Week 7 - Negotiate evaluation plan

Time to put back on my learning hat after a very busy Easter with family from overseas! and the past couple of days attending a two day conference for all staff at Otago Polytechnic. (Bronwyn was the conference organiser!) There were four strands to the conference: Teaching and Learning, Effective use of Technology, Self Care and Sustainability with a wide range of key note speakers, panel discussions, workshops, lectures and other hands-on activities. I have come away reflecting on many aspects of my own teaching and learning. I have learnt new skills, especially through attending a workshop on Camtasia, I am very keen to put this new found skill into practice. Maybe even for my presentation later in this paper – watch this space.

I have reflected on my last blog where I considered my evaluation plan. Here is a little more detail of where I see my project heading.

Area of teaching: I am currently involved in teaching on the Bachelor of Applied management degree in the area of Hotel Management at both second and third year level. These papers are currently only available face to face; however, there is a strong mandate for papers to be more ‘flexible’ in their delivery, whether this is fully on-line or some form of ‘blended’ delivery.

Purpose of evaluation plan: A needs assessment will be carried out to establish suitable eLearning options when teaching hotel management. I have revisited the eLearning guidelines, which are a wonderful tool and revised my chosen guidelines to: TD1 - Is the use of e-learning appropriate to the intended learning outcome?
TO10 - Is good elearning practice available to staff in a way they can adopt and adapt in their own work?

Framework: The evaluation plan will be based on a needs assessment which Rossett (1995, as cited in Reeves & Hedberg, 2003) explains is a way to gather information to assist professionals in making recommendations about how to solve a problem or introduce new technology. By carrying out a needs assessment it will enable the research to evaluate the viability of the project and explore a variety of possibilities. As part of this evaluation, I will make use of the evaluation framework, called the 'eclectic-mixed methods-pragmatic paradigm' (EMMPP) as it will allow for a more flexible approach to the research. This framework also recongnises that multiple perspectives are necessary to “triangulate information and conclusions regarding complex phenomena” (Reeves & Hedberg, 2003, p. 35)

Data Collection:
By choosing the EMMPP it will allow for a wider scope of data collection. The first method will be to review the organisations strategic information on flexible and elearning as this will form a good basis of my research and will give direction for my interview questions. Secondly, I will interview two experts within the organisation. Thirdly, it is important to have information from the students; however, due to time limitations for this particular project, I will only carry out the first two at this stage of the project.

I now look forward to negotiating this plan with Bronwyn, when we catch up next week. I also welcome comments from others.

Reference

Reeves, T. C., & Hedberg, J. C. (2003). Interactive Learning Systems Evaluation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.