Collaborative Information Behaviour of Engineering Students in a Senior Design Group Project: a Pilot Study

1. Collaborative Information Behaviour of Engineering Students in a Senior Design Group Project: a Pilot Study A presentation to the 118th Annual ASEE ConferenceEngineering Libraries Division (ELD) Nasser Saleh, P.Eng, M.S., MSLIS Integrated Learning Librarian Engineering & Science Library Queen’s University June 28, 2011 “Sometimes the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts” (Aristotle)

2. Agenda • Research Background • Research Question • Theoretical Approach • Research Design • Pilot Study • Preliminary Findings • Questions Agenda Background Research Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

3. Background • Information behaviour models assume that the information seeker is an individual interacting with complex information spaces. • Recent research has found that people frequently collaborate and communicate when they retrieve and use information when they work in groups, • These studies show that the contextual dimensions including the work task and its complexity influence the behaviour of information users. Agenda Background Research Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

4. Research Question • The main research question is: How does students’ collaborative information behaviour interact with their underlying conceptions of the project learning task and its complexity in a project-based engineering course? • Collaborative information behaviour can be broadly defined as an activity where two or more actors communicate to identify information for accomplishing a task or solving a problem. It includes processes of problem identification, analysis of information need, query formulation, retrieval interactions, evaluation, presentation of results, and applying results to resolve an information problem.* * Talja, S., & Hansen, P. (2006). Information sharing. In A. Spink & C. Cole (Eds.), New Directions in Human Information Behavior(pp. 113-134). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

5. Theoretical Background • The research is guided by Dervin’s Sense-Making theory: Sense-making examines how people overcome “gaps” in reality by constructing bridges consisting of ideas, thoughts, emotions, feelings, and memories. • The research framework is also based on Taylor’s Information Use Environment (IUE): elements of IUE are: • a set of people, • a setting, • a problem, • a problem resolution. Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

6. Research Concept Map Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

7. Research Method • The research is designed in two case studies to analyze a complex phenomenon that has little established theories. • Case Study 1: end of academic year 2009/10; constitutes a web-based questionnaire at the end of the year and an analysis of students’ deliverables in the course • Case Study 2: during academic year 2010/11; will constitute 4 semi-structured interviews during the year with 3-4 project groups. Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

8. Pilot Study • A web-based questionnaire was sent to a class of 63 students at Queen’s University who work on 20 different projects using StudentVoice platform, • The questionnaire was based on a retrospective approach; students describe their experience in a year long project, • The questions vary from agreement questions (using Likert scale) to open ended questions. • 42 responses (66% response rate), the survey was available to students from March 15th till March 31st, 2010. Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

9. Task formulation/ initiation Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

10. Relevant information for the project Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

11. Used information resources for the project Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

12. People as information channels Q. For this project, did you use information that you got from other people? Yes (93%), No (7%) Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

13. Reasons for collaborative information seeking Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

14. Outcome of the collaborative activity Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

15. Assigning roles in the collaborative activity • Q. When participating in collaborative information searching, did the group assign a different task/role to each member to find information? • Yes [please explain] (76% ) , No (24%) • “to prevent the group from meeting all the time tasks would be split up to increase productivity.” [Respondent E2] • “We mainly worked by coming together to discuss objectives, then dividing for 20-30 minute intervals, and then reconvening to discuss our findings. We then brainstormed what other aspects needed to be found, and then split up and continued researching. This allowed for us to utilize each others skill sets in researching in case any one of us were having difficulty finding the required information, along with using every group member's critical thinking skills to figure out exactly what aspects of what topics needed to be researched..” [Respondent J2] Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

16. Used tools to facilitate the collaborative activity Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

17. Open ended questions Q. How would you describe your style of looking for information as a group for this project? • “Individual research, then group sharing, re delegation of research tasks, then more individual research” [Respondent D3] • “I need to write shorter answers, I'm hungry! As a group, we sit in the computer cluster together. We use google and other search engines/database search (depends what we're each looking for) to find papers or articles or websites, keeping track of the sources. As we find information we want advice on or think would be relevant for our teammates, we discuss it immediately. We search for different topics, to make it more efficient.” [Respondent I2] Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

18. Open ended questions • Q. When you were searching for information on your project as a group, what did you do to make it an easy and enjoyable process? • “Like doing anything in a group you must enjoy the company of the team members. One thing that I think is important is that everyone has there own computer/looking for different things. People read at different rates, some people want to go to certain web sites, where others what to try another search path. When everyone can sit at a table looking at different things and share with the group, that the habits and behavior of one person does not bother the other.” [Respondent A1] • “Keeping records on Google groups was a good thing. We were never physically together while searching for information unless we were at a meeting or conference call together.” [Respondent E2] • “Working together in the same room makes it more enjoyable, we can throw ideas back and forth. I guess it's easier to work as a group because you can ask for a second opinion.” [Respondent D3] Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

19. Open ended questions • Q. When you were searching for information in your project as a group, what aspects affected your performance? • “In a positive manner, we were able to help each other find information that was a bit more difficult to obtain. Negatively, it was distracting when one group member needed help, and another was still in the middle of researching their topic, and needed to break their stride.” [Respondent C2] • “my teammates and I have a good friendship so sometimes meeting and research sessions turned into us just hanging out.” [Respondent J1] • “Socializing is something that always affects the performance of the group. When everyone is quiet and focused, that's when the real work gets done” [Respondent L1] Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

20. Example of data from students’ deliverables • “Although the group may have resisted some of the advice their resources gave them, they soon realized that the advice was in actual fact extremely beneficial, we thought about going physically to the part-suppliers to speak to experts in the field. The team initially thought that they could just as easily get the needed information from the internet, so no such trip was necessary. Finally, after not much success, the team decided to go to three different stores to speak to the employees and browse through the available merchandise. The progress that was made on the designs from that one trip was more than what had been achieved in multiple meetings." [ from group E final report] Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

21. Preliminary Findings • The complexity of the project was found to have a great influence on students’ information behaviour, especially in the task formulation stage • Information use is not a separate activity from project performance, it is embedded in the task • Many students highlighted the notion of “expertise” to approach people to guide them to solutions or to guide them to documentary sources • Collaborative awareness of availability of resources was mentioned in many responses • Information encounters and least-effort strategy were also seen as factors affecting students’ information behaviour. Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

22. Next Stages • Further analysis of the questionnaire data using a grounded theory approach to identify patterns among students’ responses, • Continue statistical analysis through a group-based approach to identify variations among groups, • The use of Nvivo9 as a qualitative data analysis software, • Analysis of students’ deliverables during the project (weekly progress reports, team memos, and reports), • Case Study 2 will include interviews of students in year 2010/2011. Agenda Background Research Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Questions

23. Thank You! Nasser Salehnasser.saleh@queensu.ca Acknowledgments: The research has benefited from a SSHRC grant through Queen’s University Senate Advisory Research Committee (SARC), Subcommittee V , 2011-2012. Agenda BackgroundResearch Question Theoretical Approach Research Design Pilot Study Preliminary Findings Thanks