ISTE Workshop Research Methods in Educational Technology

ISTE Workshop Research Methods in Educational Technology IIT Bombay February 2-9, 2013

Status: Have you done your Homework? Feb.10-20 ‘Study-planning submission Feb.2 Feb.9 In-workshop Pre-workshop Assignment Submission Feb.20 ~ T4E 2013 paper draft Feb.3-8 ‘Idea proposal’ submission Registered participants 6357 4934 4934 2054* 2054+ ? ? Path to course certificate & T4E paper  Not doing the assignments and directly submitting something on Feb 20will notearn a certificate *Submissions as on Feb. 9, 6 am

Recap (Revisiting what we have done so far)

What is this workshop about? • This workshop is about ET research. • This workshop is about how you solved the teaching-learning "problem" in your class.

Tech Of Education Creation and use of strategies for teaching-learning. Focus on what to do with the technology, rather than the technology itself. What is Educational Technology? Tech For Education • Creation and use of technologies for teaching-learning. • Creation and use of technology tools to facilitate teaching-learning.

From ET Practitioner teach students; facilitate their learning. come up with ideas for doing the above. This Workshop is a journey To ET Researcher • conduct systematic studies to get data about whether our ideas are working. • provide evidence to support our conclusions.

What route are we taking Recall: There are no fast-lanes; no short-cuts • We cannot simply *listen* to 'lectures' and expect to absorb the required knowledge. • We have to *DO* the activities sincerely. • We have to challenge ourselves to go beyond the obvious ideas. • Recall: The theories underlying this workshop • Spiral Curriculum • Active Learning

Our Journey at a glance Feb. 20 ~ Feb. 10-20 Pre-workshop Feb. 2 Feb. 3-8 Feb. 9 Guidelines Moodle queries Guidelines Moodle queries Moodle queries In-workshop activities In-workshop activities • Your idea of: • a teaching-learning problem • what teacher (you) & the students will do • How to prove your idea works? Mentoring by TAs Mentoring by TAs TA mentor Moodle resources/ Self-study Moodle resources/ Self-study Evaluate pre-w/s assignment for strong paper features Fill up & submit ‘Idea proposal’ form Fill up ‘Study planning template’ for your idea Submit your ‘Study planning’ proposal Submit paper draft

What qualifies as a research paper What points to address in abstract How to evaluate a research paper Features of a strong research paper What referees look for in a paper Feb. 2 Guidelines In-workshop activities Peer discussion on pre-workshop assignment Clicker questions on acceptable research paper TPS on : given scenario to research study TPS on : your idea to ET research study Evaluation of research papers • Workshop slides • Videos: reading research papers + doing literature survey • iii. Mid-Workshop assignment Moodle resources for Self-study Overview of different research paper sections Overview on how to plan a research study (Novelty, positioning, Procedure soundness, Evidence to collect) Research Methodology

Feb. 9 i. T4E checklist ii. Citing research papers iii. Paraphrase to avoid plagiarism Guidelines What are types of ET research studies What is soundness of procedure Clicker question on what evidence to collect Clicker question on research ethics How to paraphrase other research paper findings vi. Addressing queries and clarifications In-workshop activities Moodle resources for Self-study • Workshop slides + What are types of ET research problems How to plan and execute ET research studies What are research ethics Research Methodology

What are referees looking for 2nd Feb 2013

What exactly is meant by ‘Novelty’? Dictionary: “The quality of being new, unique, original, innovative, or unusual”. What has to be novel?  At least one of the below: Your Problem – Research Question(s). Your Solution – Strategy to solve a known problem. Your Domain – Adapt a known solution to your context One of yourMoodle queries: Can a non-innovative strategy be developed into a strong research paper? Yes, provided it is positioned well (See next slide). Strong to Weak

What exactly is meant by ‘Positioning’? Dictionary: “situation/relation with respect to others”. How to do positioning?  Do both of the below: 1) Have you shown analysis of related prior work to bring out the gaps? papers that have addressed a problem similar to yours papers that have a solution approach similar to yours 2) Does your solution address any of the gaps above? As the novelty of your problem or solution decreases, the accuracy of your positioning must increase!

