Assessing Student Team Project Work

 Greetings from the ANU Techlauncher "Sprint 1" assessment review. There are 12 tutors (mostly in person, a couple online) plus two convenors reviewing grades from assessment of the first assessed task for project students. There list a list of teams on the wall, with each tutor going trough their proposed graduate and comments for each team over the last few weeks. Issues with the nature of the project, problems with the client are addressed as we go along. The meeting has been going for two hours. This is a slow, often tedious, occasionally exciting, process as those involved argue over grades and techniques. Students, and the public, may not realize how much effort goes into grading, and how much this is an art, rather than a science. With projects for real clients, which are all different, there is no easy way to do this. 

ANU Group Computing Projects on Display Tuesday 29 October 2024 12 noon

Over the last eight years I have frequently written in blog posts, public presentations, media interviews and academic papers about the Australian National University's Techlauncher program. In Canberra next week you have the opportunity to hear from the students and see their work. Each team produces a poster, displayed at the ANU Computing Showcase. Come along and ask them what they did, and how they did it. 

Podcast on E-portfolios for Education

Recently I was delighted to be interviewed for a podcast by Kristina Hoeppner on the use of e-portfolios in Mahara's  'Create. Share. Engage' series.  We talked about how these are used in the ANU Techlauncher program, using techniques I learned as a student of Debra Hoven at Athabasca University. With this approach the student is guided through the development of the portfolio, including peer feedback, and as part of their coursework, rather than being left as something extracurricular to complete later. 

A slight variation on this, is to have the student prepare the portfolio in the form of an application for a real job which they would like on graduation. This makes sense as a capstone exercise, at the end of a program of study, as many students are then looking for jobs. This transforms the portfolio from something which might be of use to the student one day, to something of vital importance right now. At the moment I am overseeing the assessment of 400 student portfolios by a dozen tutors.

What do employers want?

Greetings from the final TechLauncher workshop at the Australian National University. This is a chance for students to not only listen to potential employers but also talk to them. Of course many computer students already have jobs, as they have in demand skills. There are some extra requirements for computer people, such as a Github account to show they can code. The workshop is held in "The Hive" which is an open plan area set up to look like a typical shared office environment. 

Bianca Sawyer,
Quantum Brilliance

Today we have Kevin Landale from Digital Atelier,  Bianca Sawyer from  Quantum Brilliance, and Jonathon Stapels from Overflow Solutions.

Kevin Landale,
Digital Atelier

These workshops are intended to help students, but a bonus for staff, such as myself, is to meet interesting people from interesting companies. The three company representatives (who are also company founders) talked about how they ended up where they are. 

Jonathon emphasised that applicants should be ready to talk about why they applied in everyday language. 

Jonathon Stapels,
Overflow Solutions

Bianca emphasised the importance of a cover letter focused on relevant qualifications, skills and experience, not just "sixteen pages of CV" and no "Spam CVs". Kevin said he uses behavioural pre-screening questions, unrelated to technical skills. Jonathon asked if job ads should give the specifics upfront, or talk about the learning opportunities in the job and he was surprised that students preferred the upfront version. The students then talked about what they studied and what they aspired to work on. One student said they wanted to work at a large company, at which point the employers discussed the pros and cons. 

Building the Australia Tech Industry in Adelaide

Tom Worthington with the student team:
Ethan Teber-Rossi & Steven Nguyen at Deloitte

Greetings from Deloitte in Adelaide, where a team of ANU Techlauncher students is competing in the national AIIA iAwards. It was only yesterday the students were told that I am not doing the presentation, they are. That required changing the outlook of the presentation to a student perspective, which made it much better. It is is difficult as the students have to talk about their own project, as well as the university's way to deliver experiential education. Ethan Teber-Rossi and Steven Nguyen, from the "FireApp" team in Techlauncher are presenting.

Skills for Career

Joe Schmetzer,
Head of Software Engineering,
Applied AI at Penten

Greetings from the Australian National University where Joe Schmetzer , Head of Software Engineering, Applied AI at Penten is talking to ANU Techlauncher students about "Skills for a Tech Career". Beforehand I introduced a small assessed task for students, which is to find a job or other opportunity and explain why they have the skills and knowledge for it.

