A Networked Approach to Online Learning in a Public Relations Design Course

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A Networked Approach to Online Learning in a Public Relations Design Course

by

William A. Croom

M.A., Pepperdine University, 2015

Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Arts

Learning Technologies

Pepperdine University

Summer 2015

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William A. Croom. Pepperdine University. MALT Cadre 17. July 2015.

Abstract

In a 2008 report, The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative

urged educational institutions to recognize the changing landscape and provide formal

instruction in information, visual, and technological literacy as well as in how to create

meaningful content with todays tools. This study was aimed at implementing an online design-

focused public relations course at the University of Oklahoma. The study follows the students

work as they complete course assignments and weekly reflections on self-owned and maintained

web domains; giving students agency and control of their learning environment. The work was

subsequently syndicated to a centralized course site using the blogs RSS feeds in efforts to share

their work amongst their peers. Students blog posts were qualitatively analyzed using

HyperRESEARCH to observe the frequency of mentions that correlate to the Connected

Learning framework principles as characterized by Mimi Ito (2013) over five cycles of action

research. The blog posts were also analyzed with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, a

computerized text analysis program that categorizes and quantifies language use. The analysis

revealed that a higher percentage of social words led to decreased expressions of anxiety (r= .63).

Students expressed that this course was more peer-supported, interest-powered, academically

oriented, production-centered, openly networked, and had a greater shared purpose than previous

courses.

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Dedication

To the beautiful women in my life: Katie, Faye, and Lucy.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to extend the utmost thanks to the faculty overseeing the Masters of Arts in

Learning Technologies program at Pepperdine University who allowed me to be a part of one of

the gold standards in online programs.

Thank you to Dr. Paul Sparks who has shown me through his actions how to truly care

for my students and their learning. Thank you to Dr. Bill Moseley for showing me that learning

can be fun and that the home can be a great classroom. Thank you to Dr. Valerie Schmitz for

your support and encouragement. This paper is littered with your thoughts and recommendations.

Thank you to my Pepperdine cadre mates. You have given me friendships and memories

that will last a lifetime. Your kindness and humor made this experience incredibly enjoyable and

I am proud to be forever bonded to you as a fellow member of MALT Cadre 17.

Thank you to Mom and Dad, who have always told me to follow my passions.

Last, thank you to my family. To my beautiful wife, Katie, whose support during this

journey was unmatched. To my daughters, Faye and LucyDaddy does all of this in efforts to

create a better world for you to learn and play.

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Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 2

Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 9

Research Question ........................................................................................................ 10

Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 11

Design Methods ............................................................................................................ 12

Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 14

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 14

Defining Connected Learning ....................................................................................... 14

Peer-supported. ......................................................................................................... 15

Interest-Powered. ...................................................................................................... 15

Academically Oriented ............................................................................................. 15

Shared Purpose. ......................................................................................................... 15

Production-Centered. ................................................................................................ 16

Openly Networked. ................................................................................................... 16

Integrating New Media in Public Relations and Communication Courses .................. 18

Chapter 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... 20

Understanding Action Research ................................................................................... 20

My Philosophical Stance on Education ........................................................................ 21

Advantages of Action Research .................................................................................... 22

Designing the PR Publications Course Site .................................................................. 23

A Systematic Approach to Examining Connected Learning in Cycles ........................ 25

Data Collection Methods .............................................................................................. 26

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Surveys .......................................................................................................................... 26

Reflection Blog Posts .................................................................................................... 26

Study and Methodology Limitations ............................................................................ 28

Chapter 4: Analysis of data and results ............................................................................. 29

Cycle 1: Peer-Supported ............................................................................................... 29

Background Information. .......................................................................................... 29

Cycle Research Question. ......................................................................................... 29

Pre-Course Survey. ................................................................................................... 29

Implemented Actions. ............................................................................................... 30

Reflection. ................................................................................................................. 36

Cycle 2: Production-Centered ....................................................................................... 37


Cycle Research Questions. ........................................................................................ 37

Actions Implemented ................................................................................................ 37

Reflection. ................................................................................................................. 41

Cycle 3: Openly Networked .......................................................................................... 42



Actions Implemented. ............................................................................................... 43

Reflection. ................................................................................................................. 45

Cycle 4: Interest-Powered ............................................................................................. 46



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Reflection. ................................................................................................................. 49

Cycle 5: Shared Purpose ............................................................................................... 50




Reflection. ................................................................................................................. 55

Chapter 6: Conclusion. ...................................................................................................... 56

References ......................................................................................................................... 61

Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 61

Figure 1: Connected Learning: An integration of three learning and three design principles. ..... 15

Figure 2: Action research spiral of change ................................................................................... 20

Figure 3: PRPubs.us: The PR Publications Course Site Homepage ............................................. 23

Figure 4: A Lesson View on the PR Pubs Course Site ................................................................. 24

Figure 5: Aggregated Student Posts on PRPubs.us ...................................................................... 25

Figure 6: Cycle 1 - Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas (n=13) ................ 33

Figure 7: Cycle 1 - Growth in Connected Learning Principle Mentions ...................................... 34

Figure 8: Cycle 1 - How Students Refer to Peer-Support in Blog Posts ...................................... 34

Figure 9: Cycle 1 - Percentage of Social Words in Blog Posts .................................................... 35

Figure 10: Cycle 1 - Positive and Negative Emotion in Blog Posts ............................................. 35

Figure 11: Creating a Triggering Event: Redesigningor hacking?the course website .......... 38

Figure 12: Cycle 2 - Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas (n=13) .............. 39

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Figure 13: Cycle 2 - How Students Refer to Production-Centered in Blog Posts (n=13) ............ 39

Figure 14: Cycle 2 - Percentage of Positive and Negative Words in Blog Posts ......................... 40

Figure 15: Cycle 2 - Percentage of Social Words in Blog Posts .................................................. 41

Figure 16: Cycle 3 - Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas (n=12 students) 43

Figure 17: Cycle 3 - How Students Refer to Openly Networked in Blog Posts (n=12 students) 44

Figure 18: Cycle 3 - Percentage of Causal Words in Blog Posts .................................................. 45

Figure 19: Cycle 4 - Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas (n=12 students) 46

Figure 20: Cycle 4 - How Students Refer to Interest-Powered in Blog Posts (n=12 students) .... 47

Figure 21: Growth in Blog Post Word Count ............................................................................... 54

Figure 22: Percentage of Social Words in Blog Posts .................................................................. 54

Figure 23: Percentage of Negative Emotion Words in Blog Posts ............................................... 54

Figure 24: A Positive Correlation Between Social Words and Anxiety in Blog Posts ............... 55

Table 1: Actions Cycles Plan as Defined by Project and Connected Learning Principle ............. 26

Table 2: Example of Student Blog Data Processed by Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count ........ 28

Table 3: Percentage of Words Referring to Humans, Positive and Negative Emotion ................ 47

Table 4: Function Words Percentages in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 4 ............................. 48

Table 5: Social Processes Percentages in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 4 ............................ 48

Table 6: Cognitive Processes Percentages in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 4 ....................... 48

Table 7: A Pre and Post Course Evaluation of Learning Objectives ............................................ 50

Table 8: A Pre and Post Course Evaluation of Learning Outcomes in PR Publications .............. 51

Table 9: Changes in Student Attitudes Towards Technology as a Result of an Online Course ... 52

Table 10: Students Evaluation of Connected Learning Principles ............................................... 53

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Classroom ethnographers have long documented a disconnect between where learners

find meaning and social connection (Ito, et al., 2013). While it is thought that the knowledge and

skills acquired in todays classroom will simply transfer to the workforce, the research is

inclusive. A 2012 report concluded that Over a century of research on transfer has yielded little

evidence that teaching can develop general cognitive competencies that are transferable to any

new discipline, problem or context, in or out of school (National Research Council, 2012). An

earlier report offered a possible solution by urging educational institutions to recognize the

changing landscape and provide formal instruction in information, visual, and technological

literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with todays tools (The New Media

Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 2008).

