Saturday, November 24, 2007

Assignment 11, Completed Research Paper

Hi all,

I think I am finally done with the 5 part research paper. I have uploaded the paper to my website and here is the link to the web page that contains the paper.

ETEC 543 Research Paper

Please take a look at let me know your thoughts. I am not sure about the formatting of the paper (ie. if I was supposed to use indentions for new paragraphs, or titles for the new sections, or even advancing the sections to the next page). Does anyone else know about the formatting issues of the paper? Are we supposed to leave the headings in for the 5 sections? Is the paper supposed to be double spaced?

Good luck to everyone else with completion of the research paper for the class.

James

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Assignment 11, In Progress Research Paper

Well, this week was busy writing all three sections for the 5 part research paper. I was going to cut and copy all of the written work here, but I thought it would be cleaner to upload all three sections to my website and create a webpage. You can open or download the introduction section, the results section, and the discussion section from the webpage. Please visit my webpage at ETEC 543 webpage.

This webpage has a link for the introduction section, the results section and the discussion section.

Next week, my plan is to upload the entire paper to my website. Then you will be able to download the entire research paper containing all 5 parts.

James

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Assignment 10, Method Section

In this section, the methods implemented to explore the topic of new media in online learning environments will be explained in detail. First, the recruitment process will be explored. Second, the development of the online survey instrument will be discussed and the process of how the final research questions were selected will be explained. Finally, the actual implementation of the online survey and some of the issues of using this tool as a method of data collection will be discussed.

SUBJECTS

The recruitment process for the participants in this study was informal and anonymous. I wanted to be sure that a majority of the population were adult learners with higher education backgrounds, so I sent out the hyperlink in an email directed to the faculty of Riverside Community College, Moreno Valley campus as well as classified staff of our campus. The participants were told that the survey should only take about 15 minutes of their time. By sending the email to the faculty of the college, this would ensure that each participant obtained at least a Masters degree or higher. About half of the classified staff at our campus has a minimum of a Bachelors degree, but there are about half of the staff that do not have a degree at all. I would have to state that this half of the staff would not participate in the survey in the first place, so I believe that it would not really affect the results by sending out the invitation to all of the staff members. There was also a few select individuals who I personally invited to participate in the survey by handing them a paper with the URL link printed on the paper.

INSTRUMENT

The development of the final research questions was a very involved process. Each student in ETEC 543 was asked to submit several potential research questions on the topic of new media in online learning, adult learning and issues with online classes in general. These questions were collected and categorized. At first, the potential questions were grouped in a semi-structured way. Then the questions were split into two categories: media choice/adoptions/use and andragogy and online learning. The first category had 12 questions and the second category had 5 questions. By splitting the questions into two categories, this process helped to clarify exactly what the research project is focusing on.

The next step in the refining process was to revise and reduce the number of questions in each of the two categories. In the first category, 9 out of the 12 potential research questions were crossed off and in the second category, 3 out of the 5 questions were crossed off, with the addition of one more question. This reducing and refining process is important to narrow down the focus of the research project. From the 6 questions that were finally left after this process, four questions made the "final cut." These four questions are the final research questions that we hope to be able to answer after completion of our research.

IMPLEMENTATION

The implementation of an online survey was used to collect data from a sample of our population. The sample was given a URL to access the survey and submit their results via the Internet to Dr. Newberry. One of the issues with using this online survey was that everything was kept anonymous; therefore, the researchers did not know who has or who has not completed the survey. I believe the use of the online survey is the best way to collect massive amounts of data that needs to be compiled. Online surveys are easy to administer, cost effective, and sure saves a lot of paper.

James