This morning I was interviewed by Kristina Hoeppner for her Portfolio Podcast series "Create. Share. Engage". I explained that for Techlauncher we have disguised the capstone e-portfolio reflection exercise as a job application. Joe is now taking students through what he likes to see from applicants. He has students do a short coding exercise, which is not unusual for a technical job but a "cultural interview" is. After the code test the Penten Head of Operations asks the applicant why they are there and they have an idea of what the company they are applying to. This is something STEM graduates tend to have difficulty with. It helps if students have done some sort of practical project. Joe then talked about the Trident Career Model. 

Later the ANU Careers and Employability staff took students through a series of careers exercises. The RIASEC categorised me as being Realistic, Artistic & Investigative, suggesting I could be a Landscape Architect. As it happens I did an introductory design course for architects and industrial designers. 

What is on in Adelaide in late August?

iAward to ANU Techlauncher

What is on in Adelaide, 28 to 30 August 2024? I will be attending the 2024 National iAwards on 29 August, as on of the teaching team fior the Australian National University's Techlauncher Project which is in the running. Are there any computer or education events on, while I am in town? I would be happy to give a talk, if someone has a venue. My next scheduled speaking engagement is on academic integrity in assessment.

Project proposals needed for computer student teams

For several years I have been one of a large team teaching project management to computer students. The ANU Techlauncher Program continues to gain in popularity, and we are in need of more projects for more students due to start their studies in the next few weeks. The project can be something from a small business, startup, large corporation, government agency, or a not-for-profit. You might have a glimer of an idea, and want a prototype to see if it makes sense, or something well specified, and just needs doing. In the past I have tutored students building software to test hydroelectric generators which keep the lights on in much of Australia, while others helped develop an anti-ballistic missile radar which protects Australian warships. At the other end of the scale, a team produced an app for a health professional, to help their patients with a fear of flying.

ANU Techlauncher Project Wins IT Industry Award for Education

iAward to ANU Techlauncher

The Australian National University's Techlauncher Project received a merit award in the ACT round of the Australian Information Industry (AIIA) 2024 iAwards. I am honored to be part of the team, which provides work integrated learning for computer students, through projects with real clients. We are now in the running for the national award in Adelaide in August.

Digital Concierges for Recruiting

Greetings from the Australian National University where Techlauncher students in "The Hive" are exploring possible future careers. They are hearing from Bryce Undy on how his company Grow Right Digital provides AI for analysis of job applications. He cautioned students not to leave generative AI to write their CV, as this may make claims they can't support. He claimed AI could be used to remove implicit and explicit bias, for example summarizing what qualifications the student has, while removing details of gender, and what school was attended. The students are learning about future careers under the guidance of ANU Careers & Employability.

Job Interview Skills

John McCluskey, & James Bletcher, 
from Whizdom Recruitment

Greetings from the ANU Techlauncher job skills workshop. Staff from ANU Careers and Employability are going through interview skills. I was surprised to see that few of the students have ever been to a job interview. Some of the tips which careers advisers give, such as how to  read the job ad, might seem obvious, but they aren't. One surprise what research shows that body language and tone of voice have more impact in a job interview than what the interviewees actually say. This can be a problem for someone from a different culture. 

Something that hadn't occurred to me were tips for team exercises during job selection. With this a small group of about a half dozen applicants have to work together, while being observed. This is to see how potential staff will work with others. I flippantly suggested I would undermine the rest of the team to get the job, and the flippant reply was I would be good at the Defence Department (I actually worked there nine years). ;-)

Staff from Whizdom Recruitment talked about hot job areas. One obvious area is AI, but less obvious is nuclear submarines, which don't just need physicists, but computer people as well. One suggestion which surprised me was to attend industry conferences such as MilCIS.

Learning to Reflect in the Age of AI

 

This semester I am aiming to take a tentative step into AI for teaching. This will be in three workshops planned at ANU, for the computer project student's capstone e-portfolio for the ANU Techlauncher program. The students have to prepare a portfolio in the form of an application for a real job. The question was: do we try to ban students from using generative AI to help them with this, or do we show them how to use it effectively and ethically? I will attempt to do the latter. 