This sentiment has similarly been verbalized by undergraduate students at the University

of Oklahoma (OU). The deans of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication

annually visit each undergraduate-level capstone class in the college to solicit feedback from the

graduating seniors. After visiting in the spring semester of 2014, it was identified that students

felt that they had a conceptual grasp of the theory of their field of study, public relations (PR),

but the students articulated that the program lacked the necessary technology integration leading

them to feel like they were at disadvantage in their ability to technically perform the necessary

tasks that would be expected by todays public relations professional. Students wished that they

had received more training on the software programs they are expected to use in their courses.

They also requested an expansion of courses for advertising and public relations majors that

focused on graphic design. Further, they requested that the college should begin to offer online

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versions of required courses to assist with students who required a more flexible school schedule

due internship and job commitments.

Research Question

In response to this feedback, I was approached by the dean of Gaylord College in August

2014 and asked to consider teaching PR Publications, which puts a public relations lens on

graphic design and web design techniques as an online course beginning in the spring of 2015,

online. I have decided to research the design and implementation using the Action Research

method. While there are several professional motivations with such a project (e.g. the

opportunity to expand my teaching portfolio, gain experience, teach within a new medium, etc.),

there is an additional broader personal motivation to impact the college by properly identifying

an online framework which is consistent with the vision of the college. My desire is that by

researching the question, How can I create an effective online course using the Connected

Learning framework? I will be able to direct faculty towards an adoptable online course model

that is rooted in research-driven design.

This specific research question affords me the opportunity to define some largely

unknown questions within my community. Gaylord College has never offered a single online

course, which raises the question, How do we, as a College, being newcomer in online learning,

define online? Does online merely refer to the network that delivers content or is it, as

Seymour Papert articulated in reference to the personal computer, the tool that creates personal

media capable of supporting a wide range of intellectual styles (Papert, The Children's

Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer, 1993)? Its also possible that how one

defines online learning in higher education may have been recently influenced by an influx of

popular media conversation. One example is Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which

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focused on model of online education focused on technology platforms and scale (Siemens &

DawSon, 2015). Watters (2015) argues that this has shifted conversations from research and

design driven approaches to a conversation about online education as a means to scale large

enough to create a budding revolution where higher education is globally accessible (Friedman,

2013). By acknowledging the current landscape and its conversations, I am to make an argument

for a learning environment that closer resembles Papert and learning-by-making (1991) or

constructing as it can be argued that students inevitably create more of the course makeup than I

ever could.

Significance of the Study

My aim in this research is to push beyond a shifting, loose definition of traditional

distance education, and examine implementing Connected Learning, an emerging pedagogical

framework that aims to promote student engagement and deepened learning through network

participation in digital environments (Ito, et al., 2013). Largely guided by the students

comments referenced earlier, a significant portion of my research will focus on creating a

connected learning environment that has value to the student beyond the course by giving the

learner opportunity to interact with commercial design tools which are valuable in the workforce.

As an instructor of technology-driven courses, Ive often attempted to empathize with

students by peering into my past and attempting to recall what it was like for me when I first

learned the subject matter I now teach. I vividly remember my early interactions with the web;

being eleven years old and learning the fundamentals of HTML for the very first time by

referencing one specific website. The site was titled Lissa Explains It All (lissaexplains.com)

and was, at its core, HTML for kids. I remember being attracted to the bright colors and easy-

to-understand language and phrasing that Lissa used, and I would spend hours referencing

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lissaexplains.com for how to build out website for my various middle school boy interests;

professional wrestling, Harry Potter, and my little league baseball team to name a few.

Recently, I went online to see if this website was still in existence and to what degree, if

any, it is maintained. Lissa was kind enough to post an update in 2007 that gave me surprising

insight into the history and impact of her website. I learned that Lissa was, in fact, my age, and

eleven-year-old 6th grader when she started lissaexplains.com as a simple repository for HTML

codes she occasionally forgot (Daniels, 2007). To my astonishment, I had been learning the

whole time not from an adult or trained educator, but a peer. Lissas ability to relate to myself,

and millions of others kids, was the simple fact that she was one of us.

This learning experience is what Mimi Ito and others have characterized as connected

learning, which looks to digital media and communication as an affordance to self-expression,

interactivity, and access to knowledge and information. These activities are supported through

social media, online affinity groups, and link a broad range of culture, knowledge, and expertise

(Ito, et al., 2013). It is with the knowledge of my own learning experiences, coupled with a body

of literature on learning theory, that I set out to design a fully online, undergraduate-level

connected learning experience for public relations students in hopes that they would be afforded

the opportunity to pursue an interest or passion with the support of their peers.

Design Methods

I took an ecological approach to the design of the course and the subsequent research.

The course aims to not focus on the creation of individual pieces of media, but, rather, on how

students actions, when embedded in a social learning academic environment, lead to the

intersection with interests and openly networked media. In the following chapter, I present a

comprehensive review of literature relating to my research question beginning with an

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examination of how technology, in particular social media, has been integrated into courses in

the field of public relations, an analysis of the use of personal cyberinfrastructure (Campbell,

2009) as a pedagogical approach, as well as an overview of Connected Learning and examples

that have relevance to the research. Chapter 3 presents the Action Research method and justify

the methods for which data was collected and analyzed. This chapter also presents the data-

gathering methods including a content analysis method using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count

(LIWC) (Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2001), a computerized text analysis program that

categorizes and quantifies language use (Kahn, Tobin, Massey, & Anderson, 2007). Chapter 4

describes the five action research cycles that took place between January and May 2015. These

five action research cycles correspond with five of the six foundational pillars of Connected

Learning: peer-supported, production-centered, openly networked, interest-oriented, and shared

purpose (Ito, et al., 2013). Here I will present the evidence collected, my interpretations, and how

each cycle affected the subsequent cycles. Chapter 6, the conclusion, is a reflection of the themes

that have emerged from the study as well as an account of my own personal learning.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

Introduction

Chapter one gives an introduction to the research question, acknowledges the work

environment, and speaks to the significance of building an undergraduate-level connected

learning course. Chapter two introduces the Connected Learning framework, tools used in online

connected learning courses, and examines technology-enhanced courses within the public

relations discipline.

