Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces

Qualitative researchers have grappled with how online inquiry shifts research procedures such as gaining access to spaces, communicating with participants, and obtaining informed consent. Drawing on a multimethod approach, Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces explores how to design and conduct diverse studies in online environments. The book focuses on formal and informal learning practices that occur in evolving online spaces. The text shows researchers how they can draw upon a variety of theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and data sources. Examples of qualitative research in online spaces, along with guiding questions, support readers at every phase of the research process.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: What Is Online Learning and How Is It Informed by Qualitative Research Guiding Questions Introduction Mediated Spaces and Online Learning Making Pragmatic Choices about Methods Choosing among Qualitative Traditions Qualitative Approaches Research Paradigms and Philosophical Stances in a Study′s Design Pragmatic Research and Remix: Considering Multimethod Approaches Remix Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 2: What Kinds of Online Spaces Exist? Guiding Questions Introduction Conceptualizing Online Spaces as Field Sites Defining the Field Site Understanding Networked Field Sites Learning in Social Networking Forums Mapping Networked Field Sites Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 3: How Do We Conceptualize Learning in Online Spaces? Guiding Questions Introduction Using Learning Theory as a Tool fro Research Design Complementary and Contradictory Theories of Learning Theories of Learning Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 4: What Does It Mean to Be a Qualitative Researcher of Online Spaces? Guiding Questions Introduction Aspects of Researching Online Meaning Making Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 5: What Methodological Tools Are Available for Data Collection? Guiding Questions Introduction Establishing Trustworthiness Trustworthiness and Analytic Openness Data Sources Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 6: What Tools are Available for Data Analysis? Guiding Questions Introduction Moving from Data Collection to Analysis Considering Data Analysis in Networked Field Sites Innovation with Methods Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 7: What Is Ethical Research? Guiding Questions Introduction Research Ethics and Policies across Multiple Contexts The Public versus the Private Web Conclusion Connecting to Your Work Chapter 8: How Might Research Change in New Times? Guiding Questions Introduction The Complicated Nature of Studying Learning in Online Spaces (Re)Imagining Research Techniques Shifting Cultures, Shifting Boundaries Conclusion Connecting to Your Work

About the Author :
Hannah R. Gerber is an associate professor in the Department of Language, Literacy and Special Populations at Sam Houston State University in Texas, where she teaches graduate courses in digital epistemologies and virtual ethnography. To date, Gerber’s research has focused on adolescents and their videogaming practices, examining confluences of learning across various literacies in multiple online and offline settings. She has conducted research in diverse environments such as homes, libraries, and schools, and within inner city, rural, and international contexts such as North America, Middle East, and South East Asia. She has given lectures and keynote addresses on her research at conferences and universities around the world. Gerber’s recent publications can be found in English Journal, Educational Media International, and The ALAN Review. She is co-editor of Bridging Literacies with Videogames. Sandra Schamroth Abrams is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at St. John’s University in New York. Her research of digital literacies and videogaming provides insight into agentive learning, layered meaning making, and pedagogical discovery located at the intersection of online and offline experiences. Her recent work appears in the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Education, Journal of Literacy Research, and Educational Media International.  She is author of Integrating Virtual and Traditional Learning in 6-12 Classrooms: A Layered Literacies Approach to Multimodal Meaning Making (Routledge) and co-editor of Bridging Literacies with Videogames. Jen Scott Curwood is a senior lecturer in English education and media studies at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her research focuses on literacy, technology, and teacher professional development, and her current work investigates young adults′ writing practices in online spaces and teachers′ integration of digital tools in content area classrooms. Curwood′s recent scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Literacy Research, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Teaching Education, and Learning, Media, and Technology. Alecia Marie Magnifico is a teacher educator and a learning scientist whose research focuses on writing, digital literacies, and learning in formal and informal environments. Currently, she is an assistant professor of English teaching at the University of New Hampshire, where she teaches courses on English teaching, digital literacies, and research methods. Magnifico′s research interests focus on understanding, supporting, and encouraging adolescents′ writing for different audiences. Much of her writing in this area describes and theorizes composition across formal and informal contexts, although she also works with teachers to design curricula and assessments that engage digital tools and multiple literacies. She enjoys the challenge of developing research methods to represent what happens in these complex, social learning spaces. Magnifico′s recent work can be found in Literacy, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and E-Learning and Digital Media.

Review :
For breaking the barrier of technology and qualitative research, Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces is a confidence builder for those who have never ventured into such spaces. Very thoughtful and accessible, I highly recommend this text. This book helps students not only to understand the complexities of researching online learning but also how they can apply these theoretical perspectives to their own research through its extensive and varied examples of contemporary online research. This book takes online qualitative research methods to the next level in terms of innovative methods, data collection and analysis, as well as mapping out a more nuanced and useful set of ethical perspectives to guide researcher practice in online spaces. In a rapidly evolving field, this book stands as valuable point of reference. It offers a lively, thoughtful and critical commentary on learning in online spaces, and challenges readers to do the same. The authors offer an agenda to advance the field further, identifying the foundational issues and approaches to studying these which will shape new work in the years ahead. In the long history of education, online learning is a recent advancement of pedagogy.  Online instructors, researchers, and students have, to-date, simultaneously enacted a range of individualized methods to conduct their work, while seeking a primer on guidelines to follow that does not exist. Finally, they have Conducting Qualitative Research of Learning in Online Spaces to help them organize their efforts, ethics, tools, and definitions and they no longer have to spend valuable research time seeking such standards.