Research Project and Conclusion

The course began as a general and vague overview of a variety of topics and progressed to focus on more specific aspects of online communities.  The study that I conducted worked to bring all of the different topics covered throughout the course together.  I was able to apply much of the information covered in the course to my study to produce a more valid conclusion.

The "Research Methods" website was a very informative source.  I was having trouble determining how I was going to conduct my research on the type and frequency of activity on Facebook by males and females.  I utilized the concept mapping that I learned from the site to lay out my research question and the data that I would need to come to conclusions.  I was first going to observe the activities of ten males and ten females and collect general activities that they participated in.  Concept mapping made me realized that I needed to collect more specific data.  I went back through and sub-categorized different types of interactions such as status comments.  For these interactions I found that I had to qualitatively assess the types of updates and comments to determine if they represented and emotion or activity, a quote or were just random.  This sub-categorization allowed me to draw further inferences such as the percent of total activity that was perceived as portraying an intimate interaction.  The website also taught me that in order for the conclusions of my study to be valid I would need a larger sample size so I enlarged my study from ten to twenty-five of each gender in order to make my results more generalizable.
Readings that were provided in class provided a great deal of information that was useful for my study.  "The Writing Lives of College Students"  allowed me to infer that a small percentage of the participants may have been the producers of a large percent of the activity recorded.  I also used the structure of provided readings to base the structure of my report off of.  I found it interesting that I was excited to discuss the limitations of my study at the end of my report.  The limitations of my study showed me how many different directions a study can go in.  Although I was interested in the differences in activity between genders I found that my research and data collection methods did not allow me to determine whether or not a small percentage of users were responsible for a large percentage of the activity.  Also, I thought it would be interesting if I would have been able to determine the correlation between the frequency of interaction between users offline and online interactions to see if users were more likely to interact on Facebook if they did not or were not able to interact frequently offline. 

After collecting the observational data I found that it was lacking the qualitative data that would help me make conclusions from the observational data.  I decided to randomly chose fifty users to send a questionnaire to.  The questionnaire was designed to allow participants to provide information about their perceived value of the interactions that they participated in on Facebook.  Although the response rate was very low, only receiving nine, it was very interesting and informative.  I was able to conclude that picture sharing and commenting was perceived to be very valuable.  Without the questionnaire the study would not have revealed that because I was unable to observe the users' activity unless they posted something that could be quantitatively annotated.

Conducting my own research raised as many questions as it answered for me.  I was able to gain some insight into a question that I have wondered about for some time but it also led me to even more questions, as I stated earlier.  I learned different methods and terminology relating to research that will and did help me articulate my research while the provided readings provided me with information and examples of how to display my findings.

Research Methods and Asynchronous Online Discussions

From my perspective, the third week’s readings and discussions have been the most educational.  I found myself a little overwhelmed by the first reading about research methods.  As I read specific portions of the article, such as the “conceptualization,” “sampling,” “analysis,” and “write up” portions of the website I began to realize how complex research is.   The article discussing the potential of asynchronous online discussions reinforced many of my preconceptions about educational value.  The “EXAMINING SOCIAL PRESENCE IN ONLINE

COURSES IN RELATION TO STUDENTS' PERCEIVED LEARNING AND SATISFACTION” article exposed me and forced me to critically think about the idea of social presence which I had never thought of prior to this article.  Finally, I was exposed to fanzines and their popularity among those that are passionate about anything from gardening to comics.

Understanding the complex structure of research and reporting that research has proven crucial to my ability to conduct my original research project. I found myself struggling to find the right words to describe the methods that I was employing and the groups that I was discussing.  I learned to use concept mapping to produce a visual representation of my research.  That allowed me to more easily express my the relationships between the different variables of my research, such as the discrepancies between gender activity on Facebook.  While I will not go into every aspect of the article that was of great benefit because I have already explained them in my posts I will cite one of my post to help show the learning that I did experience from the article.

When describing the research topic and method of research that I chose, I had to constantly stop and think of how to describe specific and general groups that I was trying to discuss.  The “Sampling” portion of the “Social Research Methods” website provided me with terminology that will make it easier to reference certain groups without having to describe them in great detail.  The intent of my research is to be able to generalize the information that if gather from a sample, which according to the article is the ”group of people who you select to be in your study,” that I chose from a sampling frame (the accessible population or my current “friends on Facebook) using a systematic method, to a theoretical population (all Facebook users).

The potential educational value of asynchronous online discussions had not gone unnoticed by myself and the article “Predicting Learning from Asynchronous Online Discussions” supported many of the preconceptions that I had of their potential.  The article discusses how “the learner can take an active role in the learning process” through participation in the discussions which is a major reason why I find them so beneficial.(p. 140)  The peer interaction and critical inquiry that that interaction requires is integral to my ability to comprehend information.  Some of my peers disagreed with my assessment of these discussions as providing a forum that allows every student to participate in the discussion of materials which they would not have the ability to do in a traditional classroom.  Jeffrey thinks that these discussions are a sort of cheap replacement of face-to-face classroom interactions  I responded by saying, “the asynchronous aspect of discussions, such as this one, allow students a greater amount of time to pose questions, arguments and statements and to support them in a more effective manner.”  The time restrictions of a traditional classroom simply do not allow for everyone to express and support their opinions on topics while posing questions that require other students to critically examine the texts to formulate a response.  The article, “Examining Social Presence in Online Courses in Relation to Students’ Perceived Learning and Satisfaction” supports that opinion.  It states, “another advantage of asynchronous learning is it allowsstudents to reflect upon the materials and their responses before responding, unlike traditional classrooms.”(p. 69)

The article “Examining Social Presence in Online Courses in Relation to Students’ Perceived Learning and Satisfaction” exposed me to the idea of “social presence.”  I had experienced my own perception of social presence and believe that it did affect my perceived learning and motivation but had never thought of it in that way.  As I discussed this issue with my peers I expressed to Michael how my perception of interaction and social presence had influenced my learning for this course. “The structure of this class is very similar to another course that I am in this summer and I have found them both to be very engaging.  I don’t memorize information so that I can complete the typical multiple choice “blackboard” quiz.  The structure of these classes creates a desire, for me, to critically analyze and comprehend the information so that I can interact in an interesting and meaningful dialogue in an intelligent manner.”  Other online courses, in which I did not perceive an online social presence, as I mentioned above, did not make me feel as though I had a role in the learning process, therefore, I was less motivated to learn the material and just memorized it in order to get through the quiz that week.  The article supports my experience with the different online course structures, it found that “Students with high social presence also perceived high levels of learning in class discussions.”(p. 75)

This week’s readings and discussions have taught me to how to create and articulate my own research more effectively.  They have supported many of my preconceptions about the potential educational benefits of asynchronous online discussions as well.  Although some of my peers disagreed with my opinions regarding the benefits of those types of discussions we were all able to understand the point that the other was making, finally coming to the conclusion that some students benefit from one type of course more than the other depending on learning style.