Defining Connected Learning

The notion of learning being connected has taken on different connotations through

history. The earliest use of the word connected learning was used to describe how

architectonics of knowledge requires knowledge to be ordered into categories and, thus,

connected (Phenix, 1967). Since the dawn of the World Wide Web, connected learning has been

used to describe students ability to connect online with each other to form personal learning

networks (Bowen, 2011) and as the connection between the physical and virtual (Watson, 2007).

It has also has been used to refer to connecting a students academic work to their life outside the

classroom in efforts to offer inspiration to all who seek more than instrumental knowledge

(Boxer, 1998).

This study focuses on Connected Learning, a pedagogical framework and research

agenda published by the Digital Media Literacy (DML) Research Hub in 2013 (Ito, et al., 2013).

This framework is defined by six principles that allow every young person to experience learning

that is social, participatory, interest-driven, and culturally relevant.

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Figure 1: Connected Learning: An integration of three learning and three design principles.

Peer-supported. Learning that takes place in online environments that overlap with a

students peer culture are supported through personal communication technologies and social

networking. In peer cultures that are based around interest, and not necessary around age cohorts,

these cultures can drive knowledge and expertise.

Interest-Powered. Personal interests such as hobbies, academics, sports, and artistic

interest are discovered and cultivated within a social and cultural context. Interests can be

supported by online tools such as blogging platforms such as Tumblr or LiveJournal, curation

platforms such as Pinterest, and interest groups networks such as DeviantArt and fantasy sports

leagues.

Academically Oriented. The term academic as described in Connected Learning

refers to a more general orientation to future success, opportunity, and access to to sites of

power (Ito, et al., 2013). This can be achieved through academics, civic and political

engagement, or career-oriented achievements.

Shared Purpose. Shared purpose connects academic activity to a collective goal through

collaboration (Miell, 2004), competition, and with cross-generational leadership and ownership.

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These environments can be enhanced when they take place outside of the classroom, or in the

wild (Hutchins, 1996) bringing together adult and young people alike (Vygotsky, 1978). Other

descriptors for this notion are experience and education (Dewey, 1938) and experiential learning

(Kolb, 1984). Connected learning also promotes a distribution of authority and ownership of the

learning environments with the students, technologists, and the broader community infrastructure.

Production-Centered. By equipping learners with tools and means to produce, students

have the opportunity to produce, circulate, curate, and comment on media. This pedagogy has

been characterized as learning-by-making (Papert, 1991), learning by doing or project-based

learning (Dewey & Small, 1897), and situated learning (Greeno, 2006). Connected Learning

emphasizes digital media as a method for distributing, sharing, and gathering feedback on

created content.

Openly Networked. Connected learning infrastructures are anchored on the principles of

openness, accessibility, transparency, and low barriers for participation and entry (Ito, et al.,

2013). Connected learning environments help make learning visible through content feeds and

embeddable widgets to networks outside of the formal learning environment. These

environments also reward informal and self-directed learning through the building of portfolios,

open badges, and certifications that reward interest-driven learning (Jovanovic & Devedzic,

2014) (Carfagna, 2014).

Open Network Tools.

Blogs. Blogs are cited as an online tool for the application of multiple learning theories

including social constructivism, constructionism, and connectivism. Due to their flexibility and

ability to be easily networked, blogs have the potential to meet the needs of the 21st century

learner generation, who seek both greater autonomy and an interactive learning style (Monteiro,

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2012). Blogs are natural social constructivist environments as they stimulate critique,

collaboration, and user generated content (Cochrane, 2007). The notion of the collective

potential blogs brings has led blogs to be characterized by Shirky (2003)as a social software,

software that augments or extends group interactions.

Downes, an early researcher on connective knowledge, first examined the roots that blogs

laid within education. Downes (2004) observed multiple elementary school uses cases where

blogs were utilize for student reflection and communication.

Platts case study (2010) of an undergraduate course on communication technologies

speaks to the market need for blogging experience arguing that the integration of blogs into

curriculum help students develop the digital literacy skills needed in a twenty-first century

workplace. Blogs allow students to hone an authoritative voice while also teaching the

practical skills of producing meaningful multi-media content.

Portfolios. Helen C. Barrett (2012) argues that the use of the blog as a critical component

of electronic portfolios, or e-portfolios, as a means for a chronologically documenting ones

learning and sub sequential growth. Barrett also explains a tension between two types of e-

portfolios: one focused on learning and reflection and the other as a documentation of

achievements, or workspace and showcase (2010). Additionally, Barrett articulates three

levels of e-portfolio frameworks: Level 1- Portfolio as storage for digital artifacts, Level 2

Portfolio as a workspace to reflect on digital artifacts, and Level 3 Portfolio as a showcase for

student-led curation of highlighted artifacts. Research has also married these distinct frameworks,

showing the potential for e-portfolios to simultaneously serve multiple aims (Cambridge, 2010).

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Integrating New Media in Public Relations and Communication Courses

In its 2012 report, the Commission of Public Relations Education recommended that

public relations curriculum address strategic public relations best practices in a digital

environment, familiarizing students with how digital and social media are transforming the

practice of public relations (Commision on Public Relations Education, 2012). Research in

public relations education has recently identified the need for applied education to complement a

theoretical approach. Barrys study (2005) noted that students deemed gaining computer skills

necessary for a successful public relations career in the information age.

The emergence of social media, in particular, has begun to challenge higher education in

multiple respects. Its influence goes beyond personal communication and use in private business,

but has also altered the method in which courses are delivered and how student interaction

occurs (Adi, 2013). While it is clear that this impact has occurred beyond the walls of the

institution, it has also been perceived by students that public education educators are slow to

utilize and integrate new and social media into the method of course delivery or the coursework

(Hemmi, Bayne, & Land, 2009). Adi (2013) analyzed the introduction of social media audit and

analytics exercises into coursework as a way to introduce technology into the classroom that isnt

simply for enhanced interaction and collaboration, but gives students relevant, problem-based,

applied learning environment. This exercise requires educators to constantly update and present

students with industry trends, and only through this practice will student preparation meet the

need of the workforce. Adi strongly emphasized the necessity for educators to be experimental,

realistic, and up to date.

Sebastio (2013) explored the integration of web-based social media as a teaching

strategy for public relations courses in a Portuguese public university. The study aimed to follow

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a commonly accepted notion characterized by Bosch which states that educational use of social

media is doubted due to its informality and publicness (2009). Sebastio also references

Seymour Papert, who Boss (2011) argues was the first to recognize the potential of technology in

the learning process. Sebastio was influenced by Paperts development of the Logo

programming language allowed children to acquire a deeper understanding of geometry concepts,

programming expertise, as well as show a level of engagement rarely seen in a traditional

classroom environment. Sebastios students, through an empirical approach of self-completion

questionnaires, anonymously revealed an insecurity with production techniques: design and

layout and new technologies use and understanding. Similar to Adi, Sebastios efforts show a

commitment to a coherent and motivating pedagogy of active learning, promoted dialogue

between students and practitioners, and use of technology to improve coursework and

communication.

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Chapter 3: Methodology

Understanding Action Research

This study utilizes action research, a method where the aim is to learn through action to

lead to personal and professional development (Koshy, 2010). It has also been described as

participatory research method (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2001) used for improving educational

practices. Action research is usually broken up into self-contained cycles which consist of

planning, collecting data, observing and reflecting on an action. The consequences of that action

then directly influence a revision of the next cycle of action.