The ANU now provides Microsoft Copilot, as part of the Office suite. This provides the opportunity to take studnts through exercises to use it, to help with their writing. I have not used Copilot, but have explored the technology it is based on since 2022. The idea is to get the students in workshop groups to ask a career related question of Copilot, then critique & improve the answer.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a two-day Symposium at USyd on using AI this way, with team-based learning. One tip given at the symposium to stop students simply relying on the answers given by the AI. The idea is to prompt students with a very localized question, which the AI model can only answer with generalities: 

Last week I attended an ANU AI Assessment Question Drop In Session. The impression I got was that the ANU would not be averse to using AI this way. One of the other people who dropped in for advice was already proposing to run some team-based AI sessions along these lines.

What do Computer Group Project Students Need to Know?

For the last eight years I have been helping out with the Australian National University's Techlauncher program. Computer students undertake a group project for a real client, over two semesters, towards the end end of their degree. One of the features of the program is that students from different backgrounds, at different stages of their study, work together. There are undergraduate and postgraduate, domestic and international students, some have extensive industry experience, some have very little.

You will not find Techlauncher in the university handbook. Instead the program is listed as three course codes: Software Engineering Project (COMP3500), Software Engineering Practice (COMP4500), and Computing Project (COMP8715). Occasionally there are some students from other disciplines. But however the students enroll they end up in the same class together, to go through team formation.

What the different courses which make up Techlauncher have in common are learning outcomes of learning, reflection, communication, teamwork, and project management. It is assumed the student has completed studies in Professional Practice, Software Construction, Software Design, Software Engineering. This is in addition, and distinct from courses in Structured Programming, and other forms of programming. The elements the student needs to be able to integrate to work as a computer professional here are:

1. communication both within a team and to external stakeholders, 
2. programming small pieces of code, or other tools such as interface design, 
3. designing larger structures from the components, testing and maintaining them,
4. working as a member of a team,
5. deciding what new skills are needed both as an individual professional, and for the team.

As Techlauncher is attempting to emulate real world working conditions, and using real if limited) projects, each will demand different skills of the team, and its members. It is not possible to specify a comprehensive curriculum for every student to undertake. Instead students will need a smörgåsbord of learning resources to choose from.

Some resources:

Software Design Methodologies Notes, slides and some videos.

Australia host a blended UN Climate Change Conference?

Greetings from the "Post COP27 – What happened, and where to from here?" seminar at the Australian National University in Canberra. There was criticism of access to COP27 for representatives of indigenous groups and those who could not afford to sent a large delegation across the world. Australia has bid to host a future COP in conjunction with Pacific Nations. So I suggested to the panel this should be a blended event, allowing participation online, with consensus building software used. The panel were mildiny enthusiastic, while pointing out that final negotiations still happen face to face. But I suggest that this need not be the case, and it is this process which has got the world into the mess it is in with global warming. The ANU Techlauncher studets could build a system, using free open source software, to do this. 

Call for ANU Techlauncher Projects

 

Dr Charles Gretton

Dr Charles Gretton has invited project proposals for ANU Techlauncher, Semester 1 2023 (I help student with their reflective portfolios):

"We invite members of the community to participate in the Australian National University TechLauncher Program, as a project proposer/client, mentor, tutor and/or guest speaker. 

ANU TechLauncher is the initiative than enables mature students to work in teams with business, government, and academic experts to address real-world problems, or with experienced mentors to create start-up enterprises as part of their degree studies. It builds on over two decades of real-world group project work at ANU.

How simple is it to get involved? 

1. (Re-)activate your account (https://redmine.cecs.anu.edu.au/redmine/), 
2.  Pitch the cohort a project brief, or otherwise let them know how you are interested in engaging with them, and then
3.  A program facilitator from the Australian National University will be in touch in due course to discuss the program, this model of engagement, and your project in more detail. 

Or.. just email us, or PM on the socials!

The deadline for project proposals is February 10th 2023. If we are oversubscribed, we shall allocate accepted places on a first-come-first-served basis. In case you have unsuccessfully pitched a project to students in the past, we very strongly encourage you to give it another go!

