Presentation for EDDE 806 (research seminar 2), Athabasca University. Proposed research topic

1. Collaboration!
Wait… Say what?!?

2. Hello!
Apostolos Koutropoulos
“AK”
Cohort 7
Boston, MA
You can find me at:
@koutropoulos

3. Working
Title
Open Course
Collaboration: A case
study of emergent
collaboration in
Rhizo14 and Rhizo15

4. This Presentation...
◎ Background
◎ “Problem”
◎ Methodology
◎ Literature Review
◎ Points of Interest
◎ Roadmap

5. 1.
Background
Where did this thing begin?

6. Place your screenshot here
Pre-History
Collaboration in MobiMOOC
2011

7. Rhizo14
The community that piqued (kindled?) my interest in
collaborative research in online communities

8. Rhizo15
Rhizo15, the band comes back...

9. What Happened in (or because of) the Rhizos?
◎ We learned...
◎ We interacted… (student-student, and student-content)
◎ We formed voluntary groups to research…
(wait...what? This wasn’t in the syllabus!)
Not
unprecedented...

10. Products of this collaboration...
◎ Research Papers (peer reviewed)
◎ Guest Blogs (Profhacker)
◎ Conference Presentations
◎ Virtually Connecting (Rhizo spin off?)

11. 2.
“Problem”
More of a phenomenon...really!

12. Why?The big question

13. Return (for more)Connect
EndureParticipate
Why?
(why)
(why)
(why)
(why)

14. Research Questions
Intentionality
What motivations are
there for creating and
joining a group?
Limits
How long do
collaborative
relationships last?
● What are some of the limits to
collaboration, are they overcome?
● Do collaborations persist? What
are the reasons for and against?
● Do collaborations have limits? Or
do they continue, in some form,
in perpetuity?
● What were the initial motivations
for creating or joining a group?
● Did members join intentionally,
or did they just fall into the
collaboration?
● What did members hope to gain
from such collaboration, and did
they achieve their goals?

15. 3.
Methodology
How to reach this thing...

16. Methodological
Omnivore
Urocyon cinereoargenteus

17. Overall Methodology
Emergent Case Study Design
◎ Qualitative or sequential mixed-methods
Data Collection
◎ Questionnaire
◎ Interviews
◎ Document collection
◎ Journaling
◎ Focus groups (depending...)

18. Research Participants
Individuals who:
◎ enrolled in Rhizo14 and/or Rhizo15
◎ collaborated an extra-curricular research
project that was:
○ published in an academic journal
○ published in an non-peer-review venue
○ presented at a conference.
◎ in groups of 2 or more people

19. Location of potential participants

20. Analysis
◎ Survey Analysis
○ If mixed methods, quantitative analysis
◎ Thematic Analysis of transcripts
○ Two rounds of individual interviews,
○ maybe a focus group as the third round
◎ Document analysis
○ Participants’ blogs reflecting on collaboration
○ Industry publications written by collaborators

21. Validity
◎ Multiple coders for transcripts
◎ Member checking
○ Transcript accuracy
○ Interpretation accuracy
○ Peer review of final product
◎ Triangulation

22. Limitations
◎ Small sample size (it’s OK, it’s a case study)
◎ Not generalizable (that’s fine by me, qualitative studies generally are not)
◎ Group does not appear to be ‘the norm’ of
participants in MOOCs (learning something from the “deviants”)

23. 4.
Literature Review
Been there before? Maybe...maybe not!

24. Challenges: #1 where to begin?
Image credit: http://www.science.tamu.edu/img/articles/3p%20oliver%20with%20Bryan%20Hi%20kids3.jpg
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/files/2010/04/group-t2i8yl.jpg
http://www.cyberalert.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Evaluate-Media-monitoring-RFP.jpg
The obvious:
Start with similar
classroom research
The thought:
Skeptical if such prior
research is really useful -
unecesarry rabbit hole (?)

25. Challenges #2: Multiple lenses
Motivation
Actor
Network
Theory
Organizational
Theory
Communities
Personal
Learning
Networks
Leadership
Open ethos
Networked
Learning
Need to pare down?
Image credit: http://gearpatrol.com/2016/05/04/a-guide-to-vintage-lenses-for-your-nikon-dslr/

26. Multiple Lenses (805 Assignment 1 version)
LeardershipMotivation PLNs
Org. TheoryANT

27. Multiple Lenses (805 Assignment 3 version)

28. Current thoughts (most likely to change, don’t hold me to them)
1
0
2
Sample
text
Sampletext
Sample
text
Sample
text
Sample
text

29. Literature Review Reset
MOOC (especially
the last couple of
years…)
Collaboration
(characteristics of
successful
collaborative
relationships)
Collaboration
Instances
(classroom, work,
Prof. Dev.)

30. 5.
Points of Interest
əˈmərjənt dəˈzīn

31. Relevance of traditional classroom literature?
Pondering how relevant research into
traditional classroom-based collaboration is.
How deep to go into it?

32. Networked Learning & SNA

33. What’s a
product?
Expanding definition = expanding participants?

34. Methods
Lincoln & Guba (1985, 1994)
◎ Member checking
◎ Credibility
Geertz (1973)
◎ Thick Descriptions
Denzin (1978)
◎ Triangulation

35. 6.
Roadmap
How long will this take then?

36. α β γ δ
Spring
2017
Fall
2017
Spring
2018
Fall
2018
Go through
feedback
Expand Lit
Review section
Refine &
elaboration on
methods
Proposal
Work
Defense Data
Collection &
Analysis
Writing &
Checking
Feedback from
Advisor
Feedback from
the interwebs
Refine
Defend!
Data
Collection
Analysis
Data
Collection
Analysis
(rinse,repeat)
Member
checking
Re-analysing
Committee
Feedback
Public
Feedback &
comment
Writing

37. Spring Semester Goals (Feb-July)
Literature Review
◎ Read through this pile -->
◎ Discover and read related literature
○ Traditional classrooms collab
Methodology
◎ Read through Yin & Stake Books
◎ Read through Internet Inquiry
◎ Review Creswell (again)
Ethics
◎ Review AOIR ethics recommendations
Nothing is true,
everything is
permitted

38. “
Be ruthlessly pragmatic(paraphrased)
Marguerite Koole
EDDE 806 (01/2016)

39. Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
@koutropoulos