Figure 2: Action research spiral of change. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

Kurt Lewin, a behavioral scientist, is often cited for coining the term Action Research

and described the method of inquiry as a spiral of which is composed of a circle of planning,

action and fact-finding about the result of the action (Lewin, 1946). Smith (1996; 2001, 2007)

notes that this situated problem-solving approach to research parallels Deweys conception of

experience and education. According to Zeichner (2001) much of the action research that has

taken place in the United States has involved a rejection standards-based curriculum, in favor of

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a pedagogical approach driven on the instructors capacity for reflection. The strand of action

research that will be utilized for this particular study is one promoted by Jack Whitehead

(McNiff & Whitehead, 2010), whereas an individual researches their own practices and offers

their own reflections and analysis.

My Philosophical Stance on Education

Before addressing the methodology of my study in great detail, its important that I

acknowledge the ontological and epistemological issues that affect my actions. The first two

chapters lay out a problem that could be interpreted as students addressing a deficiency of skills-

based learning needed for a competitive workforce. While that argument has merit, my research

goal was not to simply teach technology skills. Conversely, my desire is that by leveraging

technology, students foster an appreciation for the medium, the inherent skill required for one to

express themselves through it, and come to better understand themselves as a learner and a

creative.

Historically, students have viewed this course as a diversion from the traditional

undergraduate course: a small set of high stakes multiple choice assessments and formal writing

activities. The face-to-face version of this course is process-driven and project-based, consisting

of five individual projects completed over a period of timeoften weeks. Much of the structure

of this course already existed and I did not see the move to fully online learning as the most

significant change to the course since my face-to-face course as never relied heavily on lectures

and direct instruction. Therefore, I acknowledge that I already believed to a degree that this

course had the chemical makeup to be successful because its format already lends its to the

Connected Learning framework.

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The method is which I received feedback on the students learning experience was the

main alteration of the courses format. Students were asked to complete weekly reflection blog

posts on a personally-owned and maintained web domain (e.g. adamcroom.com). I have

previously acknowledged a personal long term connection with the open web dating back to

childhood. In the context of education, I see the domain, a web address that you personally own,

as a broader metaphor for ones ownership of learning. I believe that learning is not something

we do to students. Rather, it is something done to ones self, as knowledge encounters, processes,

and negotiates new information.

I have great enthusiasm knowing that part of what makes this process special is that the

students work goes towards the building and shaping of the students digital identity, as opposed

to happening within the confines of a learning management system, where students receive an

audience of one (myself) and lose access to their work as soon as the course has been completed.

Having students work within the open web promotes connectedness; a connectedness to each

other through the public visibility of a peer work and a connectedness to a wealth of networked

information across the web. Like Dewey (1916) who believed that schools need laboratories,

gardens, plays, and games to reproduce real-life situations, I believe that online learning needs to

take advantage of the abundance of the web rather than taking place in a walled garden

disconnected from the rest of the web.

Advantages of Action Research

Action research lent itself well to my study. Action research allows research to have a

specific context and situation which fits well with my personal and professional goals of this

project. While I always have well-intended goals of ultimately wanting student success, this

research took place in a point in time that was pivotal for how the college began to define and

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approach online learning. Action research also leaves room of theories to emerge within the

research as opposed to sticking with a previously formulated theory. Although I used Connected

Learning as a framework, its safe to say the infancy of the framework lent itself well to

reinterpretation and expansion. Further, action research lends itself to evaluation, modification,

and open-end outcomes. I liken my thought on education to Cormier (2008) who argued for

embracing a rhizomatic model where curriculum is constructed and negotiated in real time

with the students.

Designing the PR Publications Course Site

I alluded briefly to the face-to-face class takes place in active learning environment and is

focused around five design projects that collectively take place over a 16-week period. Much of

the in class time is concentrated around working on these design projects and receiving direct

instructor feedback throughout the process. An early step was to construct an online environment

from which course material already exists. I decided to build the course on my web domain,

prpubs.us, utilizing Wordpress, a content management system. This is a technique which

companies such as Microsoft call eating your own dog food or dogfooding (Harrison, 2006)

where one decides to go through the process themselves to test a product out. It is important that

if you are going to ask my students to deeply embed themselves within these applications, that

you must also test and model the approach yourself.

Figure 3: PRPubs.us: The PR Publications Course Site Homepage

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Being that the initial version of this course was active learning centric, I conceptualized

prpubs.us to not revolve around course content but rather the learner. Content would simply

exist to enable students to explore pre-existing web resources and create new resources. Some

examples of prompts are:

! To reinforce your understanding of design concepts, I want you to undertake a

Design Blitz. Carry your camera with you this unit and take photos of objects,

ads, signs, etc. that illustrate one of these concepts.

! Typography is a critical part of how we tell stories. To practice some of our

typography skills we are going to play some typography games. For this

assignment, you are to choose three of these font games and play them.

! For this part of the lesson, we want to conduct a visual strategy competitor

analysis on an organization similar to our own by creating a Pinterest board of

some of our competitors recent work.

! For this lesson, we will be exploring a new, web-based design application called

Canva. Throughout this lesson, I want you to consider: What are some of the

affordances that an app like Canva brings? What limitations does an app like

Canva have? How can a public relation practitioner leverage tools like Canva?

Figure 4: A Lesson View on the PR Pubs Course Site. Assignments are prompts for students to do work that takes place beyond the course platform.

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I explored other techniques that could focus on the students work to help maintain a

student-centric theme to the course site. Since responses and reactions to these prompts would

take place on the students domain utilizing Wordpress blogging feature, I felt it would be

beneficial to the students to be able to easily access each others blogs. I researched a course titled

DS106: Digital Storytelling, taught mainly by Jim Groom at the University of Mary Washington.

DS106s course site, also built on Wordpress, has a syndicated network architecture that mimics

the design of the Internet itself (Levine, 2014). The site aggregates student work via a free

Wordpress plugin (Feed WordPress http://feedwordpress.radgeek.com/) which crawls the student

websites RSS feed. Similarly, I utilized Feed WordPress to create a single blog roll within the

course site, thus the largest portion of the content is student-generated.

Figure 5: Aggregated Student Posts on PRPubs.us. (http://prpubs.us/student-posts/)

A Systematic Approach to Examining Connected Learning in Cycles

Since this study focused around integrating Connected Learning principles into a new

online course, I decided to focus each cycle on a different principle. The length of a cycle

would be predetermined by the existing design project structure. As students completes a design

projectin some respects, their own cyclesI would take the time to analyze data and reflect.

As a result, this gave me me the flexibility to adjust the course based on previous cycle outcomes

and allowed me to focus on specific principles in smaller increments.

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Table 1: Actions Cycles Plan as Defined by Project and Connected Learning Principle

Action Cycle Design Project Connected Learning Principle 1 Business Card / Letterhead Peer-Supported 2 Direct Mailer Production-Centered 3 Social Media Openly Networked 4 Newsletter Interest-Powered 5 Summary of Learning / Final Portfolio Shared Purpose

While there are six Connected Learning principles within the framework, there were only

five projects matches within the semester. I elected to not focus on the principle, Academically

Oriented. I assumed that the opportunity for academic advancement is already well recognized

by the students since his course takes place within an academic institution and the students are

well into their student career.

