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Building Better Project Briefs
Grant program: Multilingual Classroom
Grant recipient: Andrew Hawryshkewich, School of Interactive Arts & Technology
Project team: Betty Ackah, research assistant
Timeframe: September 2019 to December 2020
Funding: $4380
Course addressed: IAT 235 鈥� Information Design
Final report: View Andrew Hawryshkewich's final report - includes full findings as an appendix (PDF)
Description: The project brief in my course tends to be very text-heavy for students 鈥� see for an example. While there are other parts of the course that help support student鈥檚 understanding of what projects will expect of them 鈥� in-lecture and lab oral introductions, exercises to help guide project development 鈥� the project brief provides the most relevant details of expectations and requirements. I believe this can be an impediment to student鈥檚 understanding, particularly if reading English and terminology specific to our discipline can be a challenge.
Given different types of English comprehension challenges such as oral, written, academic, and cultural, I believe that there is an opportunity to help all students鈥� comprehension of the project by exploring other avenues of presenting the brief itself. As the course itself is on Information Design, I believe it is an ideal opportunity to explore combining text and other media (images, linking, audio, video, etc), to try and support students鈥� comprehension of the project and its expectations.
Questions addressed:
- Does the work students turn in suggest they have understood the project brief?
- Do students feel they understand the project brief?
- What do students feel are the strengths and weaknesses of the project brief?
- What suggestions do students have for improving the project brief?
- Are there differences in students鈥� understanding of, opinions about or suggestions for the project brief(s) based on their linguistic background?
- What do faculty think are the strengths and weaknesses of the project brief guidelines?
- What suggestions do faculty have for improving the project brief guidelines?
Knowledge sharing: I intend to present my findings to the faculty at one of our school鈥檚 鈥渢eaching corners鈥� 鈥� a time during school meetings in which we share our work/research around teaching.
Keywords: Multilingual learners, project outlines, guidelines for writing