DR JAMES LAMB
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Refocusing my research questions

15/9/2013

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Having revisited and then categorised the data from the seven interviews, I've rewritten the my original research questions (submitted within my 17 December Research Proposal). On reflection, questions 2 and 3 from my Research Proposal cover too much of the same ground. Also, the questions ignore the conditions that promote/discourage multimodal approaches to assignments, which has been one of more interesting themes to emerge from both the data and my lit review. I think the new combination of questions are also more able to directly address my overarching question posed within the dissertation. Anyway, I have gone...
From this:
The focus of my research will be upon the experiences and attitudes of tutors towards multimodal assessment. Although it is expected that research questions will emerge and evolve during the literature review, I anticipate considering the following themes:

  1. What rationale do tutors apply when choosing to make use of multimodal assessment?
  2. What are the implications in terms of interpreting the quality of a multimodal assignment? In particular, how are assessment criteria defined in order to judge the quality of a multimodal artifact?
  3. How does a shift towards multimodal assessment reframe the role and experience of the marker? 
...to this:
The overarching question I set out to investigate within this dissertation was how the growing the potential for students to present ideas across a range of modes impacts upon tutor approaches to assessment in digital education. To explore this topic I investigated three research questions:

  1. What are the reasons or factors that encourage tutors to take a multimodal approach within summative assessment exercises?
  2. What are the conditions that promote or discourage students from taking a multimodal approach in the response to summative assessment tasks?
  3. How do tutors approach the marking of multimodal artefacts submitted for assessment, in particular, what are the implications for measuring the quality of work in relation to established assessment criteria?
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Linking to quotes within Data analysis and Rationale

12/9/2013

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Picture
Is there a way that, within my text, I can regularly hyperlink to quotes from the data?

This would be in addition to having key quotes reprinted in full. At least, I think it would. Or maybe that wouldn't be necessary. Maybe it would look a bit odd to have both.

This might work by having linked text which, when clicked would open up a cut out diagram of the relevant quote, perhaps highlighted as itching a slightly larger part of the transcript, with the other text in faded grey. Ideally, a hover over would work better but I don't think that's possible from a text section in weebly. Maybe though the words could link to images - in a new page - at are themselves uploaded as documents.

It'll be worth exploring this as its a more interesting way of presenting the research data and also better exploits the potential of hyperlinks.

Actually, if this works, it would make sense to take the same approach when linking to relevant content within my blog (within the rationale section). So rather than linking to the whole blog post (where I would have to highlight the relevant text and tidy up/check what's around it) it would instead link to a cut out.

In fact maybe I don't use actual cut outs but instead reproduce the text as if it has been lifted from the blog or transcript, allowing for accompanying biographical or background information as required. This could the date and title of the blog entry from which the text is drawn, and for the interview data.
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Reminder: describing the two interview artefacts

12/9/2013

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This should probably go in the discussion and analysis of data section. 


I'll obviously link to the two artefacts (maybe from representatives image rather than just a text hyperlink) but alongside that I will need to offer a bit of background to the two artefacts, including in which ways they might be viewed a multimodal, how they differ, why I chose them, some very brief detail on the nature of the stipulated assessment exercise, the course they were a part of, what the assessment criteria was for the exercise.

Rather than being at the start of the section, this would be part way through. Amongst other things it would be a nice way of breaking up that section (which will be text heavy). Also, it wouldn't sit well directly after the detail outlining the nature of the DE course that will at the beginning of this section.


Is it worth taking the thinglink approach here, using the literature to highlight the different modes. Perhaps I would take a screen shot of each assignment with the overlaying information (thereby allowing for sound, through the volume icon).
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[Holiday notes] Structuring presentation of data analysis

17/8/2013

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Rather than taking an entirely discursive approach, my discussion of results will be broken and presented under different, clearly signposted themes. These would be based around the questions I asked and any other emergent themes.

This will be make for a better reader experience - the inclusion of signposts and also having shorter sections rather than a wall of text. It might also aid the structure and make the writing process more straightforward.

