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A recent work I read raised the issue of “pedagogical content knowledge.” The idea behind this concept is the profound level of understanding of a domain field necessary for teaching it in a sophisticated and effective way. In other words, this connects both the subject knowledge and pedagogy [per Lee S. Shulman’s idea (1986)]. This also brings in understandings of learners and how they progress in their learning in the field.
The work I saw proposed some initial elements ...
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As part of the coding process, the snippets of information are coded into particular “nodes.” A node may be understood as a label for related information. They may be understood as labels for classifications and divisions of various “buckets” for various types of information. What researchers are actually doing is that they are extracting data snippets and putting them into some sort of related collection for later use and reference.
The uses of a node structure (and nodes may be ...
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In the hierarchy of information, secondary sources are necessary but not respected in the way primary sources are. A secondary source refers to materials that have already been published. Secondary sources are in the extant literature. They are publicly accessible. They have been peer reviewed and revised. They are known by others.
Even if secondary sources are not as respected as primary ones, they are important in a number of ways. They are part of the establishment of the context ...
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The golden rule in authorship and editorship is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is so even when there are tough messages to convey. This has been on my mind recently with some recent experiences working with some new editors working on their first book project.
When the peer reviews were returned to the editors, they passed them through without apparently perusing the contents, or they may have agreed with the contents. The ...
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All instructional design projects, without except, are those with a clear client and learner audience already. Nothing is launched if there is not a clear purpose for the investment of work. In academia, there is no creating an instructional design project and then shopping it around for possible clients.
By contrast, in academic publishing, in general, researchers will mentally select a target publication and readership, but they work with no guarantees. If they labor over a work, even for years ...
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“In the field of computer science, many of us have been surprised by the lasting result of the Rainfall problem, originally constructed and studied by Elliot Soloway. This work demonstrated the difficulty that beginning computing students have in composing a program that involves a loop, summation variable, and sentinel exit value. We’re surprised when we learn of this result, because the problem seems so easy. We’ve completely forgotten our own earlier novice minds, and we can’t imagine ...
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Of late, I’ve been thinking even more about MOOCs, partly because I am using this topic as a basis for a simple modified Delphi research study. In the literature review phase, I am examining a range of issues. One involves funding sustainability. After all, if there are high-end courses created (with digital contents that will need updating, with faculty who need to be paid, with teaching assistants and tutors that need to be paid, with high-end tech systems that ...
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Hello, all: You are cordially invited to participate in a modified e-Delphi study re: MOOCs and feasibility.
This online survey is being conducted to sample some current insights, attitudes, and concerns about massive open online courses (MOOCs) to get a sense of the feasibility and near-term adoption of the offering of MOOCs by various universities and colleges. This will be conducted as a one-time modified electronic Delphi study to capture the insights of practicing faculty and administrators in higher education ...
Continue reading Invitation to Participate in a Modified E-Delphi Study re: MOOCs
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In instructional design work, one sees various software rollouts with regularity. Software is being upgraded all the time. A variety of software tools is used on campus. For some years, I was in an office that had its own development teams of coders who would evolve various products for faculty use. This group was supported by others who collected user inputs from various help ticketing systems and high-end users, and mid-level administrators who would help prioritize the features, and there ...
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A recent project has involved my going back to my graduate school days to review research methods, mostly qualitative and mixed methods. The latter, of course, means that I will have to go back and review statistical methods again. All said, there is a value in reviewing the basics of how to collect information as cleanly and relevantly and comprehensively as possible. There is a value in reviewing the questions of how people can “know” something at least for a ...
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For many who work in academia, there are a number of unsolicited emails that arrive. One subset of these electronic messages is from new online publishers that are soliciting journal writings. They understand that academics need to publish in order to show their academic credibility and standing. There will likely always be some who will respond to a mass call.
A majority of these sites have a clear fly-by-night feel. The site designs look like something from the late 1990s ...
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Recently, our campus purchased a site license for a qualitative and mixed methods research tool for data analysis. This tool enables intuitive management of a range of digital data, and it is expected to involve a fair amount of faculty and graduate student usage.
In order to maximize the affordances of the tool and to provide support to users on campus, I will be learning this tool in depth. Further, I have proposed the tool as a presentation topic for ...
Continue reading Starting from Scratch for a Qualitative Research Tool
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A quarter-long term is a very brief one: 10 weeks of fairly intense reading, analysis, and writing, in many of the courses that I teach. These courses have to be designed in a way to meet transfer requirements for thousands of other institutions of higher education. Even more important, they have to achieve certain learning aims for all learners.
Many students have been vetted before they enter the college learning system and start college-level courses. (For those entering at a ...
Continue reading Ensuring Student Reading of Commentary on Work
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Those engaged in qualitative and mixed methods research at K-State may want to use a new software tool.
NVivo site license for K-State personnel and graduate students
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Several recent projects have involved qualitative research, and as I’ve looked at various approaches, the practice of research journaling has arisen multiple times. So much of research is about systematizing hypothesizing, observations, questioning, recording, and presenting ideas. It would seem apt to spend a blog entry looking at some approaches to research journaling.
One mundane but important factor seems to involve the need for regular journaling. The point is to keep some research issues top-of-mind ...
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Our campus has been working to integrate a ticketing and incidence-tracking system to support the work of the IT Help Desk. This enables close-in tracking of all services rendered, the amounts of time it took to solve certain issues, and administrative oversight on the types of services needed. This also holds service personnel accountable for the work they’re doing. This also helps notify those at second-tier and third-tier support of more complex issues that require trouble-shooting.
Part of this ...
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Most instructional designers do not take well to writing software documentation. Usually, their work doesn’t demand it. There are a lot of rules to follow for applying tech writing to software usage processes. There is a high amount of precision demanded for screenshots and for the usage of terminology. However, every so often, describing some of the functionalities of a software may enhance the research work of faculty and therefore serves the needs of faculty.
For me, I had ...
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The current fad is still “MOOCs,” massive open online courses. A recent provost’s lecture featured a speaker who discussed some MOOC endeavors at his university. Some webinars have focused on the MOOC phenomena. A forthcoming issue in an international journal is focused around MOOCs. That said, there are some who say that the “MOOC hype cycle,” two years in, is heading to the “trough of disillusionment.” Maybe so. Maybe so.
More compelling, there are still the demographics: huge human ...
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On-campus discussions about various types of qualitative research have made it clear to me that I’ve been leaving some information channels untapped for various types of qualitative research. Namely, in this digital age, there is plenty of information which is not just textual. There are audio and video presentations, narrated slideshows, photos, maps, graphs, and data sets. There are websites created with a range of multimedia.
A recent research project did involve usage of a variety of online videos ...
Continue reading Digital Data Fusion for “Literature Review” Research
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For so many of people’s colleagues today, their collaborations are achieved online. There are interactions through collaborative work sites, Web (or video) conferencing, emails, SMS, and other basic communications tools. There are pure exchanges of information. Then, there’s the behaviors and follow-through. In a sense, this approach is more direct and cut-and-dried than in face-to-face engagements. One is left with just the scoreboard of follow-through vs. non-follow-through. The numbers can be pretty rough to see for all the ...