ISCC Cover Sheet for Proposals (All sections must be completed) e-Learning Programme Name of Call Area Bidding For (tick ONE only): Call I: Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology (JISC funded) X Call I: Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology (Becta funded) Call II: Assessment demonstrators Call III: Course description and discovery Name of Lead Institution: Middlesex University Name of Proposed Project: Information Spaces for Collaborative Creativity Name(s) of Project Partner(s): City University Full Contact Details for Primary Contact: Name: Bob Fields Position: Reader in Computer Science Email: [email protected] Address: School of Computing Science Middlesex University The Burroughs London NW4 4BG Tel: 020 8411 2272 Fax: 020 8411 6943 Length of Project: 24 months Project Start Date: October 2008 Total Funding Requested from JISC: Project Date: End September 2010 £199.983.29 Funding Broken Down over Financial Years (April - March): April 08 – March 09 20,828.40 April 09 – March 10 138,254.65 Total Institutional Contributions: April 10 – March 11 40,900.04 £102,929.80 Outline Project Description This project will address a recurrent problem in design education: that students are sometimes disengaged from key ‘creative conversations’ and that this problem can be exacerbated by learning technologies present in the classroom or the students’ wider networked world. The project will deploy trial ‘information spaces’ that will provide learners with the appropriate artefacts and modes of interacting with a learning situation, and with their peers and tutors, to enable them to engage more flexibly and effectively in conversations characterised by innovation and reflective, critical thinking. Key technological components of the proposal will be the management and display of design information and critical feedback across a range of appropriate display surfaces; the capture in appropriate media – audio, video, still images – of significant design information; and the ability to replay, annotate and reflect upon such captured content. i ISCC I have looked at the example FOI form at Appendix B and included an FOI form in the attached bid (Tick Box) YES I have read the Circular and associated Terms and Conditions of Grant at Appendix D (Tick Box) YES ii ISCC ISCC – Information Spaces for Collaborative Creativity 1 1.1 Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to the JISC Community Background 1. The strategic importance of creativity has been acknowledged by many commentators, both at the international level – the Nomura Institute's proposition is that "Creativity will be the next economic activity, replacing the current focus on information” – and within the UK, where the Cox review, commissioned by the Chancellor in 2005, sees exploitation of the nation’s creative skills as ‘vital to the UK’s long-term economic success’. Indeed, the UK government has declared that in the current climate, 1 innovation can be seen as crucial to both productivity growth and social gain. 2. A typical and widespread frustration in Design education is a lack of peer engagement in the tutorial and ‘crit’2 process. This traditional process of verbal and visual interaction has a dual aim: design development and design education. A fertile creative conversation requires many things, e.g. a freedom of ideas, a willingness to quickly generate ideas and to release less promising ones, a focus on evaluation and development of ideas and contributions rather than personality or position of the proposer, a willingness to work with and enjoy uncertainty, a willingness to revisit and change earlier decisions, etc. 3. However, if the interaction dynamic is disrupted, what is lost is the powerful dual benefit of the ‘creative conversation’ within the student/tutor team: the design benefit of conception, iteration and embodiment through verbalising; the educational benefit of students talking themselves into a better level of understanding. Moreover, design by teams is the norm in much of the commercial sector as it is efficacious when based on fertile and productive creative conversations. Our practice and learning technology should support these conversations. 4. If the tutorial and crit process can be problematic with traditional design students then the situation is exacerbated when ‘design thinking’ is introduced into other disciplines, such as engineering or computer science, or when novel interdisciplinary design practices such as interaction design or service design emerge. Our practice and learning technology should stimulate design thinking through creative conversations rather than student presentation of complete concepts at inappropriately early stages.3 5. Many technologies that are being used to deliver curriculum have a negative influence on the development of fertile creative conversations: A digital projection on to a traditional wall mounted screen does not afford physical interaction, rather passive observation from a seated position; the presenter/presentee relationship affords challenge and defence interactions; any conversation that takes place remains unrecorded in the public space and connections between elements of the conversation are difficult to make, illustrate, discuss and record. The introduction of laptops into the conversation space perpetuates and augments the individualised nature of the experience of the tutorial and crit. process and also provides a rich source of alternative time-filling activities! Even the simple act of diligently taking notes, vital to a student’s ability to reflect on the tutorial, effectively removes them from the conversation. Moving outside the traditional tutorial or classroom space, VLE support is currently dominated by the textual modes, sometimes augmented with simple pictures (e.g. discussion groups, Blogs, Wikis and 1 HM Treasury, 2002, ‘Investing in Innovation: A Strategy for Science, Engineering and Technology’, from http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk 2 The ‘crit’ is a form of teaching session widely used in many design disciplines that can be described as a “studio based formative or summative feedback in a small or large group situation with students and lecturers” See the HEA-funded project ‘Critiquing the Crit’ http://www.adm.heacademy.ac.uk 3 See the following for a discussion of the importance of the design of learning spaces in facilitating the right kinds of interactions: JISC (2006) Designing Spaces for Effective Learning: A guide to 21st century learning space design. 1 ISCC so on). However, the creative conversation is not effectively supported by such modalities. The conversation accompanies a developing and emergent view of an artefact, with neither making sense in isolation. Supporting such a conversation within a VLE is a challenge. 6. Our practice and learning technology should transform modes of delivery into ones that afford group engagement in the creative conversation and support post experience reflection. 