Content Analysis: More Questions

This week, my goal was to immerse myself in content analysis methodology to prepare for my final paper and determine the components and resources to conduct content analysis this summer. It’s quite exciting! After reading, Krippendorff (2019), I intend to utilize content analysis as a technique to contextualize meanings from quality standards texts for online distance education that can be replicated and will address my research questions. These are the questions or actions that I will need to address:

1. How will I validate my process and findings from the content analysis?
2. How will content analysis inform my second phase of research? How will I be able to triangulate this data?
3. What are my units?
4. How will I determine my samples? At the moment, I believe the EU standards and ISO standards will be included, but what others? By geographical region? I will need to begin researching and evaluating existing standards.
5. What computer aids will be best? ATLAS.ti, NVIVO, SPSS, R integrations? This all depends on the other questions, it’s not central to my next steps, but I will need to work on acquiring the tools necessary.
6. I will need to determine if content analysis will be utilized to study trends or standards. This decision will help me identify if I’m analyzing textual analysis (frequency and relationships) or if I need support for qualitative data analysis (to understand international differences and application).

I look forward to thinking and reflecting on these questions to narrow my scope.

References:

Krippendorff, K. (2019). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage publications.

Building My Educational Research Plan

This week I have been taking time to organize my future research plan. I purchased relevant books (both content and methods), downloaded software to clean and visualize data, and developed a conceptual wireframe to manage various research projects to develop my skills and expertise.

Qualitative Research Updates:

1. I met with the Bias and Equity in Learning Analytics Research Team to plan our next round of coding. We have agreed to review two new stakeholder group transcripts and develop a new codebook that aligns with our student codebook. This experience has taught me new coding techniques and how to manage a research process with a team. I really enjoy qualitative coding and thinking deeply about context and meaning and how it can be reduced and organized in a codebook. I think it’s fun and challenges my curiosity.
2. This week, I was assigned via my RA position to use a developed codebook to analyze discussion forum posts from a MOOC. Having not been a part of the codebook’s development and iterations, it was interesting to code and interpret the data. Also, this process was less reductionist and more generalizable. I feel fortunate that I can work on both of these projects at the same time because the experience can be transferred and applied. I have been able to see what processes work well and areas that can be improved. I believe this will help me as I continue to think about my own research for my dissertation.
3. I purchased Krippendorff, K. (2018). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage publications. to begin planning for Phase 1 of my mixed-methods study, which I hope to begin this summer. Also, to inform my approach and improve my skills, I am developing another research project with a team of researchers on transnational distance education. Again, working on two projects to inform each other.

Quantitative Research Updates:

1. Although many educational researchers are intimidated by quantitative research methods, I feel there is a need to de-mystify the application of statistical methods. Luckily, this week I have been able to begin learning R, exploring the best use-cases of SPSS, and improving my skills in cleaning data in Excel. I worked through a 17,000+ record dataset to recommend approaches to visualization for interpretation.
2. Again, I want to put the pieces in place now, so I can apply these skills to my dissertation when I get to that point in my research. I want to hone these skills to reduce technical barriers so that I can zero-in on my research focus. I guess you could say I’m front-loading efforts. I am thankful for my RA work in providing me relevant experience.
3. Finally,  I purchased Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A. (2009). Foundations of mixed methods research: Integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Sage. to help me develop how my qualitative data will inform my quantitative data so they can be triangulated. This is an area that continues to pique my interest.

Ok, I have lots of reading and writing to do…until next time!

 

Conceptual or Theoretical? Building my Framework

I have been spending time thinking about my conceptual and theoretical frameworks for my future research. However, it wasn’t until I had a conversation with a friend that she asked, “what’s the difference between conceptual frameworks and theoretical frameworks?” I realized I never spent time differentiating the two, not to mention the implications of both frameworks to my research.

According to (Crawford, 2019), although scholars differ on a universal conceptual framework definition, all operating definitions suggest that a conceptual framework provides context for the study. Whereas theoretical frameworks situate how a research study tests a theory within a conceptual framework. Conceptual frameworks are articulated narratively and often in a visual with arrows, circles and boxes demonstrating movement and synthesis of complex concepts. The process of organizing, prioritizing, drawing connections, synthesizing and presenting ideas in one space is a valuable exercise to build a strong foundation for a research project. I look forward to building my conceptual framework, working through the process and strengthening my understanding of my proposed study.

 

Burkholder, G. J., Cox, K. A., Crawford, L. M., & Hitchcock, J. H. (Eds.). (2019). Research design and methods: An applied guide for the scholar-practitioner. SAGE Publications.