Data Collection Methods

In efforts to gather evidence of the outcomes of the action cycles, I used a mixed methods

approach. The following methods were employed:

Surveys. The course was bookended with a pre- and post-survey. This gave me a broad

perspective to how students self assessed their learning outcomes, evaluated the Connected

Learning principles within the course, and how their perspectives on how technology were

influenced by the educational experience. Additionally, I employed surveys throughout the

semester to gather feedback on the student reaction to newly implemented actions.

Reflection Blog Posts. Students were asked to write a weekly blog post reflecting on

their learning experience. Students were given this following, or a very similar, prompt:

! What were you asked to do?

! How did you respond to what you were asked to do?

! How did react to what you actually did?

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! Now go one level deeper: Why do you think your reaction was what it was?

With this approach, I was able to gather a rich data set of metacognitive analysis by the

students of their experience. To analyze the data, I took two approaches:

Qualitative Analysis. Within each blog post, I coded when a student had reflected on a

specific Connected Learning principle. Since each cycle focuses on a different principle, this

gave me the opportunity to see if that specific principle was more or less activated than the

previous cycle and analyze potential correlations between principles. I used a content analysis

tool called HyperRESEARCH that allowed me to batch multiple text files, one per blog post,

into a cases. Each week constituted a case and each cycle constituted a study so that I could

analyze the data over a body of time.

Computer Aided Content Analysis. While the qualitative approach required me to read

carefully each blog post, I used a second approach that uses a computer aided transparent text

analysis method. With a computer program tool called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count

(LIWC) one can process text where each word in that text is compared with a dictionary file.

These dictionary files are broken up by category (e.g. pronouns, social words, cognitive

mechanisms, positive/negative emotion) and can show attentional focus, emotionality, social

relationships, thinking styles, and individual differences (Tausczik & Pennebaker, 2010). This

method gave me metrics by which to quantify progress amongst or regression amongst the class

cohort. For instance, prepositions (e.g., to, with, above), words longer than six letters, and words

that Tausczik and Pennebaker (2010) have categorized as cognitive mechanisms (e.g., cause,

know, ought), are all indicative of more complex language. I mainly looked at pronouns usage as

well as social, affective, and cognitive processes. Its important to note that even though this

method gives me a quantified output, I did not use this method as a form of assessment. To

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minimize the risk of letting this affect a students grade, this research method was only

performed to the aggregated class output rather than any individual student. Additionally, it was

only administered after the grade has been submitted and the deeper qualitative analysis has

already taken place. Figure 2 illustrates what LIWC data looks like.

Table 2: Example of Student Blog Data Processed by Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC)

Week Pronoun Social Affective Cognitive 3 15.71 3.44 6.25 20.4 4 17.86 4.68 5.69 18.59 5 19.19 5.85 6.14 19.95 6 16.07 5.16 5.26 18.93 The$variables$above$reflect$ percentage$ of$ total words.$For$example,$in$Week$3,$3.4%$of$the$class$aggregate$blog$content$is$comprised$of$social$processes$(e.g. mate, talk, they, child) compared with 5.9% in Week 5.

Study and Methodology Limitations

One obvious limitation to this study is the lack of time. This research went from its initial

conception and through five action cycle in approximately six months. Its plausible that the

planning was a bit haphazard and that my synthesis of the information and conclusion has been

ultimately rushed. Further, I expect that student reflection blog posts will make up the bulk of the

data in which I collect. As someone who is the biggest cheerleader of a students success in the

course, I acknowledge the limitations of 1.) reporting what the students say in blog posts that

contribute to a final grade which I have observed to be an overly positive perspective of ones

work and 2.) my ability to neutrally interpret their words. Though my resources for this project

are limited, I believe that the implementation of some creative problem solving measures to add

efficacy to my data, such as the LIWC data, contributed positively to triangulating my

hypotheses.

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Chapter 4: Analysis of data and results

Cycle 1: Peer-Supported

Background Information. Each cycle is broken up by the length of the design project.

Cycle 1, the longest cycle spanning six weeks, is unique in that included a couple extra weeks in

which students are oriented to the course. The course is also scaffolded at the beginning allowing

students longer periods at the beginning of the semester to complete their project. In the first

design project, the students were asked to design a business card and letterhead for a company or

organization of their choice.

Cycle Research Question. In Cycle 1, I focused on the Connected Learning design

principle, peer-supported, and explored what structures I could put in place to emphasize

feedback and support. I chose this as my first principle to investigate knowing that I wanted to

establish a supportive learning environment early. It was important to me that students

understand that they had been given permission to leverage their peers for assistance. Broadly,

this cycle also implementations around feedback from peers as well as myself. Through surveys,

reflection blog posts, and a number of implementations related to feedback, my hope was that

connection to each other and myself would release any early anxiety from the students.

Pre-Course Survey. A pre-course survey was administered so that I could holistically

evaluate to what degree students can identify if connected learning principles were implemented

in previous. The survey also asks questions related to the courses learning objectives and gave

me some baseline data on students attitudes towards technology. In writing this survey, I

utilized the Educause ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology survey (Educause,

2014) to help identity the students attitudes toward digital learning environments. Because this

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data is much more valuable within the context of the post-course survey, I have elected to speak

more thoroughly on the collective results of the survey later in Cycle 5.

Implemented Actions.

Synchronous Meeting. The first action that took place once the course began was a

synchronous meeting of the online class. I was inspired by my own experiences in the

Pepperdine Masters of Arts in Learning Technologies program where we met regularly using

Google Hangouts, a web-based video conferencing tool. Though the course is not content

focused, and thus lectures and direction instruction are not a pedagogical priority, I still felt a

desire to recreate what usually happens on the first day of class where one explains the course

structure and sets student expectations. More importantly, I wanted students to be able to put

faces to names and see that this course would not be completed in isolation. Since students were

going to be giving feedback to another, I want them to have the opportunity to feel a more

personal connection. Five students, roughly one-third of the class, attended the session and it

lasted nearly 40 minutes. This ended up being the only Google Hangout that I did during the

course, but an anonymous student in my evaluation said that mandatory Google Hangouts

would be an improvement, adding, It would be nice to put faces with names and personalize my

education. Because of this feedback, the next iteration of this course included a scheduled

synchronous meeting that corresponded with every design project.

Open Lab Office Hours. In addition to creating the synchronous meeting as a method for

the online students to meet, I also held open office hours in the colleges computer lab. I wanted

to give students the opportunity to meet in person and work on their projects in a neutral

environment. The computer lab is a place several of them were already attending to work on

course work, so in some respects I was coming to them. I had three students show and two

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completed a survey that was used to gather data about the effectiveness of the course. I have not

included the survey data as its value is negligible due to the low sample size. In reflecting on this

week, one student noted that before attending the office hours, she felt overwhelmed, but noted

that while meeting with me I reminder her that the goal was not to be a perfectionist but to

merely get familiarized with the design applications. The student felt like this was a goal that she

was indeed able to accomplish1. The student went on to add, later Meeting with my professor

not only gave me more confidence with my InDesign skills, but it also gave me comfort knowing

he was there to help us if we needed anything throughout the project.2 While I feel this

opportunity was underutilized by the students the first time, I decided the option to meet in

person was valuable to enough students that I would continue to do it in future cycles.