Explain the relation to other work clearly Source: Mary Shaw, Writing good Software Engineering Research Papers, ICSE 2003

One-line summary – What is the referee’s job? Referee's job is NOT to find reasons to accept your paper, but to find reasons to reject your paper! So, not doing all the parts required for a paper – Novelty, Positioning, Soundness, Evidence => Wasted time and effort for you and for referee The order is important. Even if your work is sound, it can get rejected if it is not positioned properly.

Again:What is the referee’s job? Submitted paper Novelty of problem/solution If it does not pass the filter Positioning wrt related work Soundness of procedure 80% Soundness of evaluation Paper recommended for Acceptance Typical Acceptance Ratio: 15-20%

Moving Ahead(Today and Beyond):Towards paper acceptance

First Activity for today! Pair Activity: Peer-review of Idea Proposal assignment. 10 Minutes 1. Form pairs and exchange your idea proposal assignment submission with your partner 2. Read your partner’s answer to Q3. Are you able to understand the idea? Yes/ No Does the idea sound exciting to you? Yes/No 3. Read your partner’s answer to Q5. Is the gap in prior work evident to you? Yes/No 4. Explain to your partner what aspects of his/her answers are not coming out clearly.

Poll How many of you felt that: You have explained well but your partner still did not understand either your idea or your gap analysis? Co-ordinators quickly poll and send response by chat.

Value of peer-review Never Forget: It is YOUR responsibility to write your paper in such a way that the reader can understand and follow it easily. If your friend/colleague has difficulty following your paper, what do you think the referee is going to do? Value to writers: Every peer-review comment tells you what part of your paper you need to improve upon. Value to readers: Every paper you peer-review improves your analytical skills which will improve your writing!

Continue with the activity Pair Activity: Peer-review of Idea Proposal assignment. 20 Minutes 5. Read your partner’s answer to Q6. Suppose you have to replicate the study, Do you think that the procedure is described in sufficient detail? Yes/ No Do you think that the data being collected can give evidence that the idea works? Yes/No 6. Explain to your partner what additional information you require to replicate the procedure of his/her study. 7. Explain to your partner what additional data is required.

Poll How many of you observed that: Your partner pointed out something that you had overlooked? Something that will improve your study. Co-ordinators do local poll. We don’t need this answer. Check if our prediction is true: At least 80% of the participants would have found that their partner’s comments help to improve their study.

Moral of the story (activity) Don’t wait to complete your study and write your paper before you seek feedback from peers/colleagues. Don’t wait to send your work to an ‘expert’ for getting feedback. First get it from your immediate peers. The more we seek feedback, the more our work will improve, provided we act on the feedback. 

Peer-review ethics As reviewers, we have to follow three main norms: Non-disclosure: Since the work that we are reviewing is unpublished, we should maintain its confidentiality. We should not disclose its details to anyone without the author’s consent. Non-plagiarism: We should not ‘steal’ the author’s ideas and directly use it in our study. More on this later. Conflict-of-Interest: If we are already working on the same topic as the author, then we should not be the reviewer, to avoid any conflict-of-interest.

Your queries We have got your queries in three ways: Log of chat session from Feb 2nd workshop. Previous video Q&A session. Queries posted on Moodle The core queries that are relevant to all participants will be addressed in today’s sessions; Some will be answered through Moodle. You can also send queries as chat messages, or Moodle posts, during the tea and lunch breaks.

Some queries to be taken up today What to measure for learning, other than marks? How to setup study and measure systematically?  Next session How to find prior work in a systematic manner? If there is no related work yet, of the present work, what is to write down in the research paper? Journal or conference, which is good for research purposes?  Last session

Next session: Delving into RMET 9th Feb 2013

ISTE Workshop Research Methods in Educational Technology