National Project Coordinators Network: Home Page
The ALiC (Active Learning in Computing) CETL (Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning) CETL ALiC, led from Durham University, focuses on increasing the level of student engagement within the computing curriculum and making their experiences more relevant to industry.
As part of the CETL furthering of project practise, on 25 April 2007, we convened the inaugural meeting of a National Project Coordinators Network. The meeting was hosted by HEA ICS at the University of Leeds. In the fullness of time, we hope to establish as a self-sustaining network of university computing project co-ordinators. This will not exist to dictate best practise, but instead operate as a community. Nearly all computing departments will engage in projects, which implies a community of 100-150 people. These individuals are (in most places) specific, and separate to the usual teaching contacts. We have identified as many of these individuals as possible and will continue to invite them to subsequent events.
The first event focused specifically on Project Work Pragmatics with the title Why do projects?. We sought to provide an overview of all operational aspects and to facilitate discussion on what is must have, what is nice to have and what is of dubious necessity or use. For example, a key question to pose is Why do students submit a report?. The second event was a workshop focused on Supervisory (mis)behaviour with projects and discussed how problems are handled and solved. The third event is a workshop currently being organised on dissertation writing.
Through the network we also seek the place of the project within computer science and/or IT and or multidisciplinary work (these are not the same and lie at the root of some of the confusion over the purpose of project work).