Peer Feedback. After students posted their first design draft, they were asked to give

feedback to their peers with two methods. The class was divided into what I called Learning

Circles of four students and gave feedback through public comments as well as a private

Google Form. I gave the students sample prompts with how to give constructive feedback on the

work. The Google Form was a slightly more rubric-based approach where I asked the students to

grade how the other student was doing in leveraging fundamental design principles. After they

were completed, I circulated the anonymous, private feedback back to student. In keeping with

idea of the instructor as a fellow peer, I, too, gave feedback by creating screencast videos for the

students where I would look over their initial draft and go over some recommendations for the

next draft. I did this by recording directly to YouTube and sending them a private link to the

video. Students noted in their reflection posts that the feedback, along with feedback they

1 Reflection. https://alexandranwalsh1.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/reflection/. Accessed on July 8, 2015.

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received from their peers improved their work and gave them a method to evaluate whether or

not their work was on track. This method of feedback appeared to be very well received by the

students, so this was utilized in multiple future cycles.

Student Design Pitches. Students were asked to record a video of them pitching their

design in 90 or seconds or less. This video was uploaded to YouTube and put on the students

blog. Like several other cycle implementations, I wanted to give students an opportunity to see

and hear each other. While I feel the exercise was good for the students, both in having to

synthesize their design approach and having to learn a valuable technology, I did not receive a

strong response from the students beyond the initial recording. One student noted that watching

themselves on video was an awkward experience3. Since I didnt get the sense that students were

getting value from this portion of the project, it was eliminated as a possibility in future cycles.

Instructor Reflection Journal. Each week I kept a journal through my blog of the actions

that were being taken that week as well reflections. This was my main method for curating and

reflecting on my cycles. This was very helpful in helping me synthesize all the actions that had

taken place and give an early reaction to the data. This cycle I wrote four reflection blog posts

that averaged approximately 850 words in length.

2 Reflection. https://alexandranwalsh1.wordpress.com/2015/02/25/reflection-4/. Accessed on July 8, 2015.

3 Awkward Video Pitches. http://taylormarieredmond.com/uncategorized/awkward-video-pitches/. Accessed on July 8, 2015.

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Student Blogs Post Reflections. Students began to write reflection posts in the third week

of the course around that weeks assignments. These posts are evaluated with two different

methods. The first is through a qualitative analysis using HyperRESEARCH. Through this

method, I coded the students blog posts with the six Connected Learning design principles to see

how often student were identifying that the implementation did take place.

Figure 6: Cycle 1 Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas in Reflection Blog Posts (n=13)

Thirteen students posted a total of 48 reflection style blog posts from the third to sixth

weeks of the cycle. Students were asked to reflect over what they had been asked to do that

week, how they reacted, and why they believe they reacted that way. That data was then coded

by the six Connected Learning principles: peer-supported, production-centered, openly

networked, interest-powered, academically oriented, or shared purpose. Figure 6 shows that

mentions activities that involved peer-support significantly rose in the third week of the cycle

(labeled Week 5), which is the week that the peer feedback action took place. This growth

continued into the following week.

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Figure 7: Growth in Connected Learning Principle Mentions Over Cycle 1

Though peer-supported is the third most referred to principle, behind production-

centered and academically oriented, Figure 7 shows that peer-supported had the largest slope

(m=4.7) and grew 64% more through Cycle 1 than the next highest growing principle.

Figure 8: Cycle 1 - Analyzing How Students Refer to Peer Support in Student Blog Posts

Additionally, I looked deeper into how students were referring to peer support. As shown

in Figure 8, students largely referenced feedback that had received earlier in the week from a

student and the second highest reference was instructor feedback. Other references were towards

how drafts were impacted because of feedback or requesting peer feedback.

The second analysis was done a content analysis method using Linguistic Inquiry and

Word Count and quantified students use of social words as well as measure the percentage of

words that signify positive and negative emotion.

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Figure 9: Percentage of Social Words in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 1

The percentage of social words (Figure 9) nearly doubled by the end of Cycle 1. The

largest week-to-week gain, an increase from 2.5% to 4.7%, took place after the first peer support

actions were implemented. Curious to see if this would impact student attitudes, I also looked at

positive and negative emotion.

Figure 10: Positive and Negative Emotion in Cycle 1 Blog Posts

While positive emotion was only a marginal gain, there was a significant decrease in

negative emotion of the cycle (Figure 10). In the third week of the cycle there was a semester

high of 1.6%, which was expected and likely due to the large amount of self directed learning of

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new content which has no peer involvement. This changed once the peers started to support one

another in Week 4. Students use of negative emotion words dropped by 45% to .8% and would

not rise above 1% for the remainder of the semester.

Reflection. After analyzing the data, I felt that the implementations of activities that gave

student the permission to interact with and give feedback to each other were very helpful.

Student reflections on this process were considerably positive and the evidence of how the

actions assisted in decreasing the presence of negative emotion in blog posts was gratifying.

From the instructor perspective, it was beneficial to see when students were particularly grateful

for the assistance they received either from a peer or from me. In online environments, its easy to

think that the hard part for the learner is that they have to teach themselves, when, in reality, the

hard part is learning in isolation.

While the face-to-face open office lab hours were helpful for some, the feedback from the

blog posts suggests that the feedback they receive via YouTube was just as if not more helpful. I

felt that it was imperative that I repeat in future cycles. Ive come to consider that in some

instances I may have been overly trying to bring unnecessary false comforts to the students by

creating face-to-face opportunities such as this that the students dont necessarily need. This

cycle helped me realize that students have elected to take the online version of a course for a

number of reasons, some of which may involve large time commitments such as internships and

part-time jobs. This had led me to focus on the online feedback opportunities for future cycles.

There were other activities that similarly didnt have the impact I was hoping for. The

student design pitch was an activity that I designed originally for my face-to-face course. While I

believed that students being able to see each other would help humanize the course, the

asynchronous format was unnatural for most students and did not have the same impact as the

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synchronous activities. This reiterates a previous point that not all face-to-face activities neither

will nor need to translate to the online version. It is possible that for future iterations of this

activity, I can consider a synchronous version of this same activity since students have asked for

more opportunities to meet on a Google Hangout.

Cycle 2: Production-Centered

Background Information. Cycle 2 focused around the Connected Learning principle,

production-centered. This cycle is built around a three-week long, project-based assignment

where students are required to produce two recruitment direct mailers to be receiving by

potential future OU student. Because the initial success of the peer support mechanisms that

were built into place during Cycle 1, I will continue to do peer feedback, instructor feedback, and

video design pitches. The major implementation of this cycle will focus around a constraint

where students will only be allowed to use Photoshop, a design program that they have

completed tutorials for but have had little interaction with in any other fashion.

Cycle Research Questions. The course that I teach is already very production centric.

