After the preparation stage, Trial2 enters the execution stage, which in turn consists of four phases, viz. launching, first, second, and third.

Launching Phase

(Oct – early Nov 2007)

Trial2 is launched by introducing the iCamp Trial2 Weblog to the students, who are required to accomplish several tasks prior to the actual project work:

(a) Initiating personal tool landscape. Students are recommended to deploy a selection of open-source applications that support learning activities of Trial2. They are Wordpress (weblog), wiki, videowiki, Scuttle (social bookmarking), Feed-on-feed (aggregating feeds), x-Lite (synchronous communication), iLogue (developing learning contract), myIdentity (email forwarding), Doodle (meeting planning), Flickr (sharing photos), etc. Students are required to create an account or an instance of the applications of interest, and to manage and configure them to meet specific needs (Figure 1 and Figure 2);

(b) Making self-introduction. Students are required to create personal weblog and to attend a videoconference where they briefly introduce themselves;

(c) Registering for a project of interest. Trial2 is based on cross-cultural online group project work, which is supported by the Project Wiki. On the front page of the Project Wiki, there are links to a set of wiki pages with each of which containing the name of the project facilitator and a brief description of the project (i.e. project seed). Upon creating a user account for the Project Wiki, students can register for their preferred projects by editing the respective wiki pages where they put their names, email addresses and links to personal weblogs.

Facilitators are required to accomplish tasks (a) and (b) as well.

First Phase: Project Group Formation and Mashed Feeds

(early Nov – end Nov 2007)

Student participants are basically free to choose whichever project theme they find relevant, but no more than two students coming from the same country is allowed to select the same project. The minimum requirement for a project group is two students from different countries registering for the same project.

With the contact information accessible on the project seed page, the student participants, who then form a project group, can view each other’s personal blog. Preliminary discussions can take place via, e.g., email and x-Lite to comment on contents of the weblogs and to explore the project theme. The project facilitator is involved in these activities as well.

To ease information search and data analysis, the so-called cross-application feeding mechanism is introduced. Student participants are instructed to subscribe to their group members’ feeds, to the feeds from the iCamp Trial2 Weblog as well as from their project facilitator. Students should also tag their blog-posts with corresponding unique identifiers indicating the group belongingness and personal contract ownership.

In summary, two milestones to be achieved in the First Phase of Trial2 are: (i) Formation of student groups on the basis of selected projects from a given pool, and (ii) Assembling personal and group landscapes being populated by tools, people, project tasks, and learning strategies. Towards the end of the First Phase the facilitators and students are asked to evaluate these landscapes from the affordance perspective by filling in the Periodic Perception Survey#1.

Second Phase: Project Specifications and Learning Contracts

(3^rd Dec – 22^nd Dec 2007)

This Phase starts with discussions about the project work. Each student group need to develop activity strategies for realizing their project. With the help of the project facilitator, students must decide clearly the content and context of their project, identify goals and objectives to be achieved, specify tasks and who is responsible for which tasks, and select criteria against which they are evaluated. These discussions can take place asynchronously in a distributed group weblog area as well as in wiki, and additionally with the use of the x-Lite synchronous communication tool. When agreements on project specifications are reached, the students need to develop their personal learning contracts (PLC). PLC can be created as posts in student personal weblogs. Alternatively, iLogue, an application specifically developed for realizing learning contract and supporting versioning, can be used.

The Second Phase of Trial2 ends with time-out when the first version of the learning contract has been revised, and the second version of the contract is developed. Presumably, when the project progresses the students have a better understanding about the learning activities, resources, personal goals and evaluation criteria. The contracts are again reviewed by one of the group members and the project facilitator. The facilitator gives feedback to each group, how they have been working, which problems are identified, and what should be improved on the project wiki page. By the end of the Second Phase, the students and the facilitators are asked to fill in the Periodic Perception Survey#2.

Third Phase: Project Attainment and Evaluation

The third phase focuses on achieving project goals and evaluating project outcomes. Students continue to communicate and interact with different tools, including distributed weblogs, x-Lite, Doodle, Scuttle, etc., for teamwork coordination, activities regulation and resolution of social issues. To realize the actual project work, the group wiki and other appropriate tools will be deployed. At the end of the project, the students should reflect on their personal learning contracts and evaluate themselves to what extent and how their learning goals are achieved.