work amongst the student cohort
"Participation in Project Live gave us the opportunity to connect theory and practice, develop as innovative educators and co-participants with the students and embed the SDGs into MU curriculum".
The following link is for the Tairseach Tree Trail created through Project Live, for use by all campus users and Maynooth citizens: https://arcg.is/0rb5G80 This has far reaching impact for locals, visitors, staff, students and local primary schools.
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THE FROEBEL DEPARTMENT, MAYNOOTH GREEN CAMPUS AND KILDARE COUNTY COUNCIL Tairseach Module Fit
Academic Experience
• Session 1: Introduction
Top Tip:
• Session 2: Community Partnerships in Action: A workshop on ‘biodiversity and pollinators’
We learned, not all of what you have planned to do goes as it should and therefore you must be flexible and reflexive.
• Session 3: Biodiversity Blast: Maynooth Green Campus (MGC) workshop delivered by Stephen Seaman • Session 4: Waste Valorisation: Circular Economy workshop • Session 5,6,7: The Tairseach Tree Trail (TTT): Identifying and locating the trees for inclusion on the trail. Researching their history, folklore, and importance in their local ecosystems. Consulting with MGC and erecting bilingual signs • Session 8: Community Engagement and Outreach: Students create bilingual lesson plans for primary school teachers in Maynooth and the surrounding area to use with their children • Session 9: Community outreach: Official opening of the Tairseach Tree Trail and The Rooftop Garden Post Project Dissemination: Module leaders to deliver workshops in 3 local Maynooth primary schools for teachers and children in 5th and 6th class on the Tairseach Tree Trail for community use.
Given that we had to deliver this through Covid-19, it was exceptional, however we believe that maintaining an openness towards necessary change is vital, as it benefits the students and the wider community with whom we were working. Also, we learned that the Project Live team of MU were always accessible, so if someone was thinking about doing this, be aware that they provide excellent support.
“Tapaigh an deis! Seize the day and go for it, it is outside of the norm, it is an opportunity to be creative and push yourself as an educator, to think outside of your comfort zone. We look forward to applying to another Project Live!”.
MEDIA STUDIES AND SAFEAMIGOS
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The SafeAmigos story through video Department and Lecturer: Media Studies, Sarah Arnold
While this was not ideal, it did encourage them to communicate regularly and clearly.
Module: Screen Production
Over six weeks students learned about video marketing, developed practical skills in mobile shooting, learned how to pitch a creative project to a client, how to respond to feedback and how to work within the parameters of someone else.
Number of Students: 4 Level: Postgraduate ECTS: 10
Project Description This is a practice-based module which engages students in audiovisual production. Previously, students undertook one short documentary production, but module tutors felt the need to enable students to engage in both short form content of other genres and to learn how to professionalise practice through dealing with a client brief. We made contact with director of SafeAmigos, Finbarr, through Project Live and discussed where our respective needs converged. Finbarr was looking for short form video content to promote his new SafeAmigos personal safety app and was seeking pitches and video content from students. We communicated that we required a clear brief indicating timelines, feedback, and any requirements. Finbarr met with the students 3 times and tutors worked with the students on the development of their pitches and videos. This ensured students were supported along the way, but were still answerable to the client. All classes took place online and students were tasked with shooting in unusual circumstances.
Typically, students initiate their own story and project for a final documentary piece and this allows them to develop and evidence technical, practical, creative and project management skills. The project enabled them to develop and evidence professional communication, marketing, and problem solving skills in addition to learning other forms of video production. The project the students made was positively received by the client. Although the quality was somewhat compromised by the fact that the students could not shoot in the same location and had to manage the production in separate locations, the concept they developed and the story were good quality. This helped the client identify potential markets and the video suggested ways to sell to this market.