1.2 The partners 7. The Interaction Design Centre at Middlesex University is research centre in the School of Computing science whose members are engaged in research in a diverse range of fields from collaborative 4 technologies to cross-cultural design to user interactions in safety-critical systems. A growing theme in the work of the centre has been the development and application of techniques for the design of creative and innovative solutions. The Interaction Design Centre has strong links with the Product Design Research Centre, a centre of excellence of Product Design Engineering practice and research, located in Middlesex’s School of Arts and Education. The two centres work closely together on teaching (through the provision of an MSc in Interaction Design) and joint research. 8. City is establishing itself as a world-class centre of applied creativity research, building on existing activities in computing, business, psychology, music and the arts. In 2003, creativity was the subject of the most popular University-wide research event to date, attracting around 60 participants from many different Departments. Creativity was the theme of the University’s annual report in 2004. In 2006, the University was awarded an RCUK fellowship to develop this work. 9. Both City and Middlesex are very well equipped to undertake the work of this project. Both institutions have excellent observation laboratory facilities that will be available to this project for conducting user studies and observational evaluations. 1.3 Problem Future scenario of use 10. To introduce the proposal we look first at a plausible scenario in which several students studying on a Masters degree on Interaction Design are engaged in a ‘crit’ session, where they each present design work to tutors and peers, and receive feedback from other group members. Such sessions are a central part of teaching in many design disciplines, and provide a supportive setting for learners to receive formative input through dialogue and discussion with the group as a whole. While the ‘crit’ may be a standard tool in many Art and Design subjects, some elements of the crit are finding application in a range tutorial, seminar and groupwork-style sessions in other disciplines, such as computer science and areas of engineering. “Sorry I’m late” apologised Saeed as he pushed his way through the studio door. “Central line’s screwed up. What’ve I missed?” Saeed had just arrived late for a session on the Interaction Design Practice module he is taking as part of his MSc degree. “Glad you could make it” said Mark, the tutor. “Just finished talking about the data Maya collected during the week for the tourist guide project.” The group of students were crowded around the table peering down at a projected image showing a diagram alongside a photograph. The photograph showed two lost-looking people at a London bus stop puzzling over an A-to-Z. Although Saeed didn’t know it because he’d missed the discussion, the diagram alongside the photo showed one of Maya’s early design ideas for a handheld electronic guide to London that might help the lost tourists. In the projection space and around the edges of it, the tabletop bore evidence of the past half hour or so of group discussion in the form of annotations and additions, both digital and using whiteboard markers, made by the students and tutors. At Mark’s side of the table was a list of key issues that the group had pulled together from the materials Maya had presented, and over at the other side was a sketch of a screen layout that one of the other students had seen on an existing product. Also on the table were parts of paper prototypes that Maya had been working with – pieces of cardboard and post-it notes. “Can somebody capture this and put it over there” said Mark gesturing to a screen on the opposite wall of the studio. “It might come in useful when John presents. We can have a look at what the differences are.” As Saeed moved in to join the group, one of the other students picked up a camera, took a shot of the table, complete with projected images and annotations. The captured image appeared on the wall screen a few 4 Rozzi, S., Wong, W., Woodward, P., Amaldi, P., Fields, B., Panizzi, E., Malizia, A., Boccalatte, A., Monteleone, A., Mazzuchelli, L. (2006) Developing Visualizations to Support Spatial-Temporal Reasoning in ATC. Proceedings, ICRAT 2006. 2 ISCC moments later. “Let me just get a close up of the mock-up” said another student, moving in on the cardboard-and-post-it prototype with a camera phone. “I’ll put the pics up later on”. “Great” said Saeed, “I’ll grab the podcast from InfoSpace and catch up on the train home”. Later in the day, while Saeed is reviewing the bits of the session he missed, John is also looking at a record of the part of the session where he received feedback. While reflecting on what was said, John is able to add annotations that capture some of his reflections and make links to others students’ feedback. In this way, he can make explicit the link to Maya’s part of the session, and if he chooses, he can mark these annotations to make them visible to the other members of the group. As the tube train trundles into Arnos Grove station, Saeed glances idly out of the window at the billboards flashing past. As the train stops, one poster catches Saeed’s eye. “Clever,” he thinks “suppose we could use that idea for data representation in the project.” He snaps the poster with his camera phone and proceeds to send it off to the repository as a reminder to him and a catalyst for further thought and discussion among the group. 11. This proposal seeks trial and evaluate solutions to the following widely reported problems and challenges: Central to both the learning and practice of design is the facilitation of conversations. However, many innovations, from digital presentations to text-based learning environments conspire to impoverish rather than enhance the conversation. A challenge is therefore to provide an environment that integrates digital and traditional information and artefacts to allow students to engage more productively in design conversations. Review, reflection, and critique are significant elements of learning, across a range of disciplines, and ones that are only partially supported by contemporary learning support environments. A challenge is to allow reflective interaction, possibly at a distance and outside the classroom environment, with artefacts of the design process. Students lead increasingly more ‘nomadic’ lives and may be less connected to the traditional classrooms and studios of the past, making collaboration more fleeting and reflective conversation more difficult. On the other hand, learners are increasingly equipped with technologies and devices that could allow them to be more connected to their peers and tutors. A challenge, then, is to find ways of harnessing such potential and allow nomadic learners to re-engage in the creative conversation.5 12. The response to these challenges will allow us to transform the way that Interaction Design and similar subjects are delivered in a variety of ways. Evaluation activities will collect evidence of the ability of the technological innovations to: bring ‘design thinking’, iteration, and reflection to students who are not from traditional design backgrounds; allow learners to engage with each other and with the design process through an appropriately rich variety of methods and modalities; participate in learning flexibly and in a way that can fit in to the rest of their lives. 