Thus I want to take a look at production by focusing on giving students the constraint of using a

design program that theyve only just been made aware of. My hope exiting this cycle was to

understand how students reflect on this constraint, what solutions (if any) do students turn to

complete the project, and what are the differences between students who reflected on this project

positively and negatively?

Actions Implemented.

Constraints and Triggering Events. According to Seeling, constraints play an important

role in creativity (2012). Implementing the Photoshop constant felt like a leap for me in this

course as I have traditionally tried to keep to only teaching them one large design program. Yet

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past student surveys have included students saying they want more Adobe Photoshop integrated

into the course. In efforts to playfully diverge into this application, I decided to create a scenario

where it appeared like the course site, prpubs.us, had been hacked and was now pspubs.us

(Photoshop publications) acting like this was freeing to move away from InDesign for a brief

period that included a famous picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono holding a Photoshopped

sign that says INDESIGN IS OVER!

Figure 11: Creating a Triggering Event: Redesigningor hacking?the course website

This is a technique is what Garrison refers to as a triggering event (2003), an event

creates an issue or dilemma for students to consider or explore. Once the triggering event creates

an awareness that requires the student to begin sense-making the dilemma and has shown to

influence critical thinking (Perkins & Murphy, 2006).

This was certainly a more difficult action to measure, but a faculty member told me that

this had caused a group of students to begin to question out loud in his class if the site had indeed

been hacked or if I was playing a joke. This was enough for me to conclude that it caught

students attention, if even mildly.

Student Reflection Blog Posts. Students wrote reflection blog posts during all three

weeks of Cycle 2. Similar to Cycle 1, these posts were evaluated using a qualitative analysis of

mentions of Connected Learning principles and a quantitative analysis using LIWC.

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Figure 12: Cycle 2 Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas in Reflection Blog Posts (n=13)

In Cycle 1, I learned that production-centered was the most describe principle, making up

29% of the coded references in the student blog posts. This makes sense as the course is heavy

on design and takes up the majority of the students time. As shown in Figure 12, Cycle 2 saw an

increase in production-centered mentions to 50%. Interest-driven also increased two fold from

11.7% to 24.7%. Interestingly, mentions of all other principles decreased.

Figure 13: Cycle 2 - Analyzing How Students Refer to Production Centered in Student Blog Posts (n=13)

I also examined how students reflected differently on production-centered activities. The

data, shown above in Figure 13, suggests that the design activities were a struggle this week for

the several students. I followed these mentions of struggle throughout the weeks. These mentions

did indeed decrease in the last week and mentions increased of overcoming struggle. While the

students should be commended for overcoming the struggle, it is hard to decipher if this can be

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interpreted as such or if it is possible that students are being slightly overly positive about their

final draft. This struggle was mildly anticipated due to design program constraint, but I also

attribute part of this to the fact that during this cycle there were three snow days which took

away essentially a weeks worth of time the students could spend in the computer labs.

Figure 14: Percentage of Positive and Negative Words in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 2

Figure 14 shows how positive and negative emotion were expressed in this cycle and how

it compares to the rest of the study. While negative emotion was only slightly lower than normal,

positive emotion was 3.5%, compared to a study average of 4.3%. The lowest week of the cycle

was concurrent with the week that included snow days. Additionally, you see positive emotion

rise during the last week of the cycle, similar to how students began to take pride in overcoming

early struggles.

Further, some students felt that a bigger constraint on them wasnt necessarily the

application, but the fact that they didnt have access to the type of or quality of photo that they

wanted. Multiple students noted that they wished they knew photography because they would

have preferred to just simply take the photo themselves. This speaks to what I see a lot with

creative projects. Students have a vision for what they hope to create and production-centered

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activities breed a desire to want to construct that vision. It was good to see how students saw that

their work could be improved and they actually had possible solutions to it.

Figure 15: Percentage of Social Words in Student Reflection Blog Posts

Figure 15 indicates that the percentage of social words in student blog posts has increases

from the end of Cycle 1 to Cycle 2. This figure is actually counter to the qualitative data which

suggested that there were very few mentions of peer support.

Reflection. As I moved into analyzing the second principle, I became interested in how

the principles are interconnected. This cycles design program constraint led students to utilize

openly networked tools. Students turned to Lynda.com, Pinterest, and other websites. These

provided either inspiration or a tutorial on how to complete a project. Similar to wanting better

photographs, production increases a desire to want to know more and students can leverage a

plethora of available online resources to enhance production.

Additionally, I believe that interest in the project drove excitement and pride in the

students reflection. Students were allowed to choose who the recipient of the direct mailer was

and were required to be very specific in describing them. Often I found that students chose

recipients who deeply reflected themselves. One student mentioned that he wanted to design the

direct mailer he wishes he would have received in high school. The other interest that drove the

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project was the students interest in learning more about Adobe Photoshop because they either

felt it would be valuable to them professionally or it was something they genuinely have been

wanting to learn, which is referred to in Connected Learning framework as academically oriented.

Cycle 2 led me to begin reframing my perception of Connected Learning. My first

interpretation was that the principles were mainly independent. This cycle has led me to consider

production-centered as a catalytic principle which draws out interest, open network usage, peer

support, and academic orientation. This idea is heavily aligned with Paperts constructionism and

other similar project-based learning theories.

Cycle 3: Openly Networked

Background Information. Cycle 3 came off the heals of the difficult Cycle 2 design

project where I started to notice the interconnectedness of Connected Learning principles with

production-centered as a catalyst. This influenced how I approached Cycle 3 which was focused

around the openly networked principle. Because students had difficulty with the Photoshop

project, I wanted to look out how an open, web based tool could build confidence in student

design. While Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 were multiple weeks long, I decided to only allow students

one week to complete it. This constraint would focus students to consider an agile-design

mentality which requires you to consider templated approaches towards your work. I had

originally planned a lengthier infographic assignment for Cycle 3, but based on the student

response to Cycle 2, I felt that it would be better to shift to something that was less research and

design intensive.

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Cycle Research Questions. This cycle I was interested in if (and how) students would

learn the tool differently. Would it involve tutorials or just playing around with the platform?

Continuing my hypothesis from Cycle 2, what other Connected Learning principles would be

activated by this tool? Last, would students react positively or negatively to this diversion to the

web-based design tool?


Web-Based Design Tool. In the spirit of openly networked, students leveraged an entirely

web-based design application called Canva to design multiple social media pieces. Canva gives

users templates in which they can design off of. It makes is simple to quickly design a product

yet the lack of options can also feel constraining to some. A main concern for me going into this

project was how students would react to the addition of a third design program which removes

students from the familiar Adobe product line.

Student Blog Post Reflections. Because Cycle 3 is only one week, data from the cycle is

not as dense as previous cycles. For instance, previous cycles have shown growth/decline over

time, and I was not able to do that this cycle. Even so, I was able to identify a strong presence of

openly networked (Figure 16).

Figure 16: Cycle 3 Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas in Reflection Blog Posts (n=12 students)

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It was difficult in this cycle to decipher between openly networked and production-

centered as the two are closely connected this in this specific cycle. For example, one student

wrote, For the Facebook post, I decided to use a textured grass background. I figured that it

could remind the customers of the feeling of grass between their toes. This has been coded as

production-centered since it refers to the process or act of producing. I coded openly

networked into categories specifically referencing the Canva tool and the broader web as a

general resource for learning how to use the tool. The figure also shows that the one-week

constraint had a significant effect on peer support which was not observed.

