The power of design on flexible learning and digital network literacy/Project notes

General project notes
John Milne invited three project leaders to present an update about their projects and share ideas. Bronwyn Hegarty presented the Power of Design overview and progress.
 * 11 April 2008 - project update presentation

The following progress report was included in the February 28 project milestone report: Some case studies of teaching and learning at Otago Polytechnic have been investigated and three exemplar case studies have been written and published on WikiEducator on the project site. See:
 * 27 February 2008 - Project update
 * Milestone 2a: : Exploration of exemplar case studies case studies

The case studies are in the section on Case studies.


 * Case study 1: Practical skills for veterinary nurses (CDrom)
 * Case study 2: Designing for Flexible Learning Practice
 * Case study 3: Facilitating online learning communities


 * Milestone 2b: setup of networked learning and learning community space: The researchers use WikiEducator as a community learning space for the project . The researchers also belong to a networked learning email list serv group which has been set up for academic staff at Otago Polytechnic. This group shares practice around web 2.0 tools and strategies and social networking. People who participate in the course that this project is evaluating (Designing for Flexible Learning Practice), are invited to join the Networked learning community during the course and also when they have finished the course.


 * Progress in the research evaluation – milestone 3: There are online progress reports and information on the project site.

Ethics approval was obtained on 29 November 2007. Two debrief interviews between the course lecturers (also the researchers)have been conducted by an external interviewer and these being transcribed by a transcriber who is external to Otago Polytechnic. Participants who completed the Designing for Flexible Learning Practice course (n=23) have been invited to participate in the research evaluation. The first focus groups ran on the 8 February with the external interviewer, Joanna Cobley, facilitating them. Six participants attended though nine had responded and then were unable to attend. The recordings are currently being transcribed.

Further focus groups will be facilitated in April – two face-to face and one on computer conference for some participants now living at some distance from Otago Polytechnic or on leave (n=4).

An online survey has been disseminated to participants and a reminder email will be sent out shortly. Response rates have not yet been checked. The next step is to write up the research process in more detail as a formal evaluation plan on the project wiki with a more detailed timeline; content from this will contribute to the final report.

Analysis of data is expected to begin mid March.

The survey questions have been sent to the organisational researcher (permission was obtained to use his services and this will be funded by the project). It is expected that the survey will be ready online in the week beginning 4 February.
 * 22 January 2008 - Summary of progress to date. so far good progress has been made on the project. The first milestone report has been sent to the project manager and the first payment has been made to the Trust Fund set up for the project. The researchers have had an initial formal meeting and have continued to communicate about the project - after all they do share an office. Ethics approval was obtained on 29 November 2007. Two debrief interviews between the course lecturers (also the researchers)have been conducted by an external interviewer and these are about to be transcribed by a transcriber who is external to Otago Polytechnic.

Participants will be contacted on 23 January and invited to participate in the research evaluation, however not all academic staff have returned to work yet. It is hoped to run the first focus groups on 7 and 8 February with the external interviewer, Joanna Cobley facilitating them. This depends on the availability of the potential participants.

A more detailed plan for the project is about to be drawn up by Bronwyn. Leigh and Bronwyn need to complete the case study exercise - Terry has done his already. This is milestone two so needs to be done soon.

Meetings
24 August 2007 - present: Terry Marler, Leigh Blackall, Bronwyn Hegarty

The initial meeting was held to brainstorm our approach to the project. There will be three parts to the project:
 * 1) An exploration of exemplar case studies in the guidelines to examine design models.
 * 2) A research evaluation of the effectiveness of: the GCTLT course called Designing for Flexible Learning and the relationship with the three guidelines. Including the influence of strategies for networked learning and learning communities on levels of digital networked literacy and self-efficacy for eLearning.
 * 3) Setting up or working into established networked learning communities for continuing professional development.

1. Research evaluation of Designing for the Flexible Learning Practice (DFLP) course - which of the following is the best approach to debrief as a group - facilitators and participants?
 * Researchers (DFLP facilitators) control and do everything - conflict of interest & will inhibit honest feedback from participants;
 * Researchers design the project and an external agent to EDC but within Otago Polytechnic is used;
 * Researchers design the project and use an internal agent - complementary to other activities;
 * Outsource the entire project - not feasible.

