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![Page 1: Improving Research Methods Pedagogy for International Postgraduate Taught Students: Facebook as a Learning Facilitator Steve Page & Paul Webb.](https://reader031.fdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022032604/56649e6f5503460f94b6c562/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Improving Research Methods Pedagogy for International
Postgraduate Taught Students: Facebook as a Learning Facilitator
Steve Page & Paul Webb
![Page 2: Improving Research Methods Pedagogy for International Postgraduate Taught Students: Facebook as a Learning Facilitator Steve Page & Paul Webb.](https://reader031.fdocuments.net/reader031/viewer/2022032604/56649e6f5503460f94b6c562/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Overview of the Presentation
Context of the work Web 2.0 & Generation ‘Y’ The Challenge for us … Our use of Facebook for the
Research Methods / Dissertation module
Research findings & analysis Conclusions Where Next? Q&A
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“The thing that we are trying to do at Facebook, is just help people connect and communicate more efficiently.” (Mark Zuckerberg)
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Internationalisation Issues
Heterogeneity of the student population on the MBA brings with it a plethora of different learning styles (Adeoy, 2011; Wong, 2004; De Vita, 2001; Hofstede, 1986)
This causes problems for the students & learning and teaching challenges for us (Parsons & Fidler, 2005)
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Context & Premise
Many international students on the MBA find the dissertation stage (in particular the research methods element) of their postgraduate degree very challenging
All Full-Time MBA students use Facebook (we know because we asked them!)
Could we use Facebook to engage and encourage their learning?
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Web 2.0
Early use of the WWW was “information gathering”
Web 2.0 is about “information sharing” (McCarthy, 2010) – the “participatory web”
Social networking forms a core tenet of the participatory web
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Generation Y
All the full-time MBA students are ‘Generation Y’ (born after 1980) digital natives
As Prensky (2001) suggests, they:
“… have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age”
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The Challenge …
Devise a method of using the Facebook application to enhance student learning, by designing activities that would engage the students, and encourage them to adopt a more Western style of learning
Create an environment that students would perhaps feel able to “challenge” us on-line through the Facebook social networking tool, even if culturally some of the students found this difficult face-to-face
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Facebook Discussion Boards
Facebook facilitated activities
Facebook “live chat”
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Discussion
Initial Facebook postings by the students on the LSG Discussion Boards seemed to be irrelevant to the questions we had asked them to discuss.
BUT … appeared to follow Tuckman’s (1965) ‘Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing’ model
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Student Feedback
“Thank you Steve and Paul … it was really very helpful and we learnt a lot.”
“… everybody contributes unlike the normal class where some people are too shy.”
“… nobody particularly felt as if they were being watched.”
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Analysis of ResultsCohort Number of
StudentsOverall Mean
Course Grade
(Excluding Dissertation
Module)
Dissertation Module – Proposal
Mean (15% of Module)
Dissertation Module –
Dissertation Mean (85% of Module)
Dissertation Module Overall Mean
Difference Between
Mean Dissertation
Module Grade & Overall Mean Course Grade
Failed Dissertation Module at
First Attempt
2009/1043
53% 51% 40% 41% -12% 11 = 25.6%
2010/1124
54% 60% 55% 56% +2% 2 = 8.3%
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Conclusions
Using Facebook on the MBA has improved understanding of Research Methods & consequently students have achieved better grades on their dissertation.
Apochryphal? … No!
Unprompted, at the December 2011 Examination Board the External Examiner commented on the:
… excellent research methodology chapters in evidence in this year’s dissertations.
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Success Stories …
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Where Next?
Article currently in refereeing - drawn a line under this research
2012/13 – working with Roy Williams @ One Vision Housing exploring ‘governance and sustainability in the UK social housing market’
Will be exploring opportunities for funding the work both from within the University & outside
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References Adeoy, B. F. (2011) ‘Culturally different learning styles in online
learning environments: a case of Nigerian university students’, International Journal of Information & Communication Technology Education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1-12.
De Vita, G. (2001) ‘Learning styles, culture and inclusive instruction in the multicultural classroom: A business and management perspective’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 165-174.
Hofstede, G. (1986) ‘Cultural differences in teaching and learning’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 301-320.
McCarthy, J. (2010) ‘Blended learning environments: using social networking sites to enhance the first year experience’, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 729-740.
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References Parsons, C. & Fidler, B. (2005) ‘A new theory of educational change –
punctuated equilibrium: the case of the internationalisation of higher education institutions’, British Journal of Educational Studies, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 447-465.
Prensky, M. (2001) ‘Digital natives, digital immigrants’, On The Horizon, vol. 9, no. 5. [online] Available at: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/prensky%20-%20digital%20natives,%20digital%20immigrants%20-%20part1.pdf
Tuckman, B. W. (1965) ‘Developmental sequence in small groups’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 63, pp. 384-399.
Wong, J. (2004) ‘Are the learning styles of Asian international students culturally or contextually based?’, International Education Journal, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 154-166.
Zuckerberg (no date). BrainyQuote. Available at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mark_zuckerberg.html#O45ZlMBYjjOchIgR.99
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Questions?