2 2.1 Workplan The proposal 13. The hypothetical scenario above highlights some of the significant elements of this proposal. The project will configure and evaluate: Novel learning spaces that support flexible, multi-modal face-to-face interaction and dialogue to enhance collaborative and creative activity. The ability to work flexibly using a range of display surfaces and interaction technologies suitable for engagement in exploratory design thinking. In the above scenario, the participants are able to take a snapshot of activities taking place in one space (the table) and render them visible in another (the wall) as a record that can be referred to later on in the conversation (when the state of the table surface will have changed). 5 For a number of innovations in this area see: JISC (2005) Innovative Practice with e-Learning: A good practice guide to embedding mobile and wireless technologies into everyday practice. 3 ISCC The ability to capture using a range of appropriate media (audio, video, still photography) the events, artefacts and conversations that take place in a design session. A common problem is that learners need to take something away from a session in order to reflect and contemplate it at a more relaxed 6 pace. Note-taking is the traditional means of doing this, but in a fast-paced session that makes use of many visual media, this is often inadequate. Support for reflection and review during and after design sessions, using captured data and to allow students to gain feedback and formative comments that are both relevant and timely allowing the conversation to extend in time, and the ability to engage and reflect to extend in space beyond the classroom or studio. 14. While some of the proposed ways of supporting delivery are novel, the underpinning technology will be based stable and tested tools (e.g. off-the-shelf display and capture hardware, web server technologies, podcasting, and so on). Therefore it is not expected that significant software development work will be necessary and the principal technical challenges will be related to the integration of systems and devices. 15. The technological elements of the proposal allow learners and teachers to act in at least three information spaces: Face-to-face, for instance in the classroom or studio where collaboration and conversation will be mediated by display surfaces, interactive tables, smart whiteboards etc that will complement more traditional technologies such as laptops and projectors. In individual learning spaces, students may select and view captured information, for instance allowing a student to view a video podcast of the feedback session that relates directly to their own work on their iPod on the way home from class. A networked social space will allow learners to share and comment on material outside of the class, thus extending the opportunities for conversation and dialogue. Networked social learning spaces Discussion sharing and Social media Discussion 2.2 Face-to-face space Collaboration, interaction, dialogue Capture and recording Individual learning spaces Review, reflection, playback Personal technologies Context of the proposal 16. Some of the ideas of this proposal follow from experience of members of the project team in other teaching and research projects. 17. One source of inspiration has been teaching an MSc in Interaction Design at Middlesex, a programme run jointly by the Schools of Computing Science and Arts and Education. On this programme, staff and students have explored the use of a variety of technology configurations to support discussion, feedback, and reflection in the context of design critique sessions. The experimental uses of technology have included the projection of student presentations onto a table surface instead of a traditional screen, the use of projection surfaces that can be drawn and written on, the use of video and still photography as a means of capturing critique sessions, and the use of social media sites (principally Flickr) to share captured materials. The results of initial explorations were very encouraging, and suggest a marked improvement in the way that students participate and engage in critique sessions as well as an enhanced range of materials and resources available to students for later review and reflection.7 A 6 Orr, S., Blythman, M., Blair, B. (2007) Critiquing the Crit - Staff Guide. HEAcademy Project Report. Available from http://www.adm.heacademy.ac.uk 7 Fields, B. & Bardill, A. (2008). Novel technology configurations to support Interaction Design learning. Middlesex IDC Technical Report. 4 ISCC further influence has been research into teaching the skill of explanation, where the ability to create layered, multimodal representations has proved highly beneficial.8 18. The City and Middlesex teams have conducted an initial study of the use of novel interactive table displays in the context of creative design activities among children. Initial analyses have revealed interesting patterns in the way that children are able to act and learn collaboratively in the presence of and supported by particular technologies. The technology in question, a multi-user, multi-touch tabletop display surface supports fine-grained collaboration and cooperation, allowing a number of different patterns of turn taking and negotiation of an emerging design artefact.9 19. These pieces of work have allowed us to explore the feasibility and value of some of the key ideas in this proposal, including the face-to-face, individual and social aspects of information space. 2.3 Project aims and deliverables 20. The project aims to develop and deliver a framework for the construction of Information Spaces that will be demonstrated and evaluated through exemplar spaces at Middlesex and City Universities. The project will deliver: D1: Descriptions of delivery and support for interaction design and related areas of curriculum. This report will make comparisons with current practice in the delivery of such curriculum and will present a detailed rationale for the innovations that are being trialled as responses to the challenges identified above. D2: Case study detailing the deployment of Information Space technologies for the delivery of curriculum at Middlesex or City (or both if appropriate) D3: Evaluation report, reflecting on the issue encountered and articulating what has been learnt through carrying out the project and what future questions need to be explored; D4: Guidance for other institutions or curriculum areas seeking to deploy Creative Information Space technologies (e.g. more traditional areas of computer science like computer programming). D5: Six-monthly interim reports, and a final report. 2.4 Project methodology 21. The configuration of prototype deployments in this project will adopt a strongly user-centred approach, emphasising the engagement of users and other stakeholders in design. Such an approach is entirely in keeping with the research philosophy shared by the Interaction Design Centre and the Centre for HCI design. The team has extensive experience in working on design projects where stakeholders and users actively participate in the design and innovation process. Cornerstones of this approach will be: 22. User participation: The project team has a commitment to involving users (principally students, though academic staff are also important stakeholders in the process) in a central way in the planning of new delivery technologies.10 This means more than a simple analysis of ‘user needs’ early in the project or user testing later on, but a continual and ongoing engagement of users in key design-decision making processes. This could, for instance, be accomplished by allowing students to contribute to innovations as part of their studies. 