Reflection: Research & Assessment

 

          To demonstrate competency in the area of research and assessment, the action research project course CI 515 is the best exemplified. Standard 4 states “apply technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and research strategies, focusing on classroom-based educational research projects for their classrooms.” The action research project allowed me to select an educational topic that I am passionate about. At this moment, with all the courses moving online, I hope that my project can contribute to the knowledge of improving online courses. This is a critical period where things are changing rapidly, and it requires attentive and careful evaluation to deliver the best education possible for the students.

          My area of focus for my action research was to describe undergraduate international students’ perceptions toward online learning at Iowa State University. As I begin my research project, choosing a suitable topic was one of the most difficult parts. I found that the journaling/reflection assignment was very helpful to get my thoughts started. For this assignment, I had to journal for a week about what happened during my work/daily life that related to education. At the end of the fifth day, I summarized and analyzed the patterns. I found that this assignment helped me greatly in finding the topics for my research. Therefore, through this journaling and reflection process, I learned that this practice could be applied in other courses to help students pay more attention to their thoughts process and help them to brainstorm ideas.  What I learned for my future work is that this assignment can apply for other courses to help students pay more attention to their thoughts and help them to brainstorm ideas. My current job is working with underrepresented students and international student population, so the topic of this project is focusing on the needs of international students and how the University can serve this population. From the past two weeks, starting from the second week of March, courses at university are changing quickly from face-to-face to online. Teachers are doing their best to get Canvas courses to set up, make changes to assignments and curriculum, and many others. The university might be dealing with a lot of logistical issues, this project helped me to understand about student’s experience and how to improve it.

          This research project requires knowledge of how to do quantitative and qualitative analysis. This is a challenging area for me because I did not limited background knowledge in this practice. However, my instructor provided a lot of guidance through the discussion boards, reading materials, and Zoom meetings. I found that discussion board was very helpful because it allowed me to ask questions and share my experience. Additionally, I could also have discussions with peers and learn more about their experiences and opinions. In an ideal environment, we would be able to interview people face-to-face, do the observation, distribute surveys in the class, and complete a follow-up interview if necessary. However, with this current situation of social distancing and staying at home, everyone has to adjust their project to fit with the situation of not able to contact the participants. As a future instructional designer, I would like to learn how to be flexible when urgent situations come up, be creative and innovative in order to conduct research.

          I created a survey, using Google Forms, and sent it to six international students to get the data. During the process of gathering the answers from students, I realized that asking the right type of questions is very important when collecting data. For example, I did not succeed at creating the questions in the survey so I did not have results as I wanted to analyze the data. I can see how this skill of asking precise questions can help with my career as an instructional designer. For instance, I can use this skill to work with both instructors, students and other stakeholders. Especially during the Need Analysis of ADDIE model, I want to get the right information in order to build the right course for students and instructors, which could be accomplished by asking the right type of questions. After collecting the data, analyzing the data was the next difficult task that I had to overcome. Due to the time constraints and a lack of participants, I used a qualitative method to code my data. It did take time and effort to make sense of the data and to be able to present useful information. In this process, I learned how the data interpretations either connected or disconnected with the research questions that I presented at the beginning of the paper. What I studied in this project helped me to build my professional career in instructional designer. My job could be related to work with professors and help them build strong course objectives. Moreover, the course objectives need to match with all the lessons and activities related to the course. Finally, I want to create a cohesive course where students can easily navigate and know the purpose of taking the course. 

          Overall, this project is relevant in the time we are currently facing as schools are closing and learning has transitioned to online platforms. According to the survey results, there are positive and negative opinions about students’ experience in online learning environment. There would be no perfect courses, but we strive to provide the best solutions that meet the needs of the students. I learned that for international students who take online courses, they would need more training and strategies to get familiar with this new environment. In addition, there are many differences in culture, teaching methods, and social power. This requires the students and teacher’s knowledge of both cultures, so they can have effective communication and make changes to accommodate the current situations. I envision myself continuing to learn and understand more about students’ learning process, their motivation, and their achievement during this period of quarantine and studying online. 

          In summary, my work in CI 515 helped me to learn how to do an action research project as I had never completed before. It encourages me to do something similar in the future because it is a very meaningful project and it contributes to the knowledge of teaching and understanding the student needs. Even though completing an action research project took time, I learned that what I did is actually what we have been doing everyday as a teacher. However, this process might involve a larger audience, getting permission from school principals/upper management, or presenting ideas. In conclusion, through this project, I understand international students’ perceptions of studying abroad, their experience of online learning, and how we as educators can serve the diverse population on our campus.