The first paper “Mixed research and online learning: Strategies for improvement” is mainly about the differences between performing a quantitative and a qualitative research and how the choice of methods can affect the results. It also discuss the concept of “mixed research” in which both methods are combined to provide a better understanding of research problems than if you decide to use only one method. By having a mixed approach the data is enriched and this expands the interpretation of the findings.
The research questions are also pointed out as fundamental in the process because they help narrow the focus of a study (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007); they provide a framework, set boundaries, and give rise to the type of data that will be collected (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2006).
When choosing the method the author emphasizes that good quantitative questions should identify the population and its dependent variables. Also the sample definition should be seen as a key step in any study because it helps establish the quality of inferences a researcher makes from the findings of a study (Collins, Onwuegbuzie, & Jiao, 2006). This is something I always pay attention in papers and articles: the way they evaluate the possibility of a different result by the specific aspects of different populations. Especially considering media papers where characteristics may vary a lot from country to country.
Moreover it gives the impression that research is a lot more complex than what we think and that we need to learn, to be trained how to perform high quality researches.
The second paper “Emotional presence, learning and the online learning environment” draws the hypothesis that emotion plays a role in online learning environments. To me the main concepts presented were the sense of community/group, different emotions and online/offline environments. The background information was very rich but sometimes the references were not that clear in the sense that you would have to read the article reference to get the point they were trying to make.
The paper tries to be very descriptive but still I could not really understand for example the methodology part. To me it seems like sometimes describing a research method is so difficult that it would be easier just to get either some illustrations explaining it or the research itself in the appendix.
The findings were interesting because they were able to support their main hypothesis but they ended up raising so many more questions to be further investigated that I actually was frustrated.
To close this post I thought of another video (episode 2 season 4) from The Big Bang Theory, connected to the emotions in an online environment. Sheldon decides to live as a robot, interacting with people in a very online way.
What negative sides of mixed research do you personally regard as negative?
ReplyDeleteI think you've described the articles in a good way. I agree that it would have been good to illustrate the methodology part. I would be interesting to know how you would preferred it? I think that’s something to think about in most papers.
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