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MEDIA STUDIES AND SAFEAMIGOS
The SafeAmigos story through video Module Fit • Week 1: The tutor introduced the two assessed projects and explained that the first project (SafeAmigos) commenced the next week. Students were given resources on short form and promotional/branded video and began to research various genres and videos. • Week 2: Finbarr presented the SafeAmigos app and explained what he wanted from a short video. Students were able to ask questions. • Week 3: Students pitched their proposed videos to the module tutor. • Week 4: Finbarr responded and gave feedback and the students were able to commence shooting their projects. • Week 5: Students worked on the shoot and the initial rough edit. They received feedback from their tutor throughout this process. • Week 6: Students showed a cut to Finbarr, who offered final feedback. Students then submitted in week 8. All of the classes took place online.
“The standard of the presentations was really high, the work that had been done was excellent…the students coming out will be well equipped to handle the world of work”. - Finbarr Mc Carthy, CEO SafeAmigos
Impact "The project partner was able to solicit ideas for the SafeAmigos video campaign and to see how such ideas might be realised in the form of a video. The partner was also able to see how his feedback would be responded to and understand what to expect when working with a team of videographers. For example, students had to select which feedback they could respond to given the timeframe of the project and explained this to the client".
Academic Experience It was especially helpful to have this project when we were in the midst of a pandemic and the students were not able to be in the same place together. Because the project developed iteratively, students kept in regular contact, collaborated quite effectively and really did develop teamwork skills. If we are to undertake remote teaching next year (e.g. on large modules), I want to have this type of project included in the module. Top Tip: I think it was important to manage the partner's expectations just so he would know what issues were effecting the students rather than leave this to the students.
"I have been seeking effective and efficient ways to establish such a kind of collaboration... I believe many colleagues may also share this with me, the Project Live project provided exactly the platform for me to do this".
SOCIOLOGY AND THE RIGHTS PLATFORM
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Re-House that Data: Building Data and Communication Skills for Social Change Department and Lecturer: Sociology, Aphra Kerr, Eoin Flaherty, Jane Gray, Maighread Tobin Modules: Social Science Data Studio and Quantitative Research Methods Number of Students: 14 Level: Postgraduate ECTS: 10
Project Description The Department of Sociology partnered with External Partner The Rights Platform to provide a focused opportunity for community engaged learning for 14 students on two postgraduate advanced research modules, running weekly from 1st February to 7th May 2021. The project aimed to build the capacity of students and the Rights Platform regarding the re-use and presentation of existing quantitative (e.g. Central Statistics Office) and qualitative (Irish Qualitative Data Archive and Digital Repository of Ireland) data that pertains to housing.
Module Fit • Pre-Module - January 2021: Meeting with the External Partner, with decision on areas of collaboration. Reports produced by the External Partner were made available as part of the course materials for the module. Decision also that the External Partners will organise presentations for a seminar on the topic areas later in the module. • Weeks 1 - 4: Students were introduced to statistical software and data sources. Students gained familiarity with data management, data analysis software, and data sources. Focus on statistical literacy rather than programming skills. Use of large datasets to teach general principles. Practical exercises undertaken regarding the topic areas.
"Partnership with an external community group improved student understanding of the potential future applications of their advanced research skills and how to communicate and demonstrate them to future employers".
SOCIOLOGY AND THE RIGHTS PLATFORM
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a: Building Data and Communication Skills for Social Change • Week 3: Progress Review Meeting with External Partners to discuss module progress and arrange the seminar format. • Weeks 4 - 6: Students worked towards their first assignments. • Weeks 7 - 11: Students introduced to focused cases studies to prepare for their final assignment, in the form of a policy proposal on the topic of Housing or Citizenship relevant to the External Partner due after the end of the module. • Week 12: Online Seminar for the module prepared by the External Partner. Presentations to the students on recent work in the areas of Housing and Citizenship, with a Q & A session on the local challenges and issues arising in relation to these aspects.
Impact From the External Partners' perspective they: • Identified a key topic of interest for the project (i.e. housing and citizenship). • Experienced presenting to students and sharing community reports with students. • Increased their knowledge of data sources, and had the opportunity to gain insights into advanced data gathering, analysis and presentation skills.
