E-Learning in Higher Education - Research Paper Example

E Learning in Higher Education Your name Course name Instructor’s name Date of submission INTRODUCTION According to Gagel (1997, pp. 32), User participation is at present viewed as a morally suitable means of researching E-Learning in higher education. Conversely the literature hardly ever discusses the practical and methodological implications for researchers attempting the incorporation of user participation in evaluation studies informed from a positivist research prototype. This research investigates the subject by utilizing the evaluation of e learning effect to explain the training, recruitment and employment of students as survey interviewers. While the assessment methodology takes on a quasi experimental stance, the selection of students as survey interviewers illustrates a different research practice. The collective approach comprises a post positivist methodology in that it merges a data gathering approach more like interpretive social sciences while maintaining a positivist epistemological structure. APPROPRIATENESS OF RESEARCH METHOD The post positivist research methodology normally makes use of qualitative research. The use of qualitative research usually has a variety of advantages especially in the study and evaluation of education issues. Education is usually measured by the quality of the outcomes rather than the quantity. The use of a post positivist research methodology in studying qualitative outcomes in E-Learning would prove to be invaluable. Qualitative research is useful in that it provides an in-depth picture of what is being studied as opposed to the broad familiarity usually attained by quantitative analysis. It also makes use of smaller numbers which is what enables a detailed study of the subject matter, it tries to make interpretations of data in both a culturally and historical perspective before coming to its conclusions, it is also particularly important in adding in flesh to quantitative data (Bishop, 2007). Additionally it is useful as it isolates and defines categories in the course of the research. This enables more specified responses to questions and leads to data which is of more quality than quantitative data. When questions posed by the researcher prove to be too hard for the respondent to respond to accurately, the qualitative method makes it easier for the researcher to know the specific parts of the research parts that are problematic and hence he can modify the research accordingly. It attempts to shed light on features of people’s daily lives by taking an in depth study approach. As it puts value on the participant’s perspectives on their worlds it more than the quantitative approach provides a more comprehensive picture. Finally it relies on people’s own words as its primary data which means that it is more attuned to the real situation on the ground as opposed to other methods which rely on data from secondary sources which cannot be as reliable as primary data. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The evaluation investigation is with the intention of assessing the possibility of the intervention altering the culturally normative status of e learning in higher education. Like many large scale studies this study targets higher learning on the viewpoint that the effects of the mode of study of the individual student contributes to a great deal to comprehensive qualitative outcomes. It also highlights the significance of forging cultural receptivity which is evidenced by shifts in norms values and attitudes relating to e learning. The blueprint of the appraisal entails a pre and post intervention study which is performed in the experimental area and in three control areas. In addition, a comprehensive procedure recording records the progress and execution of the investigation in the investigational segment over and above mapping out e learning related developments in the control segments. Furthermore the study includes some type of user involvement in an attempt at reflecting a student based ethos of the study. This is accomplished through discussion with the stakeholder groups in the course of the survey design and questionnaire development phase of the study, and through the dedication to the training and employment of students as survey interviewers. According to Richard and Blaine (1998) the notion of user participation, as a central constituent of stakeholder based approaches to education, has grown in recognition as a result of the broad modification in thought concerning those who make available and those who are given education services. By permitting the stakeholders to have extra say in the determining of guidelines influencing education, it is alleged that user involvement characterizes a break with previous customs of learning connected with top-down class engineering. Participatory methodologies have been depicted as an optimal means of constructing upon and growing social capital accumulating to communities. Social capital has been built up as a valuable construct for comprehending the correlation linking stakeholders and e learning on account of the stress which it places on stakeholder organization, collaboration and reciprocity. Social capital includes both official and unofficial stakeholder groups, assuming an intermediary gap between micro (personal) and macro (societal) levels where much e learning occurs. Additionally, the construct underlines the significance of alliances or cooperation amongst different stakeholders. These partnerships help in sponsoring e learning across segments, across specialized and lay limitations, and connecting private, public, and NGOs, and debatably outline the keystone of flourishing stakeholder-based e learning. Participatory research Works towards an improved empowerment of service users in the e learning division have been comparable to concern as regards the incapability of positivist study methodologies to mount an effectual challenge against the social practices of inequity and marginalization. Additionally, it is argued that better participation results to improved outcomes. Therefore, learners who have the chance to have a critical reflection on the research progression and take part as decision makers will, experience a sense of empowerment as `designers and `choosers' instead of just people who apply procedures and follow regulations. Notwithstanding its present pre-eminence, participatory investigations comprises a elemental test to the positivistic research pattern inside which most methodical assessment work lives in. This is for the reason that participatory study contests the very principles (value freedom, objectivity and neutrality) on which conventional social science approach is based (Guba 1978, pp.97). The test presented by interpretive approaches is that they successfully break off the detachment linking the investigator and investigated, and correlated to this, the dichotomy object and subject. In turning the conventional investigation model on its head, the participatory methodology campaigns that, rather than fitting specific users' desires, these ought to be dynamically built or fashioned, at an early period in the study, in a spontaneous approach linking users and researchers. Besides putting to the question conventional dependence on quantitative measurement, the participatory methodology questions established prototypes of possession of knowledge and control. In a professional controlled culture, like our own, there is an unspoken supposition that scientific understanding is superior. The tendency to attribute `knowledge troubles to the scientific unawareness or inexperience of partakers or to issues with lay understanding or lay prudence, or both, may possibly generate obstacles to the acknowledgment of lay capability. In spite of bringing to the fore elemental questions concerning the suitability of research approaches and the political and epistemological status of knowledge, there has been modest investigation of the impact of user involvement on the research course of action. Involving Stakeholder interviewers The research was planned to appraise the efficiency of e learning by making use of the determination of divergence connecting the tentative segments and merged control segments in the quantity of alteration linking preliminary and follow-up study in respect of a number of cultural pointers. These consist of information and belief about e learning, its advantages and disadvantages, supposed standards regarding e learning (national, local,), individual attitude to e learning, apparent society support for e education, and society regard for e learning in higher education. The quasi-experimental methodology which we will employ requires that the procedures and forms of data to be gathered were homogeneous (Lincoln and Guba 1985). At the same instance I determine to use local interviewers and there were a number of reasons for this. Primarily, the participation of users in the data gathering it was felt would mirror the stakeholder-based philosophy of the involvement. Secondly, the participation of users for the period of data gathering was planned to aid the purpose of the involvement by increasing consciousness of e learning amongst the interviewers and, by them, additional portions of the public. Thirdly, it was expected that the intent to discover, instruct and provide work for students would offer a potent incentive for people to take part in the study. This would be relevant principally in the instance of the three control segments whose possible benefit from partaking in the research were less obvious than those of the tentative area. Fourthly, it was deemed beneficial to engage partaker who would be, to some degree, conversant concerning their e learning issues and associated to local groups. Fifth, by circumventing traveling costs it is deemed that the employment of student interviewers would be a gainful strategy. Finally, specified that is a practice at present favored by many financial support organizations, it is felt the inclusion of users in the investigation procedure may improve the chances of a successful result to the funding request. The baseline survey The baseline survey purposed to attain 1000 interviews in the tentative segment and in the control segments. So as to attain the sample, households in every area were arbitrarily chosen from the Postcode Address File. Functioning on an anticipated bare minimum response rate of 70%, 1400 addresses were arbitrarily drawn from the PAF. At every of the chosen households, one respondent (aged 16 or older) was to be chosen and questioned. Interviewers were recruited in a number of ways. These incorporated classified ads in the local media, by means of our links with community associations, job centers, by word of mouth, and classified ads at local universities and more education institutions situated inside the study catchment area. Classified ads to draw student to the study were intended for domestic students living in the locales acknowledged for the study. Additionally, a professional institute was approached with an objective of engaging qualified interviewer administrative support. At the instruction gatherings members were offered background knowledge concerning both the appraisal and the intervention. After this opening, participants were trained on the responsibility of interviewer and instructed on selection measures, use of interview and the questionnaires procedures. This instruction centered upon the need of speaking clearly and reading fluently in addition to skills to develop the relationship and the interview procedure by, for instance, fashioning a peaceful environment, seating measures, putting off third parties, employing eye contact, steering clear of providing interviewers view and not leading respondent. The research team endeavored to make up for complications which they expected the interviewers may face. A degree of instruction was offered to the confines of the on hand wherewithal. Interviewers were provided with an attractive pay package and were remunerated by the hour instead of by the quantity of interviews accomplished. This policy sought after avoiding interviewers speeding up through interviews so as to realize utmost fees. Analysis Researchers aiming to put together features of participatory investigation into an general positivist study framework ought to be aware of the practical and methodological implications for the research undertaking. The baseline survey will offer training to students and involve them from an early stage of