23. Research grounding: Where appropriate, design decisions will be draw upon state-of-the art research in relevant fields including Interaction Design, Computer Supported Cooperative Work and relevant pedagogical research. For example, we anticipate theories of teaching and learning may need modification and re-purposing for in order for theories to continue to inform practice.11,12. 24. Iterative design: Key to a truly user centred approach do design is an iterative process that involves cycles of 8 Loomes, M., Shafarenko, A., & Loomes, M. (2002) Teaching mathematical explanation through audiographic technology. Computers & Education, 38:137-149. 9 Jones, S. & Fields, B. (2008) Children's use of an interactive tabletop in creative activities: observations following a small-scale feasibility study. IEEE Tabletops and Interactive Surfaces 2008 (submitted). 10 Much has been written on the topic of Participatory Design, and one of the classic references is Greenbaum, J. & Kyng, M. (1991) Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 11 Barn B.S (2007) “An experiment with conversation theory as a candidate for a meta learning theory”, IASTED Conference on Computers and Technology in Education, Beijing. 12 Barn B.S (2006) Conceptual Modelling of Educational Theories: An ontological approach. IADIS Conference on Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA), December, 2006. Barcelona, Spain. (Best Paper Prize). 5 ISCC user research in order to better understand users and the settings they inhabit; experience prototyping, employing appropriate prototyping technologies to explore and envision novel user experiences; and evaluation, where the fit of an emerging solution to the needs and capabilities of users and the opportunities afforded by the context are assessed. 25. Evaluation: We recognise that evaluation of any educational intervention presents several challenges 13 and we draw upon the evaluator guidelines developed by Oliver . Early in the project, we will develop an evaluation strategy as a specific work package that will encompass both formative evaluation that is critical to an effective iterative design process, and more summative assessments of the overall value of and benefits derived from the project. The team’s close links with two innovative programmes, the MSc Interaction Design (Middlesex) and the MSc Human Centred Systems Design (City), will provide ideal opportunities for learner engagement in the design process and sites for evaluation activities. 26. Further curriculum development activities underway at Middlesex (several undergraduate modules on HCI are being planned and will begin in the 2008/9 academic year) that will provide further opportunities for testing and evaluating the transformations engendered by the information space technologies to be deployed. 2.5 Work packages 27. WP1: State of the Art and Current Practice Review. This work package will review contemporary research and practice in the field, and will also benchmark current delivery modes in the Interaction Design HCI area at Middlesex, City and in the wider community. This will inform the selection of technologies and their fit with pedagogic practice in WP2. [D1] 28. WP2: Initial prototypes and explorations. prototyping using off-the-shelf software and hardware technology that can be configured to support initial in-class explorations. The purpose will be shape and inform the analysis of user needs in a way that is grounded in a solid understanding of the practices of teachers and learners and to explore initial design ideas. [D1] 29. WP3: User needs analysis. Captures the contexts in which innovative information spaces will be employed. The analysis of needs will be developed and presented through a series of personas and usage scenarios (like the one that introduced this proposal) that capture contexts and activities of users. [D2] 30. WP4: Evaluation strategy. Defines criteria and methodology for assessing subsequent work, along the lines identified in paragraphs 24 & 25 above. [D3] 31. WP5: Display, Capture and Recording prototypes. Configuration of display technologies, including traditional projection, as well as Table Top interactive devices such as the MERL DiamondTouch interactive table, along with the ability to capture activities (e.g. through the use of still photography, or products such as Macromedia Breeze or Apple’s Podcast Producer). [D2] 32. WP6: Delivery and playback technologies. Provision of online access to captured resources. This work will, as far as possible make use of established web server and related technologies to allow access via a range of different platforms, ranging form standard web access to mobile or handheld devices. [D2] 33. WP7: Annotation and reflection tools. Building on the work of WP6, deploy appropriate, available web-based tools (e.g. Wikis) to allow the addition of annotations to recorded media and the creation of links between different digital assets [D2] 34. WP8: Evaluation. While ongoing formative evaluation is central to the design philosophy underpinning this project, the exemplars developed will be also evaluated more summatively according to the strategy devised in WP4. Middlesex and City both have dedicated state-of-the-art observational laboratories that will complement more naturalistic in-situ evaluations, allowing specific aspects of use to be explored more closely. [D3] 35. WP9: Consolidation. This activity will collect together lessons developed throughout the project (especially in WPs 5, 6, 7 and 8) in order to produce a framework comprising software and methodological guidance that can be disseminated and re-used in other institutions [D4] 36. WP10: Dissemination. This ongoing activity will disseminate the results of the project through appropriate channels to the wider community through a dedicated project web site and publication and 13 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Evaluators.doc 6 ISCC presentation at appropriate conferences and workshops. For instance the British Computer Society’s Interaction specialist group holds the annual British HCI Conference and an Education and Practice subroup HCI Educator’s conference, both of which would be excellent forums for disseminating insights from the project. 37. WP11: Management of the project and production of the interm and final reports. 38. Overall management and leadership of the project and the work packages will be the responsibility of the Middlesex team. The City team will make a significant input into WP2, WP8, and WP9. 2.6 Project plan 2.7 Project Management 39. The project team will meet regularly to monitor progress across work packages, monitor and manage risks, agree changes and address major issues. Day-to-day project management will be coordinated by the PI. The PI will use a set of instruments for documentation and management that will be set out in the Project Plan but will include a Risk Register, a Quality Assurance Plan and an Issues Log. 40. A Project Steering Group will be set up to ensure that stakeholders from the partner institutions are fully supportive and aware of the project and its demands. 