Academic Experience The meeting with the project partner in advance to develop the relationship and understanding was very useful. We also selected the topic focus for our collaboration. Top Tip: The focus on one topic (i.e. housing data) was useful as all the students worked on similar assignments. The best laid plans can go astray (especially in a pandemic) so prepare to be flexible. Our external engaged.
partners
were
very
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THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE BLIND IRELAND (NCBI) Entrepreneurship Live
Department and Lecturer: School of Business, Nicola Mountford Module: Entrepreneurship Theory, Processes and Practices Number of Students: 328 Level: 2nd Year Students, Undergraduate ECTS: 5
Project Description Entrepreneurship Live is an experiential learning programme designed to expose students to real-world entrepreneurial challenges and processes. Students form teams and work with the National Council of the Blind (NCBI) to develop an innovative business plan for a selected NCBI charity shop. They ideate a new product, service, or market for their selected shop and produce a draft business plan for that entrepreneurial idea.They receive academic and NCBI feedback on the draft plan, get real-world experience of implementing that plan, reflect on that experience and revise the plan. The final plan is sent to NCBI’s Head of Retail and through them to the relevant store manager. It is also submitted to Dr Mountford for grading and receives a grade with rubric-based feedback.
"This module was a tremendous experience and the ability to pay for teaching support and offer budgets to the students (even though they didn't really get to use them this year) was just brilliant".
Impact NCBI have stated that they are extremely happy with the engagement and have received many useful ideas in terms of innovating within their retail network which they will now investigate with a view to implementation. Student feedback was also very positive.
“We learned a lot by doing this project ... Learning about the reality of business, idea innovation and idea generation and the skills surrounding it". - Student Participant
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THE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE BLIND IRELAND (NCBI) Entrepreneurship Live Module Fit The assignment maps excellently onto the learning outcomes for this module. In particular it delivers on a key learning outcome for the module: To develop a business plan in a team setting to practically apply the concepts and tools of entrepreneurship to a business idea (40% of overall grade). The combination of both practice and academic feedback means that students are developing their understanding of both the theory and practice of entrepreneurship. The inclusion of a reflection exercise (10% of overall grade) allows students to consider the processes involved in planning for an entrepreneurial venture as well as recognising the various aspects of innovation, creativity that are part of the entrepreneurial venture.
Academic Experience My experience was very positive although a little limited by the Covid-19 situation. The majority of students engaged actively with the project. NCBI were an amazing partner and incredibly supportive and responsive to the needs of the students and the academic environment. Top Tip: I would advise others to ensure that their partner organisation is as bought into the idea of student learning as NCBI.
COMPUTER SCIENCE, ALBATEL AND SAFEAMIGOS
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Text Message Processing & Event Management System / Albatel HR Health Check Report Generation System Department and Lecturer: Computer Science, Dapeng Dong Module: Software Engineering and Software Process (Two Modules) Number of Students: 164/149 Level: Undergraduate ECTS: 4/5
Project Description The projects are introduced to bridge the gap between theory and practice in teaching software engineering courses. Previously, we also had project work for the students, but those were fabricated and greatly simplified. Considering the rapid development of technologies in the ICT sector and the dynamic job market, employers are really looking for students having up-to-date knowledge, ability to use new technologies and transferable skills. The students (our future IT professionals) need to see and to experience the complexity and the challenges that exist in real-world application development. To this end, two real-world projects from Irish companies were brought into the classroom. The first project was proposed by Albatel Ltd. The company has a long-term plan, aiming to provide their HR related services through an integrated software platform. At this initial phase of the transition, the company is exploring some web-based online questionnaires and automated HR health check report generation services.
This exploratory service should be easily integrated with the company’s existing website without affecting existing functions or incurring major modifications. The objective of the project is to provide an interactive web-service that allows the company’s customers to take online questionnaires, and, based on their responses received, analysis will be performed and, subsequently, a report will automatically be generated for the customer. The second project was proposed by SafeAmigos. The company provides personal safety solutions to individuals and organisations, based on mobile and cloud technologies. At a high-level, the software system consists of two architectural components: a mobile client application and a backend processing system. A user of the SafeAmigos’ service needs to download and install the client application on their Android/iOS phone. The mobile client application allows the user to send messages to trusted people and/or organisations for immediate help when in danger. These projects were carefully scoped, but complex enough so that the projects could only be completed by teams with proper planning.