the process in order for them to feel a sense of ownership of the project and identify with the objectives of the evaluation. Interviewer supervisors who are residents of the target sectors will play a vital role in inspiring group members. Supervisors will in addition play the role of intermediaries between the research team and the interviewer. Problems of errant interviewers and those who contribute less to the research effort will be solved through encouraging competitiveness by rewarding performance. In an attempt to satisfy all stakeholders, this may sometimes be contrary to the objectives of the research and as such the post positivist approach involves a lot of counter balances and checks at various stages to ensure non divergence from the aims. While this is a good thing it may lead to a lot of time wasting and paperwork as well as increase the burden of the research time which would be of more use in analysis. The use of stakeholder interviewers is important in this kind of research as it makes the interviewers to have a sense of ownership of the project and hence they will be more dedicated to ensure the achievement of its outcomes. The personalized nature of a positivist approach enables the research team to acquire real time information being sought as the information is found primarily from respondents. It also allows for follow up questions and clarifications to be made as the respondent is with the interviewer in real time (Gagel 1997, pp. 17). INTRODUCTION Naturalistic evaluation is a methodology of evaluation that has evolved in the course of the precedent eight to seven years as of the effort of a number of researchers at the Indiana Center for Evaluation in Bloomington Indiana. The model has been employed in the appraisal of a variety of programs in social service agencies, museums and school. Guba (1978) describes naturalistic evaluation as having evolved from two current streams of thought, responsive evaluation from within the evaluation field and naturalistic methodologies from the area of qualitative inquiry. One of the most salient features of naturalistic evaluation is its emergent design quality. In naturalistic evaluation the investigator enters a new situation with the intent of uncovering needs of clients and participants in the study. APPROPRIATENESS OF RESEARCH METHOD In conventional inquiry, internal validity refers to the extent to which the findings accurately describe reality. Lincoln and Guba (1985) state that "the determination of such isomorphism is in principle impossible", because one would have to know the "precise nature of that reality" and, if one knew this already, there would be no need to test it. The conventional researcher must postulate relationships and then test them; the postulate cannot be proved, but only falsified. The naturalistic researcher, on the other hand, assumes the presence of multiple realities and attempts to represent these multiple realities adequately. Credibility becomes the test for this. Credibility depends less on sample size than on the richness of the information gathered and on the analytical abilities of the researcher. External Validity / Generalizability versus Transferability In conformist research, external soundness denotes the capacity to take a broad view of results across diverse situations. Making generalities entails a exchange among internal and external validity. That is to say, so as to make generalizable proclamations that are relevant to a lot of circumstances, one can incorporate only restricted characteristics of each local circumstance. Lincoln and Guba (1985) declare that generalizability is "an engaging notion," as it permits a facade of forecast and command over circumstances. Reliability versus Dependability Gagel (1997, pp.34) categorize three kinds of reliability referred to in conformist research, which involve: 1) the measure to which a dimension, given time after time, stays the same; 2) the constancy of a dimension in due course; and 3) the likeness of dimensions in a given time interlude. Lincoln and Guba (1985): "As there can be no reliability without validity, an expression of the previous is adequate to confirm the latter". Objectivity versus Confirmability Usual understanding declares that investigation which relies on quantitative procedures to describe a state of affairs is reasonably value-free, and consequently objective. Qualitative investigation, which relies on analysis and is admittedly value-bound, is deemed to be skewed. In the world of predictable research, subjectivity results to outcomes that are both undependable and unsound (Eisner, 1991). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The three key stages of a naturalistic assessment investigation include; the familiarization period, the action period, and the synthesis period. Initial activities in the familiarization phase offer a fundamental association with the field, like in an anthropological Methodology. Wolf explains this stage as the conceptualizing and preliminary stage in the course of which the preliminary type of the investigation is developed and a preamble to the background and significant literature is recognized. At this position, certain conclusions are made that bring into spotlight the broad bearing of the study: defining the variety of addressees of the assessment, defining some general and undefined classification or ideas regarding what to follow, developing a primary interview and study methodology and timetable, developing a structure for recording and classifying information so as to guarantee its ease of access and privacy. These actions assist in creating an organization for the research, but one that ought to stay elastic and that can be extended, sidetracked, or amended when the need arises (Bishop, 2007). During the action stage examination, interviewing and text appraisal are main means employed to find out noteworthy unease and subjects. The assessor seeks to document the agenda with comprehensive explanatory data and to sustain the emerging concern and problems with an extensive record of natural language excerpts and examination entries. As interviewing and observing progress there is a buildup of ideas, outlooks, principles, and troubles. The classification and collection of main problems and concern from