41. Internal and external communications will be managed by a dedicated (external facing) website with an integrated Blog and Wiki to support internal requirements. This structure is based on considerable JISC project experience for example the Remora Project (http://samsa.tvu.ac.uk/remora ). 2.8 Statement on IPR 42. Any code produced will be published via the project website and made available under an appropriate open source agreement and may be used within any educational establishment as per the terms and conditions of JISC grants. Middlesex University and its partners will retain shared IPR on project outcomes confirmed via a Consortium agreement for defining IPR arrangements. 2.9 Quality Management and Standards 43. The team already has experience of compliance with the JISC Software Quality Assurance Policy from several JISC projects including COVARM, PSPEX and REMORA projects and this experience and practical techniques from earlier work will be transferred to this project to address issues of methodology, version and configuration management, and documentation guidelines. 44. Quality Control on this project will include the use of quality reviews where the software, models and documentation will be reviewed by a subset of the team. Other elements of quality control will include the regular maintenance of a risk register and issues log. 45. The project will utilize and conform to appropriate and relevant standards. 2.10 Potential Risks to the project Risk Availability meetings of team Loss of key personnel for Prob (1-5) Severity (1-5) Score (P x S) Action to Prevent/Manage Risk 3 2 6 Early continual planning. Use of collaborative technologies such as Skype etc. 2 2 4 The project team has strength in depth and full institutional 7 ISCC support. Inability to recruit staff 2 4 8 Though recent experience suggests a good supply of applicants for technical posts, existing research staff would be able to conduct early work until suitable staff recruited. Methodological framework is inadequate. 2 3 6 Framework will be reviewed and refined iteratively during early stages of project. Much of the methodology has been widely documented in the literature and deployed successfully on previous projects Technical problems in system integration and implementation more difficult than anticipated 2 4 8 Members of the project team possess significant software development and technical skills, and are supported by excellent technical support staff. 3 Dissemination and Engagement with the community 46. Dissemination of information and outcomes from the project activities will be achieved using a number of methods. Project findings and the developed system will be promoted through national and international forums, workshops, and conferences, and JISC meetings. 47. A Project Web site will be created at the start of the project and will contain current information on activities (a blog with Atom and RSS feeds), reports on the tools developed, and evaluation reports. Links to relevant articles and projects relating to the project will be added. Presentations and publications derived from project work will also be available on the site. 48. The project will aim to organise workshops at appropriate point in order to disseminate results and engage with the wider community. An appropriate way of doing this will be to organise workshops in conjunction with Interactions, a specialist group of the British Computer society. Workshops could be run as part of the annual British HCI conference, or under the auspices of the Interactions Education and Practice subroup, with whom the project team has close links. Where appropriate, the project will aim to work with relevant JISC CETIS specialist groups such as Enterprise and Pedagogy for both advice and dissemination of outcomes. 49. Each dissemination activity will be designed to either raise awareness, inform/understand or create an environment for engagement and use of the outcomes of the project. 50. A key aspect of this project is that it crosses two discipline boundaries: Computing and Design. Dissemination of the project will consider this and will include engagement with relevant HE Academies of both disciplines. 8 ISCC 4 Budget Staff contributions and justification of resources 51. In order to conduct the proposed work, it will be important to have a coherent team in place for significant parts of the project. Therefore an RA will be employed for one year in the middle part of the project, to work principally on WP3-WP8. This will ensure that the team has sufficient resources to successfully integrate and install the prototype technologies and begin the evaluation activities. Much of the evaluation activity will be led by Drs Fields and Bardill at Middlesex, and Drs Jones and Zaphiris at City. Because of these staff members’ direct involvement in delivering programmes relevant to this project, it will be possible to make a significant contribution here, despite the relatively modest funding for academic staff time. 9 ISCC 5 Previous experience of the project team 52. The project calls for extensive experience in collaborative system design, the study of creativity and design education, relevant pedagogy, and a sound technological understanding of both current and emerging technologies. The team assigned to this project brings together a strong blend of knowledge, skills, experience and senior management strategy in a compelling case. 53. When these attributes are combined with large-scale project management experience (in both commercial and academic research contexts) the quality and depth of the project team should provide JISC with an appropriate level of reassurance on the capability of this team to deliver the outputs as stated. 54. The team comprises the following individuals: 55. Middlesex: Dr Bob Fields, Reader (Principal Investigator, project manager): Bob is a Reader in Computer Science and deputy head of the Interaction Design Centre, a research centre in the School of Computing science at Middlesex. He teaches HCI and Interaction Design, and has a strong track record in conducting and managing research into novel interaction technologies and the study and design of collaborative technologies. 56. Middlesex: Dr Andy Bardill, Principal Lecturer (Co-investigator): Andy Bardill is Director of Product Design and Engineering Programmes and Co-leads MSc Interaction Design. Andy has a former industrial background in advanced avionic systems and has been working in Design Education for the past 17 years; holding his current academic leadership and development role for the last 10. His Ph.D. was in intelligent, dynamic virtual learning environments for design education. 57. Middlesex: Prof Martin Loomes, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of School of Computing Science (Co-Investigator): Martin has substantial experience of academic leadership. His PhD was in the area of Curriculum Design, and much of his research activity since has been at the cusp of Education, Design and Technology. He has also managed the development of several cross-disciplinary programmes, and a major on-line programme with a complex, pre-defined, VLE structure. 