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Using Web 2.0 in Large Cohort Project Management Education: Panacea or Empty Promise
Saunders F, Gale A W
In: PMI Research and Education Conference 2010; 12 Jul 2010-14 Jul 2010; Washington. 2010.
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Abstract
Many higher education institutions regard the use of technology in teaching and learning as a key tool in the pursuit of efficiency savings. Simultaneously a new generation of students are arriving at university confident with technology and well versed in the many collaborative and social tools that fall under the broad umbrella of Web 2.0. These students have high expectations of academic teaching faculty.This paper investigates whether the selective use of web 2.0 technologies can enable teaching faculty to meet the Net Generation students where they are and deliver an enhanced student learning experience. The development and evaluation of a compulsory project management course, which is taught to 270 third-year engineering undergraduates at The University of Manchester, is used as a case study. The course retains the benefits of face-to-face contact with students through weekly keynote lectures, but supplements this with the extensive use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) and key Web 2.0 applications.The key findings are that technology is not a panacea: face-to-face contact with teaching staff remains the priority for most students. New learning technology may also lead to an increased incidence of strategic learning with students preferring the tools that are most closely aligned with the assessment process. Nevertheless, the use of Web 2.0 tools and the VLE was found to enhance the student learning experience in terms of communication and feedback. The greater challenge of using new technologies to increase collaboration in learning remained an elusive goal, with further work by the authors focused on this objective.