Research Methods

Research Methods & Reflective Practice in Education

Report on the Preliminary Investigation

Hessa Obaid Al AliSubmitted for: Dr. Mindy Colin & Ms. Paulien

Introduction

The purpose of making this research is to see and measure the influence and the change that will occur on level 4 foundation student course grades when the style of delivering the materials for them changes from a boring old typical style to a more fun and attractive way which is by using interactive animations to teach them. My study will be conducted in Sharjah HCT in Al Taa’lum center where I noticed that foundation students come with no interest on doing their exams in the OLZ and they don’t care about the results and all what they care about is finishing the test as fast as they can and leave which is effecting negatively on their course grade.

As a result of what I have seen their I came up with a research question to examine my idea of changing the online teaching style and the question is, “How does using interactive animations affect level 4 foundation students' course grades?”.

To give my research question a try to see if it will work effectively or not in this particular group of students I decided to coop with the level 4 foundation English teacher to make my research on a small group of her students (5 girls). I will insure the teacher and her students that their names and identities will be unknown and nobody rather than my MCT, MST and I are the only people who will be viewing the information.

Literature review

Key concept: Data collection- survey- online learning- visual learning- interactive learning- animation- discussion board- online learning methods- findings.

Education have become a strong tool to build great powerful countries because students are the builders of the future. So, in the UAE education have changes as we have online learning these days which makes it easier to deliver the ideas and different topics to the learners which makes them able to learn a lot of useful things in a short time. One of the best ways to teach new generations is to use technologies that we can find everywhere. Using interactive online courses are useful resources for students to learn the new way rather than the old face- to-face learning. Having Online courses allow students to have the access to the materials all the time which is more effective than the old ways of teaching where it gives the student the freedom to go back to the course whenever they want.

In this semester I have chosen to practice in the online learning zone which is located in Sharjah higher colleges of technology’s library. After being there for a week and observing what are they doing and how does the work goes there I have decided to make a research about how does using interactive animations and discussion boards affect foundation students' academic performance. Based on the way they teach in the online learning zone and to support my research I have searched for several articles in the internet.

For developing and enhancing foundation students’ academic performance there are many online tools that can help a teacher to reach that goal. Mansureh Kebritchi, a researcher mentioned in his research that one of the ways is using interactive activities such as discussion boards and interactive animations as they are a major factor of allowing students to develop their understanding and thinking skills. It also engages them in the process of learning and this will affect their academic performance taking it to a higher level, (Kebritchi, 2014).

Ramona A. Hall mentioned in his article that using discussion boards as an effective tool to enhance students learning because it allows them to think and write their ideas then get feedback from others, they also have the chance to interact and discuss their ideas with others either responding on peers comments or leaving feedback on their friends discussions. This process develop students

critical thinking and higher order thinking, this helps them to link to the subject and the things that they have learned, (Hall, 2015).

Devi and Chandra have agreed with the use of discussion boards and added that in order to reach the goal of developing the academic performance of the students in our college we have to follow a process to create the best online courses that suites students levels. There is an instructional design to track the following stages of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. These stages will be considered when we are making any kind of interactive activities including discussion boards to make sure to deliver the right materials and skills to the learners through these online courses, (Devi & Chandra, 2004).

A research was done in a Malaysian classroom have created an online-based course followed these steps of the instructional design and it shows great results and it worked effectively on developing students cognitive and understanding skills. They have made assessments for the students to test if they have developed academically and it shows really good results, (TEOH, Tse-Kian, & Soo-Phing , 2007).

In order to have successful research results, there are some models that I can follow in order to create the best online learning materials such as the SAMR model and the ADDEC model. Using good designed learning courses helps on scaffolding students learning as Bruner’s scaffolding theory stated, by providing enough support and useful materials for the students they can scaffold their understanding and learning skills, (Firestone).

Research methodology

My research will combine between quantitative and qualitative where I will be conducting some statistics to analyze students course grades before and after. In addition, it will be qualitative because my focus will be to understand how does the use of interactive animations develop students performance and therefore raise their grades after using it.

My research will maintain confidentiality, where I will protect the collected data in a secured folder that have a password. Furthermore, their name won’t be written in the research because I will be using fake names.

I will be following the ADDIE model to create the best and most effective learning materials. (Check appendix 1)

Analysis Design Development Implementation EvaluationFirst, I’m going to choose the participants, see their capability and know their needs and requirements to develop.

I will take the content and design activities that are interactive and appealing for the students.

Next I’m going to start developing the course materials.

Here I will start implementing and using the materials that I have created and developed with the students.

At this point I will be collecting information by observation and using others ways to collect information.

During the time that I will be applying this cycle I may face some difficulties like not meeting student’s needs and requirement every time.

Research methods

The methods that I’m going to use for this research are interview, observations and surveys.

Interview Observation SurveyI’m going to make an I will be observing the I will make a survey at the

interview with the teacher and ask her some questions about her students grades and levels and interest if she knows.

students during the OLZ sessions and see if they are more integrated with the course or they are still the same.After each observation I will write a journal on how things were and if I noticed any change or development.

end to know if the students have gained knowledge using this method or not.

Findings

During the observation I found that foundation students are not interested in the materials that are provided with in the OLZ so, they wanted to finish and leave as soon as possible and I thought that the problem behind that is the poor materials that is given for them to learn from. As a result, I decided to create and implement an online interactive course for them and see the results.

Action plan

Weeks Interview Observation SurveyWeek 1 At the first week I

will make an interview with the teacher and ask her about her students and we are going to choose five of them to help me with my research.

Week 2Week 3Week 4 During this period

of time I will be Week 5 I will meet the

teacher again to ask if there is any development or improvement on their grades after their first experience on using the interactive animation course.

observing the students while they are having their exams and I will write journals about what I have noticed and if there are any point that requires development.

Week 6Week 7 A final interview

with the teacher and the five students to ask them if there is any positive change on their grades and understanding skills.

Week 8 After finishing the period of examining these students I’m going to give them an open ended survey to know their opinions about this experience.

Week 9Week 10

ReferencesDevi, C. (2004, Feb 25). Selecting tools for e-learning needs. Business Times Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/267611447?accountid=1215

Kebritchi, M. (2014). Preferred teaching methods in online courses: Learners' views. Journal of Online

Learning and Teaching,10(3), 468-n/a. Retrieved from


Hall, R. A. (2015). Critical thinking in online discussion boards: Transforming an anomaly. Delta Kappa

Gamma Bulletin, 81(3), 21-27,43. Retrieved from


TEOH, B. S., & Tse-Kian, N. E. O. (2007). Interactive multimedia learning: Students' attitudes and

learning impact in an animation course. TOJET : The Turkish Online Journal of Educational

Technology, 6(4) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1288361333?

accountid=1215

Mary Firestone. Jerome Bruner: Scaffolding and Constructivism Theories. Retrieved from study.com:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/jerome-bruner-scaffolding-and-constructivism-theories.html

Appendix

(Appendix1)

Research Methods

Documents

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