Shared cloud folder and website

In courses were there is the need to share different types of contents with students (not only texts), the creation of a shared drive and an associated website with contents are well organized and presented can help significantly to increase the students productivity. It can be also used to share with the class the works developed by different student groups. This can thus be turned to a interactive website that can grow with the contributions of the students.

The preparation involves the setup of a shared folder. I have been using google drive. Some folders of the parts of the drive are restricted to visualization of the contents. Other folders can be used for students to upload their works and share with the classmates.
A google site is then developed to organize the contents to be shared with students. This website link to the shared drive and to other many other relevant contents that may be available on the internet (PDFs, other websites, videos, etc). The advantage is that we are presenting the contents in a much more organized way, and this helps students to develop their work faster, in project-based learning works that the students need to develop over the period. In the end, the students upload their works to the shared folders and become part of the website to be seen by other classmates. This content is then presented and discussed in presentation sessions and is part of the student’s assessment. This material is also to be used by everyone to study other subjects that were not part of their project but that may be asked in the final exam.

As in other project-based learning, the students are not so comfortable when they are developing this type of work. They are very focused on the grade, and it is good to do some tutorial sessions with students to give some guidance on the work they are doing and decrease also their anxiety. They report that this approach is much more effective to make them think on the challenges of developing new processes.

Challenges

• Initial difficulties from the students to use the platform and giving access to it. The access is limited only to students that are participating in the course.
• You need to have access and know how to manage google drives and google websites.
• The same challenges as in other project-based learning (this depends on the actual area and scope of the projects). I have been using this strategy in the Chemical Process and there are some specific challenges to this implementation.
• Students should be directed to search also beyond the contents provided on the website. This should be clearly communicated to the students.

Credit

Moisés Pinto, University of Lisbon

 

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