amassing field and interview annotations are vital and challenging jobs that persist all through this stage. The evaluator's opinions and classification of problems and concerns are recurrently tested and appraised in every encounter with participants in the study. The procedures of data compilation, taxonomy analysis and substantiation are interactive and iterative (Richard and Blaine 1998). Over and above in-depth interviewing and examination in this stage, the assessor could seek extra sources of applicable information for instance program files, funding proposal, financial plans, investigation results, local daily news, or material from associated institutions. Information from these documents might substantiate or disprove budding impressions or might give rise to extra apprehension not yet exposed. The procedures of the action stage have to all go before the subsequent step of amalgamation and presentation of the findings. To expose a concern in the course of the amalgamation stage for which there are no sustaining data means an insufficient study. For an investigation to be successful, the procedures of data gathering, investigation and justification ought to take place concurrently in the field. Continuing investigation in the action stage offers bearing and configuration for the resultant combination. The synthesis stage is dedicated to developing a last production and holding a concluding debriefing. The major objective of the last presentation are to depict the program correctly, to sum up and construe problems and concerns and to offer insights and contemplations outside the data based on the respondents’ and investigator’s responses. For the reason of the constant contact among assessor and client all through the research, there are usually no surprises in the closing staging. The conclusions of naturalistic assessment are offered in a way that contrasts powerfully with characteristic pre-ordinate investigation reports. Writing is decidedly expressive and habitually personal. The assessor’s participation is partly exposed in the choice of subject to be analyzed and in the deliberations further than the data highlighted in the conclusion. The individuality and stance of the researcher are not covered. Manifold perspectives and principles of respondents are circumspectly offered. Efforts to expose individual impact and implication are expansively sustained by express excerpts or rewordings of various individuals’ remarks. A fundamental endeavor of this form of production is to make the research’s conclusions expressly applicable and practical to the evaluation’s addressees (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). Supportive substantiation for instance examples of participant’s work, charts, graphs, program materials, video tapes, and photographs, may as well be integrated. THE BASELINE SURVEY This is an exposition observational study, encompassing both descriptive and proportional rudiments. It was carried out in a public university situated in the State of New York. The university has 70,000 students 19 percent of whom are in the distance learning program and hence are relevant to this study. The remaining are also relevant as regular programs also provide for research which is to a degree e learning. E learning has been in the university’s program for a little over ten years now and has recently been gaining popularity. This survey’s intent was to attain the views of 700 respondents in the investigational segment and control segments. The respondents were obtained through records from the university registrar’s office. The samples of 900 students were arbitrarily drawn from the register. Respondents from various modules such as full time part time, resident, non resident as well as from certificate, diploma, and undergraduate, graduate all the way up to post doctoral studies were incorporated into the study. The interviews were done over a 6 month period in order to reach the required number of 700 respondents. Professional research experts were engaged in addition to professional colleagues from the university department. The interviewers were grounded on the basics of the research methodology and the objectives of the research. They were also taken through the objectives of the research in order to enable them to be able to formulate follow up questions. The purpose of this was to cater for special instances where information which might prove useful came up during the interviews (Eisner 1991). If the researcher felt strongly enough that this was relevant to the objectives of the research he would be able to ask objective specific follow up questions. MAINTAINING THE VALIDITY OF THE RESEARCH To maintain the validity of the qualitative research a variety of factors need to be taken into consideration by the researcher. The researcher first of all must be a good listener as the subject of the research is usually the source of a majority of the input. Consequently it is the assessor’s duty to interpret accurately the subject’s responses. A system of proper and accurate recording and storage of collected material should be developed in the course of material gathering as opposed to after the session. The researcher must make a rough draft of the study before going to the field to collect data. This makes it possible for a record to be made when required. This also enables the researcher to be more prepared and thus he can be more focused o the collection of data which will attain the specified requirements of the study. In order to maintain validity, the primary data obtained from the respondents must be included in the ultimate report. The inclusion of the primary data enables the reader to see the basis of the researcher’s conclusions. In addition to the primary data all other data must be incorporated into the final report even if the researcher does not understand such information. This will enable the audience to make its own conclusions. The researcher must in cases of having opinions voice them if they are relevant to the study. In pursuit of validity it will be important that the researcher will seek feedback from professional colleagues to maintain accuracy. Information usually has actual and perceived importance and in pursuance of this the researcher will determine the difference