This will require me to have a clear structure in my head before putting the thing on paper/screen.
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[Holiday notes]  Emergement themes (from memory)

17/8/2013

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On holiday and currently without access to the interview transcripts (or at least, a desire to look through them whilst on holiday and with only small bits of time here and there for study). This is potentially a useful exercise, though: reflecting from memory on what the key themes are to have emerged from the data. Perhaps being apart for the transcripts will help me to identify the most significant themes. Here goes, then:
  1. Do tutors need to retrain in order to work with multimodal assignments?
  2. Have participant experiences of multimodality as students influenced their approach as tutors?
  3. The time required to mark multimodal assignments (e.g. video) is greater than for traditional forms.
  4. The Course Gallery, access to exemplars and presence to apparently gifted peers can inhibit experimentation.
  5. Dialogue between students and tutors helps the process
  6. Discussion of how tutors viewed the two assignments, look for common trends and inconsistencies and relate to the literature

Actually, I think this has been an interesting exercise. It's interesting that so many ideas stand out considering it's a little while since I looked at the transcripts.

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Making discussion of the data multimodal

7/7/2013

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Why should my discussion of the data be purely text-based (as I've had in my head). It should be multimodal. And this goes beyond a the use of enlarged type and so on as purely aesthetic visual effects. It should by critical. Here's an idea, then:
I could create summary diagrams, for instance spider diagrams collect ideas. This might include 'reasons identified by participants as promoting multimodal approaches amongst students'.

Or I could be more imaginative than that...

I could create diagrams that synthesise or compare data from different (yet related) questions. As an example this might include 'factors identified by participants that promote and discourage multimodal approaches amongst students'. This might take some a tabular diagrammatic form.

As a more ambitious approach again...

Could I use infographics in some way? Hmmm, less sure about this. After all, infographics tend to lend themselves towards statistical data (at least, I think they do).
While this has been a useful bit of quick thinking-and-jotting-down, I suspect that I should probably focus on the data and see what types of visual approaches lend themselves to emerging themes, rather than thinking of visual approaches and then trying to find data to match.
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Emergement themes for data

24/5/2013

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Jen themes:

  • describes experience of m as a student on the msc
  • describes use of m in the msc
  • describes how EDC and DFL have different approaches to m
  • describes how her experience of m as a student informed tutor experience
  • digital textuality
  • instability of the digital text
  • we know that assessment if images is problematic, however text is equally subject to intepretation, unstable, open
  • when a student goes for an m essay the default position of the essay has been abandoned for a reason - m becomes part of the argument
  • we have to give different types of feedback on m work. Additional layers have to be interpreted
  • non-linear approach is less common than you think
  • linear is very difficult to abandon - maybe reflecting nature of msc student body
  • students have been disciplined into ways of thinking and practicing about writing
  • factors promoting: edc/mood/idel blog give people opportunities for low stakes practice
  • factors promoting: opps for peers and tutor feedback to see what's possible
  • there's lots of willingness amongst students to try, but this has to come through opportunities to experiment
  • factors discouraging: students often associate m with artistic ability which discourages some 'non-artsy' people
  • retraining: no, it's about establishing a set of shared understandings beween students and tutors
  • dialogue over representation and interpretation
  • michael example: wanted to be assessed on the video (but the pdf is a very good convetional essay)
  • michael example: she became immersed in the video
  • sarah's wiki: more traditional
  • sarah's wiki: didn't need links or images to be understood - enhancements not core
  • michael example: maybe he included pdf to be considerate to tutor? or maybe hedging his bets? or maybe didn't trust the validity of the multimodal?
  • michael example: it's helpful to have a transcript...but not desirable if we're interested in pushing the boundaries of our assessment practices.

Sian themes:

  • describes involvement with m on msc
  • mentions m assessment on the mooc
  • seeing fewer m assessments on IDEL
  • edc - reasons why conventional work not accepted
  • mooc - outpouring of creative energy
  • whole structure of edc shaped my m
  • we have the scholarly apparatus of print and writing, built over hundreds of years, to judge quality of essay
  • each digital essay has to be judged on its own terms
  • assessment becomes interpretation more than measurement
  • assessor as partnering in  construction of meaning
  • student-tutor hierarchy - profound implications
  • students can submit up to 3 extra criteria but generally struggle with this. intended as a chance to explore what works about a particular medium
  • hierarchy: assessment moment is most obvious example of tutor dominance
  • tutors are invited to bring their interpretative capacities to bear on digital work
  • with a digital essay we can't so easily mark according to what we see as the intention of the student
  • we still need to be requiring and writing essays - the form is too central to scholarship
  • we need to think of other forms alongside conventional essays
  • rather than retraining, thinking around ass conventions and accepting there's room for experimentation and 'big thinking'
  • Factors encouraging: willingness and openness of tutors to enable experimentation
  • factors encouraging: we need to  learning from colleagues in other disciplines
  • we need to learn from colleagues in visual disciplines
  • visual turn in society means teaching at all levels is coming round to idea of visual
  • factors encouraging: students respond to tutor's course design so it should be designed into the course
  • describes experience of m as a student
  • advanced work by me michael, jeremy might put others off - too far ahead of students and tutors
  • people generally get the thinking and the critical stuff being the advanced presentation of work
  • Visual: a new ontology of image, not print
  • we don't have the interpretative frameworks for visual. we have to start anew with image as an assessment mode
  • as a marker, m makes you work harder. you have to think about what image is doing, compositionally, historically
  • retraining: academic development rather than training
  • non-linear can more more difficult to follow without the well developed argument
  • the form of the essay needs to be allowed to stand as its intellectual content - judge on merits according to its form
  • form as intellectual content
  • hypertext example: frustrating - linkage internal
  • hypertext example: imagery illustrative rather than critical
  • hypertext example: it's fighting the digital form
  • hypertext example: basically a written essay with a nod to hypertext
  • michael example: very, very clever.
  • michael example: form reflects content
  • it's possibly easier for ODL-ers to present m because they're immersed in digital space and alt modes of rep

