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Challenges to Online Teaching

October 25, 2012 by

More on the research front of online teaching and learning today…

Here are some challenges that I will need to look into as I continue to develop my literature review for online teaching and learning

  • faculty time to develop new online content
  • faculty and student need for technical support
  • perception by many that online content is not rigorous
  • identifying ways to assist faculty in organized online teaching workshops
  • training faculty in pedagogical theory (Lorenzetti, 2009)

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Lorenzetti, J. P. (2009). The virtual faculty lounge: Providing online faculty development for adjunct instructors. Best Practices for Training and Retaining Online Adjunct Faculty, Distance Education Report. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com
Filed Under: Online Learning, Organizing Research, Pedagogy, Research Journey

Online Faculty Training Strategies

October 23, 2012 by

Still looking into the PD aspect of online teaching and learning, I came across a number of interesting teaching strategies:

  • inclusion of adult learning theory in training
  • build upon current expertise of faculty member
  • just-in-time mentoring supports
  • a phased approach, i.e. teacher as learner to teacher as adopter to teacher as co-leader to teacher as re-affirmer to teacher as leader (Palloff & Pratt, 2011)
  • community learning approach, i.e. use of brown bag lunch workshops
  • use of faculty topics of interest

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Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2011). The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for Professional Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

Filed Under: Pedagogy, Questions for Consideration, Research Journey

Questions to Assist in Validity of Data Collection Instrument

October 22, 2012 by

To aid in the securing of validity for quantitative research here are a few questions to ask during the creation of a quantitative study:

  • what prior studies have used this particular instrument?  What were the outcomes?
  • Is the use of my instrument for data collection of similar purposes?
  • Do my interviews verify my data collection instrument? (Creswell, 2012, p. 163)

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Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (4th ed.). Addison Wesley.

 

Filed Under: Organizing Research, Questions for Consideration, Research Journey

Reliability and Validity

October 19, 2012 by

Often times in quantitative research, we can confuse reliability and validity since they can be quite interwoven in their implications toward each other. From Creswell (2012), I have found the following delineations:

Reliability – scores or indicators need to be consistent and found similar when they are testing the same things (p. 159).

Validity – is the evidence that the test is measuring what it is supposed to measure (p. 159).

In the big picture, we need to have consistent scores (i.e. reliability) that assist with evidence that we are measuring what we intend to measure (i.e. validity).

 

Filed Under: Organizing Research, Research Journey

Ways to adhere to reliability (notes from Chapter 5 in Creswell, 2012)

October 18, 2012 by

1. Test-Retest Reliability – this indicates the stability of testing over a time period.

2. Alternate Forms Reliability – use of two-test testing the same variable.

3. Inter-rater Reliability – this is used in observations in behavior. I.e Observer scores are compared to each other for similarities and differences.

4. Testing of Responses for Reliability Suggestions:

  • internally consistent (i.e. the subject’s answer to question #1 is the same answer as found in question #10)
  • Kuder-Richarson Split Half test (KR-20 and KR-21)
  • Spearman-Brown formula
  • Co-efficient alpha testing

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Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (4th ed.). Addison Wesley.
Filed Under: Organizing Research, Research Journey

Looking in PD for Online Instructors

October 15, 2012 by

Sometimes our research takes us down rabbit trails that can be very helpful for our research, providing that time is not lost in the vacuum of discovery. As I continue my research focused on online music education, I came across an avenue that very much intersects with online teaching and learning – professional development for online instructors.

PD for teachers can be a very challenging topic due to the fact that teachers already know a wealth of information on how to teach, combined with the ever-changing landscape of technology. While it can seem overwhelming for an online teacher to embrace some of the new research taking place in how we can better help our online learners, the fact remains that PD is an important component for all of us in the education field.

Palloff & Pratt (2011) have highlighted a number of characteristics that remind us of what skills we as educators need in regards to online teaching readiness: visibility, compassion, communication, commitment and organization (p. 19). While these inherent skills are critical for connecting with our online students, there will always be ways to improve our online teaching through training: personal establishment of online presence; online teaching pedagogy; how best to disseminate subject-specific content and how and what technology (i.e. LMS, apps, etc.) to use in online teaching (p. 21).

 

While Zhu (2008) cites that many faculty attending technology training for teaching are not known for trying new things or change, we can all be part of the solution by building communities in our faculties that support collaborative learning. My goal for this week is to make one concerted gain in being more collaborative… how about you? 🙂

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Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2011). The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for Professional Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Zhu, E. (2008). Breaking dow barriers to the use of technology for teaching in higher education. In D. R. Robertson & L. B. Nilson (Eds.), To Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instruction, and Organizational Development, 26, 305-318. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Filed Under: Online Learning, Pedagogy, Questions for Consideration, Research Journey

Improving online courses

October 14, 2012 by

With my research going in the direction of searching for a framework for developing online music education courses, I have come across a number of educational models in use and how, as teachers, we can improve our current teaching. That said, Palloff & Pratt (2003, 2007) have developed a number of online teaching strategies and methods for improving online courses. In particular, the use of inclusion of self-assessment and application of skills/studies is a need for encouraging students in online courses.

Another helpful resource is the Quality Matters rubric. This rubric is helpful for online teachers to evaluate their courses in adherence to design of the actual course. The Illinois Online Network (QOCI) also has some helpful evaluation tools for course evaluation, plus its also attends to elements of collaboration and interaction.

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Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student: A profile and guide to working with online learners. Jossey-Bass.
Filed Under: Online Learning, Pedagogy, Research Journey

Creditability and Reliability

October 6, 2012 by

As outlined by various researchers (Phelps et al 2005; Gall et al 2007; Phillips 2007), providing creditability and reliability of research methods will promote strength of data findings as well as strengthen the application of findings to other music research.

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Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P. & Borg, W. R. (2006). Educational research: an introduction (8th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Phelps, Roger, Sadoff, Ronald H., Warburton, Edward C. and Ferrara, Lawrence. (2005). A Guide to Research in Music Education. 5th ed. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Phillips, K. H. (2008). Exploring research in music education and music therapy. New York: Oxford University Press.

Filed Under: Organizing Research, Research Journey

Starting to gather themes for literature review

October 3, 2012 by

It’s amazing what we find when we start looking into research. Yesterday I was looking at some research studies in more than “scanning” detail and I came across some interesting ideas to pursue. To that extent, here is a sample of how my literature review research could unfold:

Literature Review

Using a keyword database search on the terms, “online music education,” “music education philosophy,” “online teaching practices,” database sources (i.e. RILM, IIMP, JSTOR, and ERIC) will provide initial resources for primary and secondary resources. Searching these resources for common terms will aid in additional database searches for deeper depth and breadth of information to be contained within the Literature Review.

The Literature Review would be written in a thematic approach that assists in providing documentation that warrants the study of online music education while providing insight into past methodologies and significance for continued study. Possible themes that may arise include: music as social significance; qualitative methodologies; learning impact of online education; motivation and self-efficacy.

Sources included in this section would display both primary sources (i.e. journal/blogs, interviews, video footage, autobiographies, past and current research studies etc.) and secondary sources (i.e. newspaper articles, journals, biographies, research reviews etc.) that were likely obtained from initial database and bibliographic research.

Filed Under: Online Learning, Organizing Research, Research Journey

More readings on case study research

September 27, 2012 by

Additional information on case study research can be gleaned from the following texts:

—Stake, R. E. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. SAGE.
—Ragin, C. C., & Becker, H. S. (Eds.). (1992). What Is a Case?: Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge University Press.
Filed Under: Educational Technology, Organizing Research, Research Journey
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