Capturing a coursework essay in Modern United States History
This page is intended for students participating in the Modern United States History course at the University of Edinburgh. To begin, thank you for offering to participate in this 'journalling exercise' in support of my research - I really appreciate your contribution. While the exercise should be quite straightforward, I thought it would be helpful to briefly outline what I am looking for you to do.
The purpose of this exercise is to help me understand the different resources, opportunities, constraints, pressures and influences that come together in the preparation of a coursework essay. To help me achieve this I would like you to:
The purpose of this exercise is to help me understand the different resources, opportunities, constraints, pressures and influences that come together in the preparation of a coursework essay. To help me achieve this I would like you to:
- Take a photograph of your 'learning space' on each occasion that you work on the essay. By learning space, I simply mean the place where you are working on the essay. It is entirely up to you to decide what to photograph. I am interested in all the different stages of your work on the essay whether that involves visiting the library, online research, note-taking, writing, editing and so on. Therefore whenever you spend time working on any aspect of the essay I would like you to take a photo (even if you always work in the same place). Don't worry about the quality of the photograph - I just want to get a sense of your different learning spaces.
- Make a short sound recording of each of these spaces. This should ideally be around one minute in length and is intended to capture the ambient sounds of each learning space - I'm not looking for you to record a spoken commentary. You might make this recording on your mobile phone (for instance using the Voice Memos function or equivalent) or any other device that is convenient to you. As with the photographs, I am less concerned with the quality of the sound recording than what it might tell me about your different learning spaces as you work on the essay.
Keeping a record of your photos and sound recordings
In each instance that you capture your learning space I would like you to record the date and time, location (e.g. ‘library’, ‘cafe’, ‘in my room’ and so on) and a very short description of your activity at that point (e.g. ‘reading’, ‘writing a first draft’ - whatever description you think is best).
Sharing your data
I want to make to make this exercise as easy as possible for you therefore you can submit your gathered information in any of the following ways:
In gratitude for your cooperation
I have already mentioned how much I appreciate your contribution here therefore I would like to give you a £20 gift token (Blackwells or whatever you prefer) for agreeing to participate. I have designed this exercise in a way that I hope will cause as little disruption as possible to your studies, but at the same time your involvement could have a really positive effect on my research.
Confirming your willingness to contribute
If you are willing to participate in my research as described above, please complete the short form below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch by e-mail at [email protected] or after one of Catherine Bateson's tutorials on Tuesday afternoon.
In each instance that you capture your learning space I would like you to record the date and time, location (e.g. ‘library’, ‘cafe’, ‘in my room’ and so on) and a very short description of your activity at that point (e.g. ‘reading’, ‘writing a first draft’ - whatever description you think is best).
Sharing your data
I want to make to make this exercise as easy as possible for you therefore you can submit your gathered information in any of the following ways:
- Using this online submission form
- By e-mailing the information to me at [email protected]
- Using a USB pen drive that I will provide you with
In gratitude for your cooperation
I have already mentioned how much I appreciate your contribution here therefore I would like to give you a £20 gift token (Blackwells or whatever you prefer) for agreeing to participate. I have designed this exercise in a way that I hope will cause as little disruption as possible to your studies, but at the same time your involvement could have a really positive effect on my research.
Confirming your willingness to contribute
If you are willing to participate in my research as described above, please complete the short form below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch by e-mail at [email protected] or after one of Catherine Bateson's tutorials on Tuesday afternoon.
Once again, thank you for considering this request - I hope you will be willing to participate in this exercise.
Kind regards,
James (Lamb)
ESRC-funded PhD Student
Centre for Research in Digital Education
Moray House School of Education
University of Edinburgh
[email protected]
Kind regards,
James (Lamb)
ESRC-funded PhD Student
Centre for Research in Digital Education
Moray House School of Education
University of Edinburgh
[email protected]