Thank you for your continued interest in the program. We are all looking forward to another ambitious and productive cohort next semester. You are strongly encouraged to forward this call on to others who may be interested in ANU TechLauncher, add this call to your circulars, socialise with your portfolio businesses and innovation ecosystem partners.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email myself and/or Priscilla Kan John."

Using a Job Application as the Capstone Exercise for Work Integrated Learning

On the Yogyakarta Train,
after TALE 2019 

On a visit to Singapore for EduTech Asia 2022, I will stopping off at a university to talk about using a job application as the capstone for work integrated learning. I would be happy to talk at other institutions, while in Singapore, or elsewhere. This is an update to a paper I gave at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE). That was a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had no idea that my idea of designing a blended learning module which could be quickly converted for full online delivery in an emergency would be needed so soon. I will discuss how it went and what universities should do next post-pandemic.

Original paper:

Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225921

On Campus Online

Greetings from the The Australian National University, where I have been helping ANU Careers teach ANU College of Engineering & Computer Science students how to apply for a job. Today we had Benjamin Luton, Technical Principal from Contino talk to the students. Last week it was David Parums, from Black Mountain Construction, and Thomas Griffiths, from Social Pinpoint.

These are computing students at Australia's leading university, undertaking a technical degree in a highly sought after field. But what shocks them after mastering the intricacies of a very technical field is that employers want people who can talk to customers. Students, especially STEM students, find all this "soft skills" stuff, very hard. So me have them practice talking to each other, and talking to real clients.

This semester we have students back on campus, but not all of them. So we are operating in hybrid mode, with most instructors in a classroom, with some students, and others online via video conference. This makes for a high workload for those coordinating presentations, and breakout rooms.

ANU Techlauncher Learning to Reflect Introduction

Today I had the delight of being in a classroom with the Australian National University's Techlaucher students, as well as those joining online (video available). Normally I stick to the mechanics of how the "Learning to Reflect" module I supervise is run. The staff of ANU Careers provide the actual content, running students through exercises to help them think about a career. However, after reading Becoming by Michelle Obama, I was inspired to talk a little about my own career. The point wasn't big-noting myself (well not entirely), it was to show a career is rarely a straight linear path. I happened to join ABS, just as they had millions of dollars for IT training I joined the DoD computer division only to have it abolished ending up in the nation's military HQ. I nominated for VP of the ACS, but ended up President. I joined ANU to do research and ended up teaching. The latest coincidence is that I went to an ACS meeting last night, and it was the launch of the new version of a computer job analysis used in Techlauncher. The person launching it happened to have an interest in training computer people in Indonesia, as do I ...

ANU Technology Showcase on Tuesday, All Welcome

The students at the Australian National University will be showing off their project work on Tuesday, 12 Noon to 2:00pm. All are welcome in person at the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) in Canberra, or online via Remo, but please register. These are mostly the ANU Techlauncher computer projects, but there will be some others, from across disciplines. I help the students think about what career they may want.

Learning to Reflect Module Version 5.0: Hybrid Edition

 

"Learning to Reflect" is a module for the ANU TechLauncher program, where students reflect on what they have learned, by writing an application for a real job, as their last assessed task before graduating. This was developed in late 2018 and first run in semester 1, February 2019. It was designed for blended delivery, with the option of easy conversion to full online delivery. That option was needed for Semesters 1 & 2 in 2020, and Semester 1 2021 due to COVID-19. This version 5 is designed for hybrid delivery, with students in a physical classroom linked to those online, using the MidFlex Minimal Hybrid Format. Unfortunately COVID-19 again required a return to pure online delivery, but without any changes required to the material.

Two additional workshops were added from Version 4, at student request, bringing the total to four. The first three have exercises for a 2% mark each (not for the last when a major assignment is due). The optional student logbook has been dropped due to lack of use. The middle two workshops are half the length of the others with the first hour used for the new ANU Computing Showcase, featuring prominent ANU alumni, speaking about their careers.

Please note that the course notes only supply the structure for the module and the assessment. The detailed content for the workshops is provided by Tempe Archer, Careers Consultant at ANU Careers, and the students undertake exercises using the ANU Careers Toolkit.

A paper on the design and blended delivery of the module is available:

• Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225921