Agreement was reached on the following:
 * Use an external person to facilitate a debrief/reflection with the DFLP facilitators and focus group interviews with DFLP participants. Suggestions - marketing person or other to be discussed further. BH has a contact who would be excellent - does really good podcast interviews.
 * Researchers know the course therefore need to design the research evaluation.
 * Allocate one day per month $6000 for all of us with BH leading the project.
 * Hire RA for 0.2 ($5 - 6000)- will need to keep some $$ for outsourcing transcribing of focus group interviews. (Roz McKechnie has done some for BH before and is excellent.)
 * Research design to be developed on here.
 * Research questions:
 * Was the design of the course effective in promoting digital networked literacy?
 * Was a team approach effective for developing and implementing the course?

Suggestions re research evaluation
 * Seek an internal (within EDC) research assistant - have since found out that our first idea is not possible. One of the project development technicians who is already working on the main eLearning Guidelines project could be a possibility.

2. An exploration of exemplar case studies in the guidelines to examine design models.
 * People to look for one on the eLearning guidelines project wiki (Massey).
 * Also create own case study.
 * Will compare these with DFLP design.

3. Setting up or working into established networked learning communities for continuing professional development.
 * Examine involvement in email group for DFLP during the course and as alumni - evidence of continuing involvement.
 * Methods of learning in DFLP - blogs, wikis, del.icio.us, email group - have they continued using these professionally, personally?
 * Need to investigate and compare workings of informal networks e.g. Cromwell, Networked learning, WikiEducator, TALO, FLLinNZ.

Ethics documentation
All documentation can be found on the main page under Ethics documentation. The Ethics application was sent on 26 September 2007. BH was informed that it would take at least a month and possibly longer due to the holiday break. Final approval was obtained on 23 November 2007.

A copy of the ethics application can be found here.

The ethics committee requested several changes and this request can be viewed in this document. The changes were addressed in a letter to the Ethics committee and final approval was received on 23 November.

Project proposal, schedule and reports

 * The project proposal.
 * First milestone report - 31 October 2007.
 * Second milestone report - 28 February 2008.

Research Design
An effectiveness research evaluation will be conducted. Initial ideas include focus group interviews with facilitators and separate participant focus groups.


 * Research questions:
 * Was the design of the course effective in promoting digital networked literacy?
 * Was a team approach effective for developing and implementing the course?

Evaluation plan
An evaluation plan needs to be developed using the following headings:
 * Introduction - rationale and purpose, decisions and context
 * Type of evaluation
 * Big picture questions
 * Methods - research design - data collection methods, sampling tools and analysis
 * Timeline & milestones
 * Budget
 * References
 * Appendices - example of sampling tools

Data collection
29 November 2007 and 12 December 2007 - A decision was made to begin the debrief process about the course with the lecturers and the external interviewer, Joanna Cobley. The first interview was conducted on 29 November 2007 face-to-face with leigh and Bronwyn. This interview will be transcribed by a transcriber external to Otago Polytechnic. Joanna will make some short podcasts from the debrief sessions and these will be made available to anyone interested in the project. A second debrief interview was conducted via teleconferencing on 12 December 2007, and Terry, Leigh and Bronwyn were interviewed by Joanna. Again the raw interview will be transcribed by an external transcriber.

January 2008 Data collection will proceed as follows:
 * 23 January - Potential participants will be contacted by email and invited to participate and asked about their availability for attending a focus group; this will be run by Joanna Cobley face-to-face. The intended dates are 7 and 8 February 2008.
 * 24 January - Survey will be developed for online delivery.
 * 28 January (week beginning )- online survey link sent to participants.
 * 8 February 2008 - participant focus groups run by Joanna Cobley in Dunedin at 1130 and 1400 in H318. So far six people have responded but others may turn up.

It is hoped that participants will fill out the survey prior to the first focus group but this may not be feasible. A second interview may be necessary with participants if survey responses need to be clarified or expanded.

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