4.5. Results of the experiment
This experiment has shown that it is possible to use project-based learning in a distance learning context. Indeed, the aim of the projects has been achieved, that is to say, in our case, the collective construction of robots. Moreover a questionnaire filled out by the learners after the experiment shows how they felt the need to work collectively, and that they found this collective work highly motivating. The same questionnaire also shows that the learners had the feeling they were part of a team throughout the project, and this was apparent during the competition. We can therefore say that our main educational aim, which was to create social cohesion between distance learners, has been achieved.
This experiment also made it possible to substantiate the validity of the SPLACH environment from both functional and technical points of view. This environment is capable of supporting distant project-based learning. The students found it easy to use, supposedly because it integrates all the tools necessary for collective activity. Furthermore, structuring the project in stages gave it continuity and helped the learners to schedule their activities.
We did notice, however, that each of the two teams had a different level in both quality and quantity of interactivity during the experiment, as one team had less discussion, negotiation and confrontation than the other. This can be explained by a problem of organization within the team. Initially all the schools concerned had decided to set aside the Friday lunchtime slot for synchronous meetings, but variations in the students’ timetables and canteen services meant that the groups could seldom meet at the same time for the synchronous phases. Their work was mainly asynchronous, the effect of which was that each group concentrated on their own module and did not communicate very much with the others. In the team where there was more interactivity, one group was particularly active, and this had a catalytic effect. It was, moreover, this team which obtained the best result on the day of the competition. Our research work will now be directed towards designing a system to offer advice adapted to the individual workings of each team.
5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURES DIRECTIONS
In this paper we have shown that project-based learning is particularly well adapted to a collective distance learning situation. We have presented the implementation of this pedagogical method in the form of collective work between learners leading to the common design of an end-product. The learners formed a team to work on a project defined by a list of specifications, to be split into interdependent sub-projects which they then shared between themselves, while making sure their respective work was coordinated so that the various parts could be integrated at the end. We have described an experiment involving such a collective learner project in the field of educational robotics.
As regards learning about project methodology and collective work in general, human organization, structuring the project in stages where the necessary progression from one stage to the next gives the project continuity and writing work documents in groups or in teams – all these things contribute to the learners’ feeling of living a real-life project, and make them aware that everyone has a role to play (project leader and other team members), that communication with the others is necessary to explain their individual work and to reach agreement in order to achieve a common production, and that they need to schedule and be responsible for carrying out their tasks within the team.
Of course the computer environment used to support project-based learning plays an important part. In this paper we have shown how the SPLACH environment can be used as a support for educational robotics, but it was in fact designed to support any type of project. This first experiment has proven the validity of this environment from a functional point of view. We now wish to carry out a new experiment, in another context, with students studying programming in Quebec. Another future direction of our work lies in assisting collective activity from the data analysis of learners’ activities.
6. ACKNOLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank the France/Quebec cooperation commission for their support. It is realized inside the LEA project concerned by the tele-assistance in the context of practical work in technology. The LEA team is composed of researchers from the LIUM (France) and the LICEF (Quebec).
The authors also wish to express gratitude to the schoolteachers and their students for enabling us to carry out the experiment in a real-life situation.
NOTES
1 SPLACH is the French acronym for “Support d’une pédagogie de Projet pour L’Apprentissage Collectif Humain” which can be translated as “Support Project-Based Learning for Collective Human Learning”.