In the initial phase of my DBR I posted an issue that I was having with the online tutoring. However, after posting this to my blog, and having discussions with my clients and fellow colleagues, I reformulated my statement of the problem to how to deliver my service in an online environment but try to maintain the effectiveness that is achieved in a face-to-face context. To help inform the development of my DBR I sought feedback from individuals within the "strong" and "weak" ties of my network (Carvalho & Goodyear, 2014, p. 27). To obtain feedback by peers in NGL (i.e. my weak ties) I tried to ensure that blog posts were appropriately titled to attract their attention in Feedly, such as "Seeking feedback on my research proposal." This attracted many peers, particularly Mari, Paul, Deb, Laura and Philip. I am grateful to these students as they each returned to provide feedback on my proposal when I completed Phase II. I also communicated via email, using both private and university email, and via Google Docs. Despite a few issues with the Docs platform, such as not allowing comments on my document or my own ignorance of the access process, many of my peers did gain access and provide valuable advice. I also sought feedback by colleagues (i.e. strong ties) that I had worked within the university setting, each with extensive experience with online learning.
Although many of my peers are not directly involved with delivering programs online, they each have experience with learning online, such as Mari, or are in a similar field, particularly Deb and Laura. Deb, who is employed in a higher education context, commented on how my proposal was of interest to her and that it has "mostly reaffirmed... the approach [USQ] has to supporting teachers in their online teaching." Her suggestion on using eLearning tools to "enhance social presence" propelled my further investigation in the use of new technologies to engage learners. Laura outlined my limited description of my context, and how it was necessary to situate the reader. She also emphasised the importance of providing justification of why I chose the media in my intervention, and how the literature supports my choice. Mari provided many suggestions on how to encourage learner collaboration, such as creating contexts for students to share their writing or comment on each other's posts. It was Mari's ideas about encouraging the co-construction of a task that informed the writing task in my intervention.
Feedback from clients was also constructive throughout each phase of my DBR. In accordance with "participatory design" in design thinking, where the people who are expected to be the beneficiaries of the design are involved in the process from the early stages (Leinnon & Durall, 2014, p. 109), during Phase I of my DBR many students had informed me about the importance of personal interaction with their tutors online. One student highlighted how "something transformational happens" after talking with their tutors - they no longer feel like just another student, they feel "known, understood and real." This was reiterated by many other students, who cited the importance of interacting with "real people" rather than using avatars or other similar virtual technologies to promote social presence, as suggested in my literature review. These students also revealed what teaching practices they felt was most engaging or effective for learning, such as the delivery of content that feels like they are in the classroom with the teacher, or learning through Youtube videos or even games, such as Grammar Ninja. One client highlighted how using gaming language, such as "challenge" rather than "task" made the learning seem "more fun" and less daunting. Most of all, clients or former students, highlighted how important it was to receive personalised feedback on their learning. Upon receiving all this feedback I made changes to my DBR.
Feedback from practitioners in online learning was also crucial for informing my DBR process. A colleague advised on researching the literature of design thinking and gamification, as they are both contemporary fields or ideas that provide many fruitful discussions on the latest in creating meaningful learning experiences. I was attracted to the design thinking approach, which appears very similar to the DBR approach, as they both emphasise the importance of the iteration process, and how having a problem-focused approach is essential if one is to create a solution that is designed according to user needs. Design thinking, like DBR, emphasises the importance of "deep understanding of and empathy with the user," and how this understanding will need to be constantly evaluated and integrated into the program." This colleague also highlighted how my problem is formulated from a socio-centric epistemological position that learning is social, meaning that I see "learning is [being] about connections, emotions, dispositions, [and] relationships," in alignment with a social constructivist position (Putnam & Borko, 2000). By informing me about my epistemological stance, I became aware of how I was shaping the questions to fulfil my own ideas about what constituted effective learning experiences rather than researching the range of literature that reveals dynamic approaches, particularly within NGL.
Another colleague who is an online learning coach reaffirmed many of the claims made in my proposal. She outlined how she feels socially connected to students because of synchronous and asynchronous tools. She outlined how synchronous tools allow for almost immediate feedback, as outlined in the literature (Hrastinski, 2006). However, she also finds that asynchronous tools, such as discussion boards, also help create an online social presence. This is because it provides students with "control and flexibility in the course content during the learning process," especially that many are "time poor." She also reaffirmed the importance of programs that provide an "intuitive feel," where they enable learners to navigate the interface "seamlessly" rather than a "disjointed format." It was constructive feedback like this revealed how my approach resonated with practitioners in the field.
The DBR process has made me realise the importance of "intensive and long-term collaboration" with researchers and practitioners in order to integrate the development of solutions and practical problems to my teaching practice (Herrington et al. 2011). However, it has also revealed that to develop an innovative online writing program a “human-centred, creative, iterative, and practical approach” is necessary (Brown, 2013, p. 92). Therefore, through the "shared, social construction of understanding" with my clients, who will be the users of my program, I will be able create a prototype that is meaningful in the research of education (Leinonen & Durall, 2014, p. 107).
References:
Brown, T. (2008). Design Thinking, Harvard Business Review, Retrieved from http://www.ideo.com/images/uploads/thoughts/IDEO_HBR_Design_Thinking.pdf
Goodyear, P. (2014). Productive Learning Networks: The Evolution of Research and Practice. In L. Carvalho & P. Goodyear (Eds.), The Architecture of Productive Learning Networks (pp. 23–47). London: Routledge.
Herrington, J., McKenney, S., Reeves, T. & Oliver, R. (2007). Design-based research and doctoral students: Guidelines for preparing a dissertation proposal. In C. Montgomerie & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2007 (pp. 4089-4097). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Hrastinski, S. (2006). Introducing an informal synchronous medium in a distance learning course: How is participation affected? The Internet and Higher Education, 9, 117–131.
Hrastinski, S. (2007). Participating in synchronous online education. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Informatics, Lund University, Sweden. Retreived from https://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=599311&fileOId=600490
Putnam, R. T. & Borko, H. (2000). What Do New Views of Knowledge and Thinking Have to Say about Research on Teacher Learning? Educational Researcher, 29(1), 4-15.
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