58. Middlesex: Prof. Balbir S Barn, Associate Dean (Co-investigator): Balbir is Professor of Software Engineering at Middlesex. He has substantial experience in leading and participating in JISC funded projects (e.g. COVARM, P-SPEX, COVa and REMORA). More recently Balbir is researching the viability of Pask’s Conversation Theory as a candidate meta theory for supporting e-Learning. Balbir has also contributed to the development of process modeling collateral on behalf of JISC. 59. City: Dr Sara Jones (Co-investigator): Sara Jones currently holds an RCUK Research Fellowship in creativity applied to design and engineering, with a particular focus on software-based product design. Before that, she was a lecturer, teaching and researching in the fields of human-computer interaction and requirements engineering where she has worked for over 20 years. 60. City: Dr Panayiotis Zaphiris, Reader, Centre for HCI Design, City University, (Co-investigator) Panayiotis is a Reader in human-computer interaction at the Centre for HCI Design. His research interests lie in HCI with an emphasis on inclusive design and social aspects of computing. He is also interested in internet related research (web usability, mathematical modelling of browsing behaviour in hierarchical online information systems, online communities, e-learning, web based digital libraries and finally social network analysis of online human-to-human interactions). He has published extensively and managed several funded projects in this area, including the JISC-funded "Usability Studies for JISC Services and Information Environment" and "Information Visualisation Foundation Study" projects. 10 ISCC Contents of Appendices The following appendices are provided for providing further supporting information: A) One Page Curriculum Vitae of the core interdisciplinary team from both institutions B) Letters of support from: i. Middlesex University ii. City University 11 ISCC Appendix A: CVs of Core Staff Team Name: Dr Bob Fields Job Title: Reader in Computer Science Expertise, Research and Development Bob Fields is a Reader in Computer Science in the School of Computing Science at Middlesex University and is the deputy head of the Schools leading research group: the Interaction Design Centre. He has conducted research and teaching in the field of Interaction Design, Human Computer Interaction, and Computer Supported Cooperative Work for over 15 years. He is currently involved in research projects on novel technologies and support for collaboration – highly relelvant to the current proposal. Institution: Middlesex University Sample Relevant Projects and PhD supervisions • Co-investigator on a project commencing in 2007 on the development on ‘3Din-2D’ displays for Air Traffic Controllers that is funded by Eurocontrol (€300,000 over 3 years). • Co-investigator and Technical Manager of the European FP6-funded ‘AD4’ STREP project on Virtual Airspace Management (value €250, 000, Jan 2005Feb 2007) • Principal investigator on one EPSRC research project (value £136,000) in the area of Digital Library usability (2001-2003). • Currently supervising or co-supervising 6 PhD students in the Interaction Design area including one jointly with the Product Design group on: The Affect and Effect of 3D Modelling Interfaces with Tangible User Interfaces Designed for Juveniles Sample Relevant Publications • Fields, B., Amaldi, P., Wong, W., Gill, S. (2007) Editorial: In-use, In-situ: Extending Field Research Methods. International Journal of Human Computer Interaction. 22(1):1-6. • Blandford, A., Keith, S. Butterworth, R., Fields, B. & Furniss, D. (2007) Disrupting Digital Library Development with Scenario Informed Design. Interacting with Computers Journal. 19(1):70-82. • Stelmaszewska, H., Fields, B., Blandford, A. (in press, 2007) Evaluating user experience of using camera phones in social contexts. Chapter in Handbook of Research on User Interface Design and Evaluation for Mobile Technology. • Jones, S. & Fields, B. (2008) Children's use of an interactive tabletop in creative activities: observations following a small-scale feasibility study. IEEE Tabletops and Interactive Surfaces 2008 (submitted). 12 ISCC Name: Professor Martin Loomes Job Title: Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean of the School of Computing Science Expertise, Research and Development Martin is Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of Computing Science at Middlesex University. He started his career as a Maths teacher, followed by a brief period as an Engineering Lecturer for ICL, moving to Hatfield Polytechnic (now University of Hertfordshire) in 1981, where he moved through the ranks from lecturer to Associate Dean (Research). During that period he had extensive responsibility for subject and curriculum development at all levels, including the development of several cross-school programmes and a significant e-Learning MSc. He moved to Middlesex University as Dean of Computing Science in 2005, and was made Pro Vice Chancellor in 2006 in recognition of his University-wide roles and responsibilities, which includes managing the campus at Hendon. His PhD is in the area of Curriculum Design, and in particular the ways in which “theory” interacts with design. He has held more than £1.5m of externally funded grants, most of which are focused upon the ways in which theory and practice interact in a variety of domains. Institution: Middlesex University Sample Relevant Projects and Consultancy • Developments in On-Line Learning (5 projects) – funded by Teaching and Learning Development Fund: duration 2000-2005 Value £23,000 Imitation Technology and Computer Science - funded by EPSRC (GR/M59129/01): duration1999 – 1999 Value £5,091 • Multi-Cultural Software Development: a Teaching Company programme between University of Hertfordshire and Rank Zerox – funded by Teaching Company Directorate and Rank Zerox: duration 1995-1998 value £73,000 • Cognitive & Organisational Processes in Software Eng. Methodologies for Safety Critical Systems - funded by EPSRC (GR/J20234/01): duration 1994 – 1997 value £134,106 • Software Development and Testing: a Teaching Company Programme between University of Hertfordshire and Synergy (UK) Ltd - funded by EPSRC (GR/J22634/01): duration 1993 – 1995 value £117,451 • A Distance Learning Programme for Software Engineers: collaborative with Sheffield Polytechnic, Loughborough University, ICL, BBC OU Productions – funded by Alvey Directorate: duration 1989 –1991, value £48,000. Sample Relevant Publications • Martin Loomes and Bruce Christianson (2006), Reflections on Academic Leadership, Journal for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, Vol 3 Issue 1, ISSN: 1743-3932 • Yi Sun, Timothy S. Butler, Alex Shafarenko, Rod Adams, Martin Loomes, & Neil Davey (2004) "Identifying Word Boundaries in Handwritten Text" Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA 2004), IEEE Catalog Number: 04EX970, ISBN: 0-780388213-2. Pages 5-9. • Richard Polfreman, Martin Loomes, Robert Wright (2003) Physically inspired interactive music machines making contemporary composition accessible?, Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 224-228 IEEE Press ISBN 0769519679 • Loomes, M.C., Shafarenko, A, & Loomes, M.J. (2002) Teaching