Marshall themes:

  • descibes m experience as a student - ceramic art - objects and rationale allowed layers of representation
  • should would feel a bit lost assessing an object with no text
  • describes use of m on msc
  • dissertations: high stakes so students go safe
  • dissertations: guidance is oriented towards text-based work
  • dissertations: we have fundamental ideas about what research data is
  • the uni is quite conservative so it's not surprising it impacts on assessment
  • image and movement (inc dance) can be very powerful modes of communication
  • visual - big problem is interpretation
  • texts are less ambiguous/flexible than image
  • image can be a problem in terms of interpretation
  • we're trained in writing to argue and persuade - limits the scope of interpretation
  • offers an example of a hypertext essays with images in a vertical ribbon and links to videos at bottom
  • example cont. it was hard to see how images were relevant to the text
  • example cont. the images were a challenge to link to discourse of the text
  • example cont. the marker's path was observed as she navigated through artefact
  • example cont. images needed clearer embedding in in linking
  • example cont. linked videos had no accompanying explanation
  • contextualising is a key skills in writing or presentation of m materials
  • need to ground myself in assessment brief and look for criteria nominated by student
  • embodying what is being discussed - interesting and exciting
  • hypertext essay: several paths followed through it
  • michael example: more linear. would watch video at least twice if marking
  • has a sense of uncertainty about what path to follow in m submissions
  • just as with an m. assignment, when reading she skips between sections
  • recognises a sense of pleasure and anticipation when faced with an m assessment - it is fair or am i biased in favour of this work because of its form?
  • m offers novelty and scope for creativity
  • feels anxiety about understanding scope, content, path -  this is mixed with pleasure in the exploration
  • factors encouraging/discouraging: need to be clearly and strongly invited in assessment brief
  • factors encouraging/discouraging: time - she suspects they take a lot longer to produce
  • training: valid. tutors may lack experience of tech or digital experiences
  • training: cultural, attitudinal aspects could be discussed - what's allowed?
  • training: we're grounded in our experiences as students - if we haven't done m work, we need some rethinking
  • training: discussion covering course design and moderation
  • cultural aspects might be most challenging to tutors
  • factors encouraging/discouraging: if course is presented m, students will feel encouraged to use m
  • feedback: this could be multimodal. doesn't seem right to give a word doc feedback on an m assignment
  • being observed during marking made her nervous, v conscious of missing links etc.

Christine themes:

  • Describes multimodla use on the MSc
  • Experience of m as a student (on the MSc itself)
  • Experiences the risk of spending too long on form over content (as a student on the MSc)
  • There's a danger of spending too much time making it pretty, over the content of argument etc
  • describes how student experience of m influenced her work as a tutor, including empathy
  • gives an example of an artefact where form reflected content
  • there's a danger that the dig env can direct the line taken
  • the freedom of digital spaces could mean the tutor is a curator
  • risk  - some students feel this way and are intimidated
  • gallery - the examples and creativity of other students in general can be intimidating
  • some students like the feeling of doing something different and creative
  • some students feel they out to be m, considering the nature of the course
  • on IDEL students experiment in different spaces on blog which is encouraging
  • she encourages m in blogs but doesn't want students to add images to text just for the sake of it
  • genres
  • examples: both worked
  • hypertextexample: the displayed features worked
  • hypertext example: links to large passages of text by other people didn't work - distracting
  • links to other sources can be distracting
  • links need to be contextualised
  • michael example: watching videos takes a long time so glad of transcript
  • really good m assignments take longer to mark as they draw you in
  • video takes longer to mark than script so you need to set aside extra marking time
  • michael example: dual mode of text and visual is useful
  • as a marker, in some cases you spend a lot of time working out what you're supposed to do as a reader
  • working out what you're supposed to do and where to begin can be uncomfortable
  • in many cases there's still an expected beginning. if not the student should say.
  • navigation can make interpretation difficult so signposts are welcome
  • offers an example with a shared responsibility for curation
  • inevitable that tutor does some curation in some m submissions
  • hierarchy: as along as tutors give grades there's a power imbalance
  • mooc - some students submitted in own language and couldn't be understood by peers. would image have helped? image understanding could vary across cultures.
  • as a marker there's a need to identify messages and intentions
  • she likes m for its inclusivity
  • tutors are a product of text-based culture
  • retraining: yes, but by whom?
  • retraining: maybe it's about awareness of issues?
  • retraining: maybe retrained by those from other disciplines?
  • teachers need to think of themselves as learners some times
  • m is exciting but it can be frightening for people to experience so much change
  • some people's creativity can make others feel inadequate
  • it opens up education  and creativity to far more people

Rory themes:

  • describes his use of m on MSc
  • dissertations aren't m
  • risk - students play it safe
  • tutors influence format of student work through subliminal messages
  • images can be used to advance narrative, not just illustrate
  • the text-based nature of the literature has a reinforcing effect
  • it's hard to break out of the academic traditions of text
  • m requires tutors to think of equivalences to texts e.g. word count
  • paradox - the the m assignments on assignment have been on shorter assignments where there's less room to manoeuvre than in dissertation
  • reproduces a section from the EPS course handbook encouraging non-conventional or experimental form
  • dissertation - the lit review is text-based which encourages use of text
  • dissertation conversations tend to be dominated by data and analysis and leave less room for experimental presentation
  • rory is comfortable with m web assignments as has web, art and cartoon background
  • video takes a long time to sit through
  • a video dissertation could be a documentary - but would take a long time to watch
  • the time associated with m marking is fine now as its less common, but would be a problem if everyone did it
  • visual vs text - text isn't toppled yet, reflected in dominance of text in journals and even on MSc
  • images - tends to be someone else's, so only indirecting quality. Different case when its created by student.
  • it's difficult for tutors to judge image which may unconsciously reinforce status quo
  • risk for students is that idea might not be fully recognised
  • if use of image became new normal, academics would need to know more about what they're judging
  • sound - how to judge that?
  • markers might have blindspots to different modes - he cites his own - ballet and opera
  • traditional ways of assessment are the waters we swim in - we were assessed in this way and assess this way (relates to point in other interviews about having completed m work as a student)

Clara themes:

  • experience of multimodality as a student (included a bit of multimedia)
  • i should be thinking of mfl as well as mfa
  • different use of m on the MSc
  • dialogue
  • reasons why m is encouraged on the course
  • dissertations are not multimodal
  • risky for students
  • m doesn't have to be song-and-dance - it could be a Word doc with images
  • gallery is off putting
  • tutors have to go through a threshold to understand student dilemma
  • risky for tutors
  • factors that encourage and discourage m amongst students
  • students need a chance to try it out
  • m prompts tutors to respond with m feedback
  • mode doesn't matter in relation to quality - its about critical, synthesis, argument
  • students need a chance to apply criteria over time
  • visual versus text
  • dialogue again
  • tutors retraining
  • interpreting visual
  • crisis of interpretation, assessment as a creative crisis
  • michael's artefact
  • prefers to read than listen
  • appreciative of text option in michael's artefact
  • other artefact - text easy to follow, it flows
  • prefers to read
  • i should be spending more time looking at m feedback than just m assessment

Hamish themes:

