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Supporting the process of building and sharing knowledge

KEEP Case Studies: Building and Sharing Knowledge

Supporting the Process of Building and Sharing Knowledge

Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Higher Education Program

In an online collaborative workspace for scholars in the CASTL Higher Education Program, the Snapshot tool is used to organize and represent the development of their research projects.

CASTL Higher Education Group Workspace

The 2003 cohort of CASTL scholars, consisting of 26 distinguished faculty members from various higher education institutions, are using an online collaborative workspace where they can document and share their ongoing research into their teaching practice. In order to make the workspace more useful and generative for the scholars, the CASTL team, led by Senior Scholar Richard Gale, created snapshot templates for key stages of the projects. The templates, based on a set of guiding questions, include a proposal snapshot, initial project snapshot, intermediate project snapshot, and final project snapshot. This scaffolding results in a workspace that is not simply a repository of resources, but is a transformative space that helps organize and represent the knowledge that scholars develop over the course of their investigations.

The following examples were created by Curtis Bennett, an associate professor of mathematics at Loyola Maymount University.

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In the proposal snapshot, each scholar is asked a series of guiding questions such as "What is the central question or issue?" and "Why is your question/issue important?"

Proposal snapshot (April 2003)

Later, the scholars are asked to create their initial project snapshot, where they are asked a series of more detailed questions, such as "What is the focus of your investigation and what is your question?" and "What will be your approach, and what will constitute evidence?"

Initial project snapshot (July 2003)

As the project progresses, an intermediate snapshot is produced to capture the new insights and refinements of the research questions. For instance, the scholars are asked, "In what new directions have you taken your investigation; has your question changed as a result?" and "What new insights or observations have resulted from your investigation; what have you learned during the last few months?"

Intermediate project snapshot (January 2004)

By the end, the scholars produce a final snapshot that is not only concise and accessible, but it also provides links to a rich set of materials related to the project.

Final project snapshot (June 2004)

Some scholars, including Curt, have taken this technology beyond the project snapshots, creating public snapshots for external use. Although they incorporate much of the Final Project Snapshot material, these Public Snapshot are designed and disseminated by the scholars themselves, with an eye to broader impact and wider use."

Public snapshot (June 2004)

See more CASTL scholars' snapshots »