Mathematical Explanation through Audiographic Technology, Journal of Computers and Education, Volume 38, Issues 1-3, pp137-149 13 ISCC Name: Dr Balbir Barn Job Title: Professor Engineering Expertise, Research and Development Balbir is Professor of Software Engineering at Middlesex University. Prior to academia, Balbir worked extensively on CBD methods and design of component modelling toolsets at Texas Instruments Research Labs. Here, Balbir was part of the design team for the world’s first application generation toolset – the IEF™. This product then formed the basis of business process modelling toolset – BDF™ which supported business process simulation for which Balbir was a lead developer. Again at Texas Instruments, Balbir was the UK lead researcher on a United States funded NIST research project (worth $5M) for research and development into model based architectural description of software applications. Balbir has extensive industrial experience, in leading and managing development projects. More recently, Balbir has been investigating the design of UML based methods to support the discovery, design and specification of web services. of Software Institution: Middlesex University Sample Relevant Projects and Consultancy • Project Manager and PI for the JISC funded COVARM project on course validation business process modelling. (2005-6) COMPLETED • PI for JISC PSPEX project (2007-2009) – Project exploring programme specifications and their change. • PI for JISC COVa project (2007-8) – Project implementing COVARM scenarios using a BPMN toolset. • Co-Investigator for JISC REMORA project (2007-9) with Southampton and Royal Holloway. Mobile Applications for supporting Social Work Students • Consultancy to implement a CRM strategy for Thomas Cook by undertaking a systems integration evaluation of the TC business. • Consultant with one of the world’s foremost methodologists – Desmond D’Souza to define and develop a model based Software Architecture Method for a leading international investment bank utilising work on Component based development from Texas Instruments. . • Product management of commercial products used by major blue chip companies – COOL:SPEX™Consultancy to capture business processes and functional architecture models for British Telecom. • Research on component based approaches to software architecture and the development of design methods to support component-based design. NIST project ($5M). Recent Dissemination from the JISC projects includes: • Oussena, S, Sparks, D and Barn, B.S, (2007). Implementing Reference Models using Service Oriented Architectures and XML Rules. International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, June 2007. • Barn, B.S (2007) “Supporting and enhancing the course validation process using a software driven process workflow application”; Association of University Administrators Conference, Nottingham. • Barn B.S (2006) Conceptual Modelling of Educational Theories: An ontological approach. IADIS Conference on Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA), December, 2006. Barcelona, Spain. (Best Paper Prize). • Barn B.S., Dexter H., Oussena S. Petch J. (2006) “A Synthesis approach for deriving reference models for SOA frameworks” In IADIS INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS, pages 100-116. Vol. 1, 2. • Barn B.S., Dexter H., Oussena S., Sparks D. (2006) “SOA MDK: Towards a Method Development Kit for Service Oriented Development”. Information Systems Development 06 (ISD 06), Budapest, Hungary. Published as LNCS Proceedings. 14 ISCC Name: Dr Andy Bardill Job Title: Principal Lecturer Expertise, Research and Development Current Post Institution: Middlesex University Director of Product Design and Engineering and Member of Product Design Research Centre (PDRC) Qualifications PhD Intelligent Hypermedia VLE 2003 BEd Design and Technology 1991 HND Aerospace Studies: Avionics 1984 Main Areas of Teaching Interaction Design; Furniture and general consumer product design; Mechatronic systems for experience prototyping; Computer aided design, visualisation and manufacture Research and Scholarly Activity Product Design, Emotional ergonomics; New Urbanism, regeneration and designing pleasurable places; Mass customisation; E-learning Intelligent hypermedia VLE using dynamically constructed semantic networks. Current Research Supervision Ph.D. - The Development of Design Process Methods and tools for Mass Customisation Ph.D. - The Affect and Effect of 3D Modelling Interfaces with Tangible User Interfaces Designed for Juveniles Selected Recent Publications • Herd. K., Bardill. A., Karamanoglu. M 2008 The co-design experience: conceptual models and design tools for mass customization (In Press) • Bardill. A., Herd. K., Karamanoglu. M. 2007 Product Envelopes: Designing Positive Interplay between Brand DNA and Customer Co-Designers; International Journal of Mass Customization • Herd, K., Bardill, A., Karamanoglu. M. 2007 Designing for co-design: using the product envelope model as a framework for reflection; Proceedings of the World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCPC), Innovation and Research Conference, MIT Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts, USA • Bardill, A. and Herd, K. 2006 Maintaining Positive Interplay between Brand DNA and Customer Co-Designers in Mass Customised Products: International Conference on Strategic Innovation and Design Management November 2006 Soeul, Korea. • Bardill. A., Karamanoglu. M., Herd. K. 2005 Pleasure Based Design Approaches to the Built Environment; The Municipal Engineer (Institution of Civil Engineers) • Bardill. A. 2005 4x4 Making Places: Mindsets – compact and dispersed [www.makingplaces.com] The regeneration forum. • H. Rodrigues, T. Gaspar, S. Odedra, M. Costa, J. C. Metrôlho, S. Prior, A. Bardill, C. Silva3, A. Tavares and C. Couto, "Development of Mobile Platforms using PDA Bluetooth Control", IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics - ISIE'2005, 20-23 June of 2005, Dubrovnik, Croatia. • T. GASPAR, H. RODRIGUES, S. ODEDRA, M. COSTA, J.C. METRÔLHO, A. BARDILL and S. PRIOR, 2004 "Handheld Devices as Actors in Domotic Monitoring System", in Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics 2004 - INDIN'04, 24-26 June of 2004, Berlin, Germany. pp. 547-551. 