Research and scholarly opportunities

Terry Anderson, PhDCanada Research Chair in Distance Education

The Context of Education Technology Implementation

• Disruptive (Christensen, 2008) simpler, often not wanted by main stream customers

• Rapid gains in functionality• Cheaper• Adaptive• Moving from peripheral to

mainstream (blended and online for full time students)

Much that is Unknown –Much more that needs to be Known

•

Photo from Hubble Telescope

Research ParadigmsQuantitativeQuantitative ~ ~ discovery of the laws that discovery of the laws that

govern behavior, What Works??govern behavior, What Works??

Qualitative ~Qualitative ~ understandings from understandings from

multiple perspectivesmultiple perspectives

CriticalCritical ~~ E Expose the power relationshipsxpose the power relationships

Design-based ~Design-based ~ interventions, interventions,

interactions and their effects in multiple, interactions and their effects in multiple,

authentic contextsauthentic contexts

Design-based Research’s Pragamatic, American lineage

• “New conceptions…offer precise and definite modes of thinking only when new meanings have become embodied in concrete life experiences and thus sustained by them”

• “Consider the history of any significant invention or discovery and you will find a period when there was enough knowledge to make a new mode of action or observation possible, but no definite information or instruction as to how to make it actual”– John Dewey, Education as Engineering, 1922

4th ParadigmDesign-Based Research

• Related to engineering and architectural research

• Focuses on the design, construction, implementation and adoption of a learning initiative in an authentic context

• Closest educators have to a “home grown” research methodology

Amiel, T., & Reeves, T. C. (2008).

Design-Based Research Studies

– iterative, – process focused, – interventionist, – collaborative, – multileveled, – utility oriented, – theory driven and generative

• (Shavelson et al, 2003)

Integrative Learning Design(Bannan-Ritland, 2003)

DBR is Emergent

• ‘Innovation is not restricted to the prior design of an artifact, but continues as artifacts are implemented and used”

• Implementations are “inevitably unfinished” (Stewart and Williams (2005)

• intertwined goals– designing learning environments– developing theories of learning (DBRC, 2003)

Open Researchers Create:

• A new type of education work maximizing:– Social learning– Media richness– Participatory and connectivist pedagogies– Ubiquity and persistence– Open data collection and research process– Creating connections

Open Researchers Publish in Open Access Journals

• Open Access Journals have increased citation ratings:– Work in progress with Olaf Zawacki-Richter, Ferne

University, Germany– Analysis of Google citations for 12 Distance Education

Journals (using Harzing’s Publish or Perish tool)– 6 open access, (including IRRODL) 6 commercially

published– Early results show roughly equal citations/paper, but

recent gains in citations by open access journals

Open Access Books

Upcoming Emerging Technologies in DE edited by George Veletsiano

"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.”

Chinese Proverb

Terry Anderson terrya@athabascau.ca

http://cde.athabascau.ca/faculty/terrya.php

Blog: terrya.edublogs.org

Your comments and questions most welcomed!

10 Most Common Mistakes in Research Articles

Katrina MeyerUniversity of Memphis

10 Most Common Mistakes• Wrong journal

– Read your journals– Know their preferences on topics, method, style, tone

• Poor comprehension of literature– Incomplete, out-of-date– Lacks analysis

• Research questions not tied to lit review • Research may not be necessary

– Comparison studies– Satisfaction studies

• No or poor link to theory

10 Most Common Mistakes• Wrong research method• Incomplete methods section

– Didn’t follow a research method– Too vague or too ad hoc

• Method lacks credibility– Reliability/validity– Sample/population– Counter evidence

• Conclusions not tied to results– Hypothesizing beyond what is reasonable

• Poor or incomplete writing

Advice• Mechanisms/processes of learning online• Application of pre-Internet theories• Cost-effectiveness of online learning• Intended/unintended consequences• 1/3 Literature, 1/3 Methodology, 1/3 Results/Discussion• Attention to careful design• Focus on measurements of learning• Every word, phrase, sentence ought to add to the article