from information gathered. Finally there will be emphasis on accurate writing and grammar in order to prevent ambiguity and inconsistency. ANALYSIS Qualitative researchers have a tendency to make use of inductive study of data, importing that the significant themes come forward from the data. Qualitative analysis needs some ingenuity, for the challenge is to put the unprocessed data into reasonable, significant classes; to scrutinize them in a holistic manner; and to uncover a means to correspond this analysis to others (Guba 1978, pp.56-73). Sitting down to classify a mass of unrefined data can be a intimidating task involving hundreds of sheets of interview transcriptions, field annotations and documents. Analysis began with recognition of the premises emerging from the unrefined data. In the course of open coding, we identified and tentatively named the theoretical classes into which the experience observed will be clustered. The objective is to produce expressive, multi-dimensional classifications which outline an introductory construction for analysis. These classes may be progressively customized or substituted all through the succeeding phases of investigation that follow. As the unrefined data was broken down into convenient portions, we devised an "audit trail"-which is, a system for categorizing these data portions according to their context and speaker. The subsequent phase of analysis involved re-examination of the classes recognized to establish how they are associated. The point of coding is to not merely describe but, more significantly, to obtain latest understanding of a experience of significance. As a result, underlying events causal to the experiences; explanatory information of the occurrence itself; and the implications of the occurrence under study have to all be acknowledged and investigated. In the course of axial coding the investigator is in charge of building a theoretical model and for determining if sufficient data is present to hold up that analysis. Finally, the theoretical model was translated into the story line to be read by the audience. The research report is a rich, compactly woven description that "strongly approximates the actuality it corresponds to"(Bishop, 2007). CRITIC/EVALUATION OF NATURALIST AND POST POSITIVIST APPROACH According to Richard and Blaine (1998 pp.56) the naturalist approach generally tends to focus on quality. It focuses on issues of nature and essence that’s the reason of it being referred to as a naturalist approach. The post positivist approach on the other hand focuses on the quantity. For instance it focuses on how many people have access to e learning options whereas the naturalist approach focuses on of what quality is that e learning module and how can it be improved. The philosophical roots of the two methods also differ to some extent. While the naturalist is based on phenomenological and symbolic interaction between the data collected from the respondents, the post positivist approach adopts a logical empiricism which attempts top find connections between the data connected which can be verified by research. The phrases associated with naturalist research are fieldwork naturalistic, subjective, grounded, and ethnographic while the post positivist approach employs use of the terms empirical, statistical and experimental. The goal of the naturalist study is usually to understand, to give a description, to discover and to generate a hypothesis. For instance the research on e learning was for the sake of understanding the attitudes of people, use, and making hypothesis on why the reception and use of e learning is how it is. A post positivist approach on the other hand is more concerned with predicting, controlling, describing and hypothesis testing. Thus, the post positivist approach is more of a development of the naturalist approach as it refines the data collected from the naturalist exercise. The sample of a naturalist approach is usually small; non random and theoretical while the post positivist approach involves a large random sample. The use of random samples by the post positivist approach enables for a more representative and more valid outcome than the naturalist approach although this depends on the context (Eisner, 1991). There exists a difference in the two methods concerning the method of data collection. The naturalist approach uses the researcher as the primary instrument of the study through the use of interviews and observations. The post positivist research employs the use of inanimate instruments like computers, questionnaires, surveys, tests and scales as its primary data collection instruments. This makes the naturalist survey more valid as it is more related to attitudes and feelings of people in real time as opposed to inanimate study such as questionnaires. However the use of inanimate instruments such as surveys has the advantage of corroboration possibility. The naturalist approach is an inductive method of study while the post positivist approach is a deductive study. The findings of the naturalist approach are normally more comprehensive, holistic and expansive as compared to the post positivist approach whose results are usually narrow reductionist and precise. Thus said, the findings of the naturalist approach are more reliable and valid than the results of a post positivist approach. A comparison of the two methods indicates that it is more appropriate to use the naturalistic approach rather than the post positivist approach in conducting a research on e learning in higher education. Bibliography Bishop, R, C., 2007.  The Philosophy of the Social Sciences. New York: Continuum Eisner, E. W. 1991. The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company. Gagel, C. 1997. Literacy and technology: reflections and insights for technological literacy. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 34(3), 6-34. Guba, E. G. 1978. Toward a methodology of naturalistic inquiry in educational evaluation. Monograph 8. Los Angeles: UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation. Lincoln, Y. S., and Guba, E. G. 1985. Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Richardson, Frank C. and Blaine J. Fowers. 1998. “Interpretive Social Science: An Overview.” American Behavioral Scientist 41:465-95. Read More