Download - E-learning research methodological issues
E-learning Research methodological issues
Gráinne ConoleUniversity of Southampton
Email: [email protected]
ELRC workshop, Manchester, 3rd May 2005
Impact of e-learning
Organisational level
Tutor skills & changing roles
Virtual learning environments
Interactive &engaging materials
Unintendedconsequences
ICT as mission critical
Increasing impact of ICT
National initiatives ICT catalysts - VLEsFunding drivers
Drivers
Organisational structures
Roles, skills and practice
Teaching, learning and assessment
Impact
The holy grail of e-learning
To what extent is this true?What is the link between the pedagogy and the technology?
New forms of learning
Pedagogical re-engineering
A global connected society
Learning anywhere anytime
Rich multimedia representation
Smart, adaptable, personalised
Patch use of communication toolsStilted collaborations
VLEs for admin and as content
repositories
Information overloadNot pedagogically
informed
-ve
Negative aspects
Critical mass of mediating
tools and resources
Shift from individual to socially situated
Learning in context or through problem solving
New innovative uses of e-learning
+ve
Positive aspects
Pros and cons
Access to wealth of resources Information overload, quality issues
New forms of dialogue Literacy skills issues
New forms of community Learner identity and confusion
Speed of access, immediacy Lack of permanency, surface
Virtual representations Lack of reality, real is fake
Research
Research philosophy & impact
consolidating
Professional practice
informing
Practice
improvingResources
developingTheory
enhancingLearning
shaping
Policyguiding
Strategy
building
Networks
Feeder disciplinesWealth of methodsNo shared language
Tension between quantitative & qualitative
Lack of rigour, anecdotal & case based
Methodological issues
Methodological innovations
Theoretical frameworks
Bibliographic toolsEndnote
New discoursesChat, Wikis, access grid
Data collectionOnline, multiple sites
Data analysisNew powerful tools
Impact on research
PublishingJIME, e-Prints
CommunicationEmail, discussion forums, Chat, video conferencing
InteractivityWikis, Web logs
CollaborationGrid-technologies,
sharing tools
Data analysisSPSS, NVIVO
Research opportunities
Data miningPortals, databases
Discussion forums
Early researchInitially focused on analysis of contentAnalysis mainly via pre-defined codes
ProblemDidn’t capture the complexity of the event
Lack of contextualisationCodings too rigid
Current focusShift from analysis of content to
multimodal approachRicher interpretation
Use of grounded theory, critical recall events etc.
Web logs and tracking
Early researchEasy to collect
Assumed to give simple access to what users are doing
ProblemDidn’t capture the complexity of the event
Lack of contextualisationEasy to misinterpret
Current focusShift from analysis of content to
multimodal approachRicher interpretation
Use of grounded theory, critical recall events etc.
Communities of Practice Activity theory
DialogueSystems thinking,
modelling, metaphor
Theoretical frameworks
Distributed cognition
Learning
Community
Practice Identity
Meaning
Learning asexperiences
Learning as doing
Learning as becoming
Learning as belonging
Wenger’s Community of Practice
Social theory of learning
Learning as social participation
Legitimate participation
Rarification
Mediating artefactsLiterature
SubjectMe
ObjectCentral issues
of activity theory
OutcomeText
Focus on individuals negates social aspects
Idea of ‘activity’ as an object-orientated and culture formation that has its own structure
Mediation by tools and signs
Activity theory
Mediating artefactsRelevant literature
Conference material
SubjectGroup of
academics
ObjectCentral issues of
activity theory
RulesConventions of
conference
CommunityAcademics interested
in activity theory
Division of labourCompartments based on
disciplines etc
OutcomeNew intellectual
tools and patterns of collaboration
Other theoretical perspectives
Distributed cognition and Person-Plus
(Salomon, Pea, Perkins)Intelligence distributed between
mind and surroundings‘Effects with’ and ‘effects of’ technology
Dialogue
(Vygotsky, Mercer, Laurillard)Language as a tool,
Joint construction of knowledge“Inter-thinking”, Conversational framework
Systems
thinking,
metaphor
s
modelling
(Senge, Beer, Morgan)Capturing organisational
and cultural aspectsOffer different perspectives
Methodology and method
• Method– techniques through which data are collected
and analysed (interviews, questionnaires, observation etc.)
• Methodology– determines whether the implementation of
particular methods is successful or credible– the ‘systems of methods and principles used in
a particular discipline’– Codifies particular beliefs and values about the
world and how it works
Researching organisational change
• Review a selection of research positions
• Each with particular assumptions about the organisation
• Explore implications for methodology and different approaches adopted
A positivist approach
• Assumes that there is an accessible real world that we have access to, and that science
• Belief that the inductive-deductive process of inference from and to empirical data is the best way to study the world in order to understand how it works
• Might propose that organisations exist and therefore can be studied in their own right
• Unit of analysis might thus be a system (including material components such as buildings, policies and staff) as bounded by its status as an identifiable legal entity
• Generates hypotheses which can be applied to other organisations
An open systems approach
• Involves creating models that allow us to understand how the world works
• Typically such models involve analogy to living organisms, stressing (for example) response to changing environmental conditions
• Position might still be that organisations exist, but instead of treating them as entities (‘black boxes’) they are developed as systems within which people are located
• Researchers would look for evidence of how the organisation (system) responds to changes (feedback) in order to cope or adapt
• Generates a model which has better explanatory potential
A phenomenological approach
• Does not assume that things exist as such• Concerned not with the qualities of the
organisation per se, but on people’s experience of the organisation
• Study the relationship that people have with the use of e-learning within an organisation
• Seeking a greater understanding of what it means to experience e-learning within the organisation
A social constructionist approach• Concerned with meaning rather than ‘things’• Look at how people define and talk about e-
learning• Concerned with meaning, but assuming that
researchers have no privileged access to ‘in the head’ understanding
• Look at the things people say and do about e-learning
• Focus upon ‘discursive practices’ – conversations, policy documents and other ‘texts’ in which the meaning of ‘e-learning in the organisation’ is constructed and contested
A socially situated approach
• Seek to identify the practices that people engage with and the reifications of that practice that they produce (such as documentation, descriptive terms, artefacts, etc.)
• Seek to identify and describe such practices, reifications and groups or analyse the implications of ‘boundary crossing’
• Organisations exist as aligned constellations of collective practice
• Identifying and describing forms of practice, studying how such groups form
Conclusion
• Considered the link between theory and method in e-learning research
• Importance of establishing the credibility of research findings, in relation to the assumptions that the researcher has made
• Need to identify the various positions that researchers hold
• Need to develop a philosophy of e-learning
E-learning Research methodological issues
Gráinne ConoleUniversity of Southampton
Email: [email protected]
ELRC workshop, Manchester, 3rd May 2005
ReferencesOliver and Conole (2005), ‘Methodology and e-learning’ ELRC research paper seriesConole (2002), ‘The evolving landscape of learning technology research’, ALT-J, 10(3), 4-18Conole, Dyke, Oliver, and Seale, (2004), ‘Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design’, Computers and Education, June 2004Conole and Dyke, (2004), ‘What are the affordances of Information and Communication Technologies?’, ALT-J, 12.2Conole (2004), ‘Report on the effectiveness of tools for e-learning’, report for the JISC commissioned ‘Research Study on the Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Practitioners in Designing and Delivering E-Learning ActivitiesConole and Warburton (2005), ‘ A review of computer-assisted assessment’, ALT-J, 13(2), 19-33
