What IT tools do you use in your project work?
What tools could you use?

This web-page is for inspiration and knowledge sharing. Here you can find  suggestions for tools that can be useful in project work, and you can share your experiences to benefit others. Please write  to ait-info@ruc.k with your suggestions for software  that you can recommend to others, and please also let us know how you have used it.

Project work consist of a sequence of phases and sub-phases. Some IT tools can be used during the entire project process while others are especially useful in relation to the formation of groups, project design, the project process, or evaluation and examination.

General IT tools

Archiving and file sharing

In the autumn of 2013, Mahara replaced BSCW as the official system for project work at RU. In Mahara you can store all kinds of files, create a forum for discussion, and create a website for your project work. It may not be the world´s most advanced project management tool, but  you are guaranteed a regular backup of your data, and it is safe to store sensitive data in Mahara. You may not legally do so in any application using the "cloud" for storage. For non-sensitive data, i.e. documents not containing any information about individuals, it is of course OK to user Dropbox or similar software.

For sharing video you can use the well-known YouTube and Vimeo. But you  also have access to the excellent Danish video archive, Edumedia, which is run by the State Library.

If your project includes participants from outside RU, you may consider using Podio as a project tool. Podio is free for small groups and contains various modules for different purposes. These modules can be added to your project room, but and you can also easily create new ones by yourself.

Collaborative writing

Most people have an office package installed on their computer and are able to send/share files in variousways. Still, you may consider using Google Drive if several people are working together at the same time. Drive includes text processing, spreadsheets, presentation graphics and a simple programme for producing questionnaires. Also it integrates with a range of other Google products.

Evernote is a great programme for taking notes. It handles a range of media and automatically synchronises document collections across users and platforms (pc, smartphone tablet).

Communication and planning

With access to Outlook and Lync, all students can access a calendar, IP telephony, and video conferencing. As an alternative video conferencing tool you have access to Adobe Connect with your RU username. Here you can find video conference and screen sharing. Also Google+ offers video conferencing in the Hangouts. Skype is well-known for its free IP telephony (with video). As regards calendars, it is a good idea not to use too many at a time. A great supplement to the calendar is Doodle which allows numerous users to schedule a time to meet.

Formation of groups and project design

Contact / portfolio

When the group formation process is taking place, it can  be useful to get an overview of who "the others" are.

Many use Facebook and create groups that also support communication later on in the project process. Google+ and its "circles" is a good alternative. Also Mahara is an option. It allows students to create profiles that automatically draw on data from RU's study-administrative databases.

Mind mapping

Several idea structuring programmes are available, among the we ma mention d CompendiumNG, bubbl.us/ and freemind.
For structuring a project, you may consider the Danish software Scribo.

Project supervision and project forum

Please see the website of the Study and Career Guidance for information on project work and use the project forum to find inspiration and locate a company with which you may establish a working relation.

Project Process

Reference tools and library databases

Use the university library to search for literature. All things being equal, the Kviksøg and Summon services are better than using Google and Bibliotek.dk. To do a serious literature search, you should use one of the special databases, which you find under "external resources". A great external resource is worldcat.org which is quite powerful, as the name suggests.

References belong in a reference handling system that guaranttes that you get all the relevant details and presents the references in a consistent and correct way. Two popular, free and internet based systems are Mendeley that allows you to do group work and simple analyses, and Zotero that allows you to share resources in groups. Both in Mendeley and Zotero it is possible to automatically import files from your Dropbox or Google Drive.

Questionnaires

Google Drive (drive.google.com) contains a Forms-programme that makes it easy to create a simple questionnaire and later handle it in a spreadsheet. A bit more advanced is SurveyMonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/) that is available in a scaled down free version. If you need aprofessional system, you want to use SurveyXact (please see the user guide from Campus IT).

Evaluation and examination

Plagiarism

At RU, plagiarism control has been introduced along with the digital submissions. Even though you are aware of the rules for academic writing, it maybe useful to check if all quotations are correct and phrases are not too similar to what other people has written. Free online programmes to check for plagiarism are far from perfect, but they can be better than no control at all. Some of them are Paper Rater (containing English grammar control), Plagiarism Checker and Plagiarisma.net.

Presentation tools

For graphic presentation, Prezi with offers a non-linear way of organizing your material can be an alternative to PowerPoint or Keynote. If you want to share presentations with others, Slideshare can be used for this purpose.
A great way to rehearse a presentation is to record it as a screencast with voice-over.

Two great free products are Jing which requires a client to be installed on your computer and Screenr which is cloud-based (and integrates with Twitter). In the free versions, there is a limit to the length of your recordings. A screencast can also be used as an appendix to the report.