Collaboration!Wait… Say what?!?

Hello!Apostolos Koutropoulos

“AK”Cohort 7Boston, MA

You can find me at:@koutropoulos

Working Title

Open Course Collaboration: A case

study of emergent collaboration in

Rhizo14 and Rhizo15

This Presentation...

◎ Background◎ “Problem”◎ Methodology◎ Literature Review◎ Points of Interest◎ Roadmap

1.BackgroundWhere did this thing begin?

Place your screenshot here

Pre-HistoryCollaboration in MobiMOOC 2011

Rhizo14The community that piqued (kindled?) my interest in

collaborative research in online communities

Rhizo15Rhizo15, the band comes back...

What Happened in (or because of) the Rhizos?

◎ We learned...◎ We interacted… (student-student, and student-content)

◎ We formed voluntary groups to research… (wait...what? This wasn’t in the syllabus!)

Not unprecedented...

Products of this collaboration...

◎ Research Papers (peer reviewed)◎ Guest Blogs (Profhacker)◎ Conference Presentations◎ Virtually Connecting (Rhizo spin off?)

2.“Problem”More of a phenomenon...really!

Why?The big question

Return (for more)Connect

EndureParticipate

Why?

(why)

(why)

(why)

(why)

Research Questions

IntentionalityWhat motivations are there for creating and joining a group?

LimitsHow long do collaborative relationships last?

● What are some of the limits to

collaboration, are they overcome?

● Do collaborations persist? What

are the reasons for and against?

● Do collaborations have limits? Or

do they continue, in some form,

in perpetuity?

● What were the initial motivations

for creating or joining a group?

● Did members join intentionally,

or did they just fall into the

collaboration?

● What did members hope to gain

from such collaboration, and did

they achieve their goals?

3.MethodologyHow to reach this thing...

MethodologicalOmnivore

Urocyon cinereoargenteus

Overall Methodology

Emergent Case Study Design◎ Qualitative or sequential mixed-methods

Data Collection◎ Questionnaire◎ Interviews◎ Document collection◎ Journaling◎ Focus groups (depending...)

Research Participants

Individuals who:◎ enrolled in Rhizo14 and/or Rhizo15 ◎ collaborated an extra-curricular research

project that was:○ published in an academic journal○ published in an non-peer-review venue○ presented at a conference.

◎ in groups of 2 or more people

Location of potential participants

Analysis

◎ Survey Analysis○ If mixed methods, quantitative analysis

◎ Thematic Analysis of transcripts○ Two rounds of individual interviews, ○ maybe a focus group as the third round

◎ Document analysis○ Participants’ blogs reflecting on collaboration○ Industry publications written by collaborators

Validity

◎ Multiple coders for transcripts◎ Member checking

○ Transcript accuracy○ Interpretation accuracy○ Peer review of final product

◎ Triangulation

Limitations

◎ Small sample size (it’s OK, it’s a case study)

◎ Not generalizable (that’s fine by me, qualitative studies generally are not)

◎ Group does not appear to be ‘the norm’ of participants in MOOCs (learning something from the “deviants”)

4.Literature ReviewBeen there before? Maybe...maybe not!

Challenges: #1 where to begin?

Image credit: http://www.science.tamu.edu/img/articles/3p%20oliver%20with%20Bryan%20Hi%20kids3.jpghttp://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/files/2010/04/group-t2i8yl.jpghttp://www.cyberalert.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Evaluate-Media-monitoring-RFP.jpg

The obvious:Start with similar classroom research

The thought:Skeptical if such prior research is really useful - unecesarry rabbit hole (?)

Challenges #2: Multiple lenses

Motivation

Actor Network Theory

Organizational Theory

Communities

Personal Learning Networks

Leadership

Open ethos

Networked Learning

Need to pare down?

Image credit: http://gearpatrol.com/2016/05/04/a-guide-to-vintage-lenses-for-your-nikon-dslr/

Multiple Lenses (805 Assignment 1 version)

LeardershipMotivation PLNs

Org. TheoryANT

Multiple Lenses (805 Assignment 3 version)

Current thoughts (most likely to change, don’t hold me to them)

102

Sample text

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Sample

text

Sample

text

Sam

ple

text

Literature Review Reset

MOOC (especially the last couple of

years…)

Collaboration (characteristics of

successful collaborative relationships)

Collaboration Instances

(classroom, work, Prof. Dev.)

5.Points of Interestəˈmərjənt dəˈzīn

Relevance of traditional classroom literature?

Pondering how relevant research into traditional classroom-based collaboration is.

How deep to go into it?

Networked Learning & SNA

What’s a product?

Expanding definition = expanding participants?

Methods

Lincoln & Guba (1985, 1994)

◎ Member checking◎ Credibility

Geertz (1973)

◎ Thick Descriptions

Denzin (1978)

◎ Triangulation

6.RoadmapHow long will this take then?

α β γ δSpring2017

Fall2017

Spring 2018

Fall 2018

Go through feedback

Expand Lit Review section

Refine & elaboration on methods

Proposal Work

Defense Data Collection &

Analysis

Writing & Checking

Feedback from Advisor

Feedback from the interwebs

Refine

Defend!

Data Collection

Analysis

Data Collection

Analysis

(rinse,repeat)

Member checking

Re-analysing

Committee Feedback

Public Feedback & comment

Writing

Spring Semester Goals (Feb-July)

Literature Review◎ Read through this pile -->◎ Discover and read related literature

○ Traditional classrooms collab

Methodology

◎ Read through Yin & Stake Books◎ Read through Internet Inquiry◎ Review Creswell (again)

Ethics

◎ Review AOIR ethics recommendations

Nothing is true, everything is permitted

“Be ruthlessly pragmatic (paraphrased)

Marguerite KooleEDDE 806 (01/2016)

Thanks!Any questions?

You can find me at:@koutropoulos