Effective Projectwork in Computer Science: EPCoS

EPCoS was a £250,000 project funded in Phase One (1996) of the HEFCE Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning. This site is primarily historical and only sporadically updated.

• A powerpoint presentation giving an overview of what we did.

EPCoS-generated Materials

• The original bid
• Several papers we published about the project.
• Materials which comprise the second half of the book we wrote as our final product: Computer Science Project Work: Principles and Pragmatics, published by Springer-Verlag in 2001.

  	A short essay which introduces the second half of the book and describes how (and why) we developed "bundles"
  	The collection of bundles we devised. (You can also download a "field edition" of the second half of the book in one pdf file).
  	If you want to contribute your own bundles to this collection, please let me know.

• The first half of the book is a compilation of examples of projectwork (and projectwork practices) we discovered over the life of project EPCoS. Here is the table of contents.

Afterlife of EPCoS

• The bundle form was briefly used in the 2002 ITiCSE Tips and Techniques session (see: A diagnostic technique for addressing group performanace in capstone projects by Tony Clear)
• The NSF-funded TRAILS project (Grant No. 0205625) is considering using the bundle form for part of their work.
• The HEFCE-funded CETL Active Learning in Computing (ALiC) (£500,000 per year 2005-2010) are adopting the process and form of bundles for some of their work:

  "The research method to be adopted comes from the FDTL-funded EPCOS project where each site annually donates at least one area of expertise that is then adopted by others. These areas of expertise are then translated directly into activities. By the porting of excellent practice between partners it is possible to increase the number and range of students exposed to a particular method thus making it possible to determine 'what works for whom'.

  This porting process will make use of a further item of best practice adopted from EPCOS: that of 'bundles'. 'Bundles' form a concise specification of an approach for transfer. Further, they identify watch-points as well as sources of support material or tools. The transfer model seeks to disseminate techniques beyond computing in Phase 2 - this will take place in a controlled manner. A staged refinement model of transfer will be adopted, firstly within the consortium, then (where applicable) outside the computing domain but within our partner institutions before general release. Each stage of the transfer model will utilise bundles. For further details please see dissemination."

• The ALiC bundles were eventually published by the Sharing Practice project and are available as pdf here.
  (Or if you would prefer to have a (rather nice) hard copy booklet, mail me).

Last updated: 22nd March 2013