  • experience of m assessment as a student
  • its about understanding why you use certain devices
  • experience as a student influenced current approach - we teach as we were taught
  • m should be used when it is called for, not just for adding colour
  • he doesn't understand the aesthetic
  • an image doesn't add anything purely by its presence
  • if the idea hasn't been communicated clearly i may miss something therefore the student may need to speak down to me
  • m allows a student to use a juxtaposition of media to make an idea clear
  • could m not have to go beyond the written word on its own?
  • he doesn't consciously set m assignments
  • students are encouraged to use different media if it helps communicate idea, not just for sake of it
  • seeing past work can be restrictive and demotivating
  • good examples can be a template which actually constrain
  • doesn't like the gallery - useful for prospective students but doesn't have pedagogic value for participating students
  • m might enable people to do what they do well, by selecting the right tools
  • should m be encouraged, or should it be about enabling it, and not preventing it?
  • we should be tolerant when people want to take risks and it doesn't come off
  • high risk summative assessment is not conducive to creativity
  • people need time and space and experience of making mistakes
  • students need lots of formative opportunities
  • students need peer collaboration
  • he doesn't want to give too much credit for form over function and to be harsh to those who go for a more conventional approach
  • michael's assignment: video blends form and function very well
  • other assignment: multimodally grafted onto a linear essay
  • one might be good but one might be genius - the scale isn't linear
  • training: co-evolution with students and tutors, not training
  • who would do the training?
  • he liked the 'critical incident' approach of the interview
Where tutors have experience multimodal assessment as a student, this has influenced their attitude towards multimodality as a tutor. And this includes digital and pre-digital multimodality. This links into another idea expressed by some within interview that tutors can usefully reorient themselves by completing multimodal assessment themselves.
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Presenting direct citation from data

24/5/2013

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Just an idea, but maybe I can be a bit more imaginative that simply displaying a direct quotation as a text. Maybe I could take a cut out of the screen shot and paste it in as an image? Or maybe I could do something like this:
Picture
If I do go with this idea, I could similarly use it for indented direct citations within the literature or citing course documentation. Actually, that could be a bit like overkill and would reduce the sense of voice projected by these quotes. Maybe it works better when it has been someone's spoken words. 

I wasn't sure about this when I started typing, however I quite like it now as it does bring key bits of data - and they have to be key in order to be reproduced directly - to the fore. Also, there are some really fantastic lines in the data that merit being foregrounded like this.

The font if Clarendon BT, the same as for the title on the front cover. Does it appear more book-ish than conversation? It's a nice clear font though. Maybe this would work for quotations for text as well, but perhaps without sing versus double punctuation marks.

I like this. 
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Using interview data in dissemination rationale

24/5/2013

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Can I use the interview data to inform my dissemination rationale? It would seem crazy and artificial not to. 

For instance, if I know what markers might see as strengths/weaknesses within a multimodal format piece of work, how can I ignore this (particularly when some of the same individuals will be marking my work)?

In fact, perhaps I go a step a further and include the data in an up-front way. For instance, maybe I will say in discussion how the interviews gave me insights into multimodal assessment that inevitably informed my work. I could present the interviews as offering some of the same value that would come from student-tutor dialogue that was referred to in a couple of the interviews.

This would be interweaved with the relevant literature. Is there a danger of overdoing the literature? I could also make reference to my own blog.

How would this look? Perhaps under different topics I would have a relevant direct quote from the data before discussion of how this relates to the literature, assessment criteria and my own experiences, perhaps taking sections from my blog. And perhaps the different sections would in turn be taken from text drawn directly from the assessment criteria.

So, the rationale would a combination of:

- different points taken from course dissertation guide that form the structure
- direct quotes from the data, as well as indirect citation for each of the key point
- brief relevance to the relevant parts of the literature 
- reflection on how this has influenced my work, perhaps with text taken from my blog

Actually, this ends up being a mixture of personal and critical reflection, with interweaved with the assessment criteria and interview data.
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Plan for this week: looking through data

20/5/2013

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Step 0: Background preparation
  • Read through Robson's guidance on qualitative interview data analysis
  • Read through the relevant part of the dissertation guide to remind myself what I'm supposed to be doing

Step 1: Saving and reading  
  • I'll save clean copies of each transcript and print each out.
  • I'll read three times through each of the seven interview transcripts.

Step 2: Reflecting on emergent themes in relation to research questions and literature
  • I'll look back over my research questions.
  • I'll think about common themes that have emerged from the transcripts, particularly in relation to the research questions. I won't get bogged down by looking at non-directly relevant information, however interesting it is.

Step 3a: Synthesis
  • I'll put the common themes into some form of grid - paper or digital, probably the latter. I need to get the column titles right before the second part of this step...
  • I'll add the relevant sections/quotes from each interview into the relevant columns.


If I manage all this, I'll have had a really effective week, dependent on the quality of the emergent themes. Next week I'll try and draw some conclusions.
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