Figure 17: Cycle 3 - Analyzing How Students Refer to Openly Networked in Student Blog Posts (n=12 students)

Figure 17 shows that openly networked has been categorized as affordance of the open

tool, limitation of tool, desire to use tool again, reference to its openness, leveraging the web to

do background research, and utilization of online tutorials. Half of the students mentioned the

use of tutorials that were on Canva.com, which demonstrates how students leveraged the web, in

this case this product itself, to learn the tool. While students appreciated that the tool was free to

use and easy to learn, some students also referenced the limitations of the free version.

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Figure 18: Percentage of Causal Words in Student Reflection Blog Posts

While the qualitative data showed that students were generally very positive about the

experience with Canva, the LIWC data did not support an increase in positive emotion. The only

significant change in student writing was the increased use of causal words (e.g. because, effect,

hence) shown in Figure 18. Boals and Klein (2005) argue that causal words are used in

the extreme situations to create causal explanations and to organize the participants thoughts. As

an instructor, I appreciate that students are not explaining only what happened but why it

happened as well.

Reflection. I saw multiple students remark that they wanted to come back and use Canva

again in future. Though this may be a result of giving students limited time on the tool, this is not

a comment I heard with Adobe Photoshop or InDesign early on. I also observed less fogginess

from learning the new tool this time around. This is a consequence of the straightforwardness of

the tool paired with focused tutorials that students utilized. Further, a benefit of using a web-

based tool is that many of them have built in mechanisms for learning about the tool, which is

rare to find on a native desktop application. Since this was the second risk I took in introducing a

new tool, I was pleased that this one went well and students were enthusiastic about it.

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Cycle 4: Interest-Powered

Background Information. Cycle 4 focused around an assignment in which students

design a newsletter for a Fortune 500 client of their choice. In previous three cycles, I have

hypothesized a correlation between students designing for a company they are passionate about

and the quality of their final product. With this assumption, I wanted to dig further into how

interest motivates students and where it exists. Additionally, as students have become more

comfortable with design over the semester, I have given students less time to complete a project.

This design decision assumes that students need less scaffolding via drafts and will be

completing more internal iterations.

Cycle Research Questions. How do students who are strongly interested in the

assignment reflect differently than those who are not? What is it that they are specifically

interested in about the assignment?


Student Reflection Blog Posts. Twelve students wrote blog posts this cycle over two

weeks reflecting on the assignment. Like previous cycles, these blog posts were categorized by

the mentioned Connected Learning principles.

Figure 19: Cycle 4 Student Mentions of Connected Learning Principle Ideas in Reflection Blog Posts (n=12 students)

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This was the cycle in which I observed the strongest presence of interest-powered

learning. Students had not used Adobe InDesign since four weeks prior during Cycle 2.

Interestingly, I observed interest not only in choice of client but in the design platform. This is

something I began to notice during Cycle 3 with Canva and was surprised to see continue into

Cycle 4.

Figure 20: Cycle 4 - How Students Refer to Interest-Powered in Blog Posts (n=12 students)

Figure 20 shows interest was observed in the blog posts. This is the first cycle in which I

have established levels of the principle. In Cycle 4, I categorized client interest as chose

company and chose company (strong interest). Strong interest was either observed as

attention to the client or newsletter recipient such as the internal company or an external interest

group.

Table 3: Percentage of Words Referring to Humans, Positive Emotion, Negative Emotion, and Discrepancy from Week 3 to Week 12

Week Humans Positive Emotion Negative Emotion Discrepancy Cycle 1.3 .078 4.303 1.64 .823 Cycle 1.4 .11 4.65 0.88 1.63 Cycle 1.5 0.1 5.32 0.73 1.22 Cycle 1.6 0.14 4.47 0.76 1.63 Cycle 2.1 0.28 4.09 0.93 0.78 Cycle 2.2 0.26 2.66 0.52 1.79 Cycle 2.3 0.24 4.02 0.59 2.14 Cycle 3.1 0 4.57 0.42 1.77 Cycle 4.1 0.15 4.5 0.6 1.16 Cycle 4.2 0.37 4.72 0.47 2.24

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Table 3 displays data from LIWC which I found compelling from Cycle 4. First, I saw

the highest output so far of human words (e.g. adults, men, women, children, etc.). My

hypothesis is this has to do with students describing who their reader is which was a part of their

reflection assignment. Next I saw the highest positive emotion output that Ive seen since Cycle

2. Thats a good sign because Week 5 was one of the early weeks that was infused with peer

support. Conversely, I saw negative emotion drop to one of its lowest outputs. Last, I saw the

highest output of discrepancy words. Discrepancy refers to words like could, hope,

needed, should, wanted, wish, etc. Wedeking (2009) argues that higher scores along the

discrepancy dimension correspond with higher levels of cognitive thinking.

To look closer at interest, I did an analysis of my two groups chose company and

chose company (strong interest) to see if there were any noticeable differences in their

language use.

Table 4: Function Words Percentages in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 4

Group Wrd. Count Pronoun PPron I We They Low 336.2 18.28 12.41 10.17 1.52 0.66 High 225.75 16.15 10.22 8.14 0.94 1.03

Table 5: Social Processes Percentages in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 4

Group Social Family Human Neg. Emo. Anxiety Low 5.04 0.00 0.11 0.84 0.27 High 5.47 0.15 0.53 0.24 0.14

Table 6: Cognitive Processes Percentages in Student Blog Posts During Cycle 4

Group Cog. Mech. Discrepancy Certainty Inhibition Inclusion Low 17.27 2.54 0.77 0.07 5.05 High 20.20 2.06 1.93 0.52 6.61

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Students who expressed a lower amount interest in the project tended to write more

(Table 4) averaging a word count of 336 compared to 259 words and leveraged more first person

pronouns. Students who expressed a higher amount of interest used more social and third person

words had a significantly lower negative emotion percentage (Table 5), and showed, on average,

higher cognitive processes (Table 6). The two groups were fairly similar with positive emotion,

causal words, and insight.

Reflection. Students with higher interest are going to connect more of there work to their

surroundings and are more likely engage deeper in the open networks researching how to better

the project. They were also more likely to have a very specific reader in mind. Lower interest

students tended to be more self-reliant on this project and have a higher negative emotion

towards the outcome.

More than any prior cycle, curiosity led me to dive deep into the data for answers to my

cycle research question. I found myself looking for trends and how to interpret them and I ended

this cycle more interested in how to do activate interest in work. My current conclusion is that it

helps to give them choice but Im still searching for ways to not only activate interest in an

assignment but in learning.

While I analyzed the data deeply this cycle and searched for correlations, I also felt

myself pull back from the process of analyzing data concurrently with the course offering. Until

this cycle, I would analyze the data as the cycle was taking place. This cycle I distanced myself

from this process and did not analyze the data for quite some time. I began to question this

analysis process and whether or not it was impeding on my ability to objectively assess student

work. I did not want it to be influenced by computer ge

A Networked Approach to Online Learning in a Public Relations Design Course

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