COMPUTER SCIENCE, ALBATEL AND SAFEAMIGOS
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Text Message Processing & Event Management System / Albatel HR Health Check Report Generation System
Module Fit The module covers many topics in the software development lifecycle. It is not a pure programming module where students only do coding. This module requires the students to master the process in various phases of software development. In response to this, lectures were aligned with the project development stages, students were organised in self-organising teams, and direct interactions with external stakeholders were arranged. In addition, the development of the project in teams serves as a virtual integration that integrates knowledge, technical skills, and transferable skills such as communication, team working, management and creative problem-solving. Teamwork is also an effective way of accommodating the multi-intelligence and diversity that exists in the class. Throughout, stakeholders were invited into the classroom to introduce their business context, to explain the project goal and scope, to join discussions, and to give feedback on the students’ work. The students were required to provide solutions based on the knowledge learned from the class and to apply the software development methodologies to the development of the project. The students were also required to write design documents and project development journals on a bi-weekly basis. These documents and the implementation of the projects are used to assess the academic performance of the students.
At certain stages of the development, the students also presented their work to the stakeholders, and subsequently improved their work based on the feedback received. The organisation of the activities simulates a real world software development environment in the classroom.
COMPUTER SCIENCE, ALBATEL AND SAFEAMIGOS
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Text Message Processing & Event Management System / Albatel HR Health Check Report Generation System Academic Experience Top Tips: • Industry partners and academics must have a mutual understanding of what can be delivered and what could potentially be delivered. I think that is the foundation for the collaboration. • It is important to have a well-defined scope for the project. Consider both the complexity and the amount of work that the students could do in one semester. • We need to make a strong commitment to this approach. Students will continuously ask questions and look for clarification. For me, the hard part was when students told me “I don’t know what to do; I am completely lost.” I understand why they said that. I believe, in general, we need to provide effective instructional scaffolding to the students. For example, I provided reference implementations of the projects to the students. The reference implementations are skeletons of the software system that contain bare minimum functionalities. For some experienced students, these can be used to check whether they are on the right track; for other groups of students, these were provided as a starting point for them. I found it was very effective.
Impact • Our students are creative. The external stakeholders have received interesting and novel ideas that could be used to improve business performance. • Some of our students are exceptionally skilful in using particular technology stacks. Their implementations are close to industry standard and enterprise-grade quality. With some minor interface engineering work, their solutions could quickly be integrated into a company’s existing infrastructure. • The external stakeholders may find that collaborating with academics is an efficient way of creating prototypes for business ideas. • The external stakeholders have seen the performance of our students, and they may consider the projects as a good source of able and reliable employees.
“I am always amazed at the level of work that comes out from the student body, the ideas that they come up with and the innovations that they create and that has benefitted SafeAmigos hugely. Every time I work with students there’s so much I’ve taken away from it”. - Finbarr Mc Carthy, CEO SafeAmigos
"Overall, it was a great experience for me. I learned a lot from working together with our colleagues from the Experiential Learning Office and our industry partners. Especially, through the process of co-creating the projects, I can see the kind of skills that the employers are looking for, the technologies that the companies are using, and the relevance of the University’s strategic plan for teaching and learning”.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to our funders the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and its Innovation and Transformation Fund for enabling these projects. Without their support this initiative would not be possible.
To the Project Live Expert Panel Members Allan Shine - County Kildare Chamber John Cullen - Maynooth University John Kearns - Social and Local Enterprise Alliance Julian Nagi - Maynooth Students' Union Michelle Kearns - HSE Simon Ahern - Maynooth University Susan Gottlober - Maynooth University We want to express our gratitude for the knowledge, guidance and direction you brought and continue to bring to this initiative. Finally, to The National Teaching and Learning Forum for enabling us to showcase our Project Live Exemplars during their Valuing Ireland’s Teaching & Learning (VIT&L) Week.
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Ollscoil Mhá Nuad Maynooth University Oifig um Fhoghlaim ó Thaithí Experiential Learning Office
Experiential Learning Office Office of the Dean of Teaching and Learning Rowan House, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co Kildare. www.maynoothuniversity.ie/experiential-learning