E-learning research methodological issues

E-learning Research methodological issues

Gráinne ConoleUniversity of Southampton

Email: g.c.conole@soton.ac.uk

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: g.c.conole@soton.ac.uk

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