Piecing together the research puzzle: A blended learning approach

Cheryl Brown &

Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams

Our colleagues

The programme

Diverse Contexts58 students, 2009 – 2012

Kenya 3

Mozambique 1

Cameroon 1

Namibia 3

Nigeria 7Uganda 6

Zambia 3Zimbabwe 8

Canada 1 Austria 2

Swaziland 1

South Africa 22

2013 Cohort

Learning, Cognition and Technology

ICTs in Education: Issues and Debates

Educational ICTs for

Developing Context

Online Learning Design

Minor Dissertation

& Advanced Research

Design

1 2 3 4 5

Advanced Research

Design

Compulsory

Write a proposal for their minor dissertation

No mark awarded. Only a pass or fail

Successful completion enables student to begin research

History of the course

Original course

• Students campus-based

• Taught F-2-F

• Two afternoons a week for 2 hours for 8 weeks = 32 hours of contact

• Seminar based

• 1 Lecturer

• Students read and undertake activities between each seminar

Our hybrid model

Pre course

taskFace to

face block

Post course

proposal

Challenge

Research as a story of a complex puzzle

1. Trigger Problem:

Once upon a time ... I was concerned about … (some problem) or I was intrigued by … (some possible opportunity)

2. Context & Rationale

… because in my (context e.g. institution, country) there is a real problem/possible opportunity because ...

Research ‘puzzle piece’

Storyline: Once upon a time

1. Trigger problem

I was concerned about … (some problem) or I was intrigued by … (some possible opportunity)

2. Context & Rationale

… because in my (context e.g. institution, country) there is a real problem/possible opportunity because ...

3. Concept & Literature

At the moment other people are also concerned about … which they describe as … They think that … because they found that …

4. Conceptual/Theoretical framework

Interestingly they used … theory to try and explain … and this has given me the idea to use … in my study …

5. Research questions

… to try and understand why /how /to what extent ...

6. Research methodology

Interestingly they used … (approaches & methodologies) to find out what was happening and this given me the idea to use … in my study. I will approach … to participate in my study.

7. EthicsThey will be happy to participate as I can assure them of … (anonymity OR confidentiality) as I will conduct my research according to ...

8. Validity Other people will trust my research findings because I have ...

9. Referencing & Appendices

... and I have identified all my resources accurately and honestly in my references in-text and in the list at the end of my dissertation … and provided examples of salient documents.

10. Timeline So I am going to do … first, second, third …

11. Title and hand in my thesis titled … by …

“Dynamic lecture notes”

Students able to access notes and COMMENT

Lecturers can update notes, add new notes

Notes can be made public as OER

Activity Groups

Light Dark

A B C D

Red Team 1

Group ii

Student 1

Team 2

Group iii

Student 2

Team 3

Group iv

Student 3

Team 4

Group i

Student 4

Green Team 4

Group iii

Student 5

Team 1

Group iv

Student 6

Team 2

Group i

Student 7

Team 3

Group ii

Student 8

Blue Team 3

Group iv

Student 9

Team 4

Group i

Student 10

Team 1

Group ii

Student 11

Team 2

Group iii

Student 12

Orange Team 2

Group i

Student 13

Team 3

Group ii

Student 14

Team 4

Group iii

Student 15

Team 1

Group iv

Student 16

Research Survival

Proposal drafting processWhat? How? Who assesses? How?

1. Brainstormresearch

Paper-based puzzleFlip-chart presentations

Formative: Students & 2 lecturers

Verbal in class

2. Draft 1 Word-processeddocument in Dropbox

Formative: 1 lecturers Word-processedcomments in Dropbox

3. Draft 2 Word-processeddocument in email and/or in Dropbox

Formative: Allocated peerFormative: 1 lecturer

Emailed word-processed comments in document or completed puzzle to student, peer assessor and lecturers

4. Draft 3 Word-processeddocument in Dropbox

Formative: Student Turnitin in Sakai Assignments

5. Final Word-processeddocument in Dropbox

Summative : 3 lecturers Word-processedcomments in Dropbox

Communication about process

Table in Announcements

1 Lecturer Updated table in Announcements

Peer comments in a completed puzzle

Value of peer-assessment

Reading through your proposal has given me

insight into some of the shortfalls and

weaknesses I have in mine.

… otherwise a nice read. I learnt a couple of things from

the paper that I will apply when writing mine.

Excellent second draft, …I lower my head in shame :-(

Felt a little unqualified to provide feedback, but hey I

tried. Hope there is something you can use.

Today I have a session with them They were amazed with the Research Metaphor "Research is Complex Puzzle", and I am taking them through the process and adopting some of your presentations.

Students reusing and remixing content already

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Prepared by: Cheryl Brown & Cheryl Hodgkinson-

Williams

Contact:

cheryl.brown@uct.ac.za

cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za

Presentation:

http://www.slideshare.net/cheryb/twsia-presentation-final-compressed