15 ISCC Name: Dr Sara Jones Job Title: RCUK Fellow Expertise, Research and Development Since 2006, Sara has held an RCUK Research Fellowship in creativity applied to design and engineering, with a particular focus on software-based product design. She has recently been working in the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design at City University on applying creative requirements techniques in a range of large-scale software development projects. Before that, she was a Principal Lecturer, teaching and researching in the fields of human-computer interaction and requirements engineering at the University of Hertfordshire. She has worked in these areas for over 20 years, producing over 70 refereed publications, supervising 5 PhDs, and carrying out consultancy work for a number of major organisations. Academic Research Institution: City University Sample Relevant Projects and PhD supervisions • Multi-Cultural Software Development: a Teaching Company programme between University of Hertfordshire and Rank Zerox – funded by Teaching Company Directorate and Rank Zerox: duration 1995-1998 value £73,000 • The Use of a Student Model in a Multimedia Application to Configure Learning, PhD completed by student at University of Hertfordshire 1999. • The Impact of Multimedia on Students’ Learning Experience in Kuwaiti Higher Education, PhD completed by student at University of Hertfordshire, 2000 • Facilitating and measuring older people’s creative engagement in the user centred design process, PhD ongoing at City University. Sample Relevant Publications • N. Maiden, S. Jones and M. Flynn, “Innovative Requirements Engineering Applied to ATM”, in Proceedings of ATM 2003, 5th USA/Europe R&D Seminar, http://atm2003.eurocontrol.fr/ Budapest, June 23 – 27, 2003. • Maiden N.A.M. and Jones, S., Creativity in the Design of Complex Systems, presented at the Workshop on Complexity in Design and Engineering, University of Glasgow, March 2005 • Norden, B., and Jones, S. ‘Screenwriting for Requirements Engineers’, in IEEE Software, May/June 2007. • Jones, S., Maiden N.A.M., and Karlsen K. ‘Creativity in the Specification of Large-Scale Socio-Technical Systems’ in Proceedings of CREATE 2007, the conference on Creative Inventions, Innovations and Everyday Designs in HCI, 13-14 June 2007, London, UK, D. Golightly, T. Rose, B.L.W.Wong and A. Light (eds), pp 41 – 46, Ergonomics Society, 2007. • Schlosser, C., Jones, S. and Maiden, N.A.M., ‘Using a Creativity Workshop to Generate Requirements for an Event Database Application’, to appear in the Proceedings of REFSQ 2008, the International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundations for Software Quality. • Jones, S. Lynch, P., Maiden, N.A.M. and Lindstaedt, S., ‘Use and Influence of Creative Ideas and Requirements for a Work-Integrated Learning System’, to appear in proceedings RE08, 16th International IEEE requirements Engineering Conference • Jones, S. & Fields, B. (2008) Children's use of an interactive tabletop in creative activities: observations following a small-scale feasibility study. IEEE Tabletops and Interactive Surfaces 2008 (submitted). 16 ISCC Name: Dr. Panayiotis Zaphiris Job Title: Reader in Human Computer Interaction Expertise, Research and Development Panayiotis is a Reader in human-computer interaction at the Centre for HCI Design. He got his B.Sc (Electrical Engineering) and M.Sc. (Systems Engineering) from the University of Maryland College Park (USA). Panayiotis got his Ph.D. (HumanComputer Interaction) from Wayne State University where he was also a Research Assistant at the Institute of Gerontology. Institution: City University Research Interests • Social Aspects of Computing: Computer Games and their social and pedagogical dimensions; E-learning and sociability around e-learning; Computer Mediated Communication (CMC); Computer Supported Collaborated Work (CSCW) • Inclusive Design: Web accessibility; Design of interactive systems for the elderly and the disabled; Cultural issues/differences and the design of interactive systems; Participatory Design (especially as it applies to e-learning); Computer Aided Language Learning Funded Research Projects • Principal Investigator: “Mathematical modelling of age-related differences in web browsing". SPARC/EPSRC Total: £41,317. Fall 2006 (for 12 months) • Co-Investigator. "Personalisation of learning: constructing an interdisciplinary research space". ESRC Total: £57,644.53. Fall 2006 (for 6 months) • Principal Investigator: "Information Visualisation Foundation Study". JISC Total: £44,967. September 2003 - February 2004 • Co-Investigator. "An in-depth study of the current state of web accessibility" Disability Rights Commission Total: £112,000. April 2003 - October 2003. • Co-Investigator: "Usability Studies for JISC Services and Information Environment". JISC Total: £33,483. December 2002 - April 2003. Publications • Zaphiris, P., Sarwar, R. (accepted) Trends, Similarities and Differences in the Usage of Teen and Senior Public Online Newsgroups. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), ACM Press. • Mohamedally, D., Zaphiris, P., & Petrie, H. (2005). "PROTEUS: Artefact-Driven Constructionist Assessment within TabletPC-Based Low-Fidelity Prototyping". To Appear in Proceedings of HCI 2005 Edinburgh, British HCI Group, British Computing Society, UK. • Zaphiris, P., Gill, K., Ma, T.H-Y, Wilson, S. and Petrie, H. (2004) Exploring the Use of Information Visualization for Digital Libraries, New Review of Information Networking, 10(1): 51-70, Taylor and Francis, London, UK. • Zaphiris, P., Shneiderman, B., & Norman, K.L. (2002) Expandable Indexes Versus Sequential Menus for Searching Hierarchies on the World Wide Web. Behaviour and Information Technology, 21 (3), 185-201, Taylor and Francis, London, UK. • Zaphiris, P., Kurniawan, S.K., & Ellis, R.D. (2001). Usability and Accessibility Comparison of Governmental, Organizational, Educational and Commercial Aging/Health-Related Web Sites. WebNet Journal, 3 (3), 45-52. 17 ISCC Appendix B Supporting Letters 18 Professor Margaret A House BSc PhD Deputy Vice-Chancellor - Academic 26 July 2008 Our ref: ATDB/JF Dear Sir/Madam JISC Circular 08/08 Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology Project Proposal: Information Spaces for Creative Conversations I am pleased to write in support of the project ʻInformation Spaces for Creative Conversationsʼ (ISCC) being proposed by Dr Bob Fields in the School of Computing Science at Middlesex University. The School has an excellent record of research and teaching in fields that will directly underpin the work of the project. The ISCC project directly addresses problems that are relevant in several areas of our provision at Middlesex. The MSc Interaction Design programme, run jointly between the School of Computing Science and the School of Arts and Education, is an excellent example of the inter-disciplinary opportunities that are available for exploring the impact of innovative learning technologies. The Masters programme will provide a focus and testbed for the proposed learning technologies at an institutional level. The collaborative nature of the bid with our partner institution – City University will allow us to provide further evaluative experience as City run a similar programme. The project proposed is timely as it coincides with the recently completed developments of our Hendon campus which will provide new enhanced teaching and learning spaces for computer science and other disciplines. This bid will allow us to explore the use of new physical spaces in an innovative manner which I am sure will lead to enhanced teaching and learning practice. Our commitment to the project is demonstrated by the involvement of senior staff at Professor and PVC level and the collaboration across two Schools of the University. The partner institution, City University are also strongly supportive of the proposal. We wish Bob and the team every success. Yours sincerely, Professor Margaret A House Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) The Burroughs Hendon London NW4 4BT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 8411 5398 Fax: +44 (0)20 8411 5597 e-mail: [email protected] www.mdx.ac.uk JISC Proposal: Information Spaces for Creative Conversations
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