Meeting the challenge of teaching research methods online Findings from the Pedagogy of Methodological Learning study Debbie Collins

Focus of my doctoral research How is research methods being taught online? the approaches, strategies, tactics and tasks the challenges teachers are seeking to address How is digital technology, specifically the affordances of the online teaching space, being used to support: delivery of course content? pedagogic approaches, strategies, tactics and tasks? Is the role of the technology necessary to achieving the pedagogic goals identified?

Research Methods Case study Semi-structured interviews Document analysis Observation Document-stimulated reflection

Possible frameworks for looking at online research methods pedagogy

Nind & Lewthwaite typology of research methods pedagogy Approaches The teacher’s guiding theory, values, principles, identity Strategy The grand plan for achieving pedagogic goals Tactics What the teacher does in-situ to implement the strategy Tasks Actions that learners (& teacher) have to do

Technological Pedagogic Content Knowledge ‘representation of concepts using technologies; pedagogical techniques that use technologies in constructive ways to teach content; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems students face; knowledge of students' prior knowledge and theories of epistemology; knowledge of how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge and to develop new epistemologies or strengthen old ones.' Mishra, P. & Koehler, M.J. (2006): 1029

Early findings

Some challenges of teaching research methods online Amplifying generic research methods challenges e.g. student diversity, student engagement Technological e.g. students having required hardware/ software Communication e.g. channels Temporal e.g. for synchronous sessions Flexibility e.g. to tailor to individual student’s needs

Meeting the challenge – Student engagement Approaches – student centred, active learning Strategies – seek student feedback, use of examples/ literature that are relevant to students’ research interests, unstructured, structured Tactics – Questions to students, prompting Tasks – students find articles, reviewing articles, group discussion, posting to the forum

What role does the technology play? Pedagogy Technology Approach Student-centred Strategy seek student feedback Unstructured/ structured synchronous discussion sessions Email/ message board with individual students Tactic Questions to students Asynchronous – using the message board (pre-planned and in response to posts) Task students find articles to review and share with group Use of message board to share articles, discuss points

What role does the technology play? Pedagogy Technology Approach Student-centred Strategy Use of examples/ literature that are relevant to students’ research interests Find out student interests through email/ message board exchanges Tactic Questions, probing Email, message board Task students find articles to review and share with group Use of message board to share articles, discuss points

What next? Further data collection and analysis Focus on role of technology in approaches, strategy, tactics, tasks Exploring application of TPAK to my data

Questions, comments