Posts

Blog #5 - Course Reflection

I think something that impressed me was how much intention goes into planning and preparing a research study. I remember reading that one thing we should do as a critical reader of research is ask whether the researcher has applied the appropriate method for the goal of the research. I have never once read a research paper and critiqued their choice of research method. I think I would still struggle a little bit with it, but it makes me want to be careful with the method I choose to implement in my own future studies. I'm a backwards thinker and the advice that the textbook gave was to solidify the research goal and then choose the method. The most pressing future role I have is as a technical writing teacher for the ENGL 2100 class on campus. I'll be designing the sandbox course for ENGL 2100 for my master's project and to prepare I'll be doing research to figure out what to cover and how to design the course to make it accessible to students and to the teachers who ar...
1 comment
Read more

Blog Post #4 - Plans for Revision

There are a couple of revisions I plan to make to my proposal. The first is that I need to integrate a couple of TWDR sources into my lit review--both from a journal on technical communication. Right now I feel like I haven't made the clear connection between my topic and technical writing and it's accidentally leaning too education-y which isn't the plan. The couple of TWDR sources should help situate my proposal within TC. Also to help I'm going to use technical writing classrooms as my population/sampling.  The second revision I am making it shifting some of my paragraphs around. After chatting with Florence I can see that my strongest paragraph isn't the first of my paragraphs and I'd like to switch that up.  Lastly, there are some errors in my citations that I need to edit. Whoops haha.
2 comments
Read more

Blog Post #3 - Research Gap in Methods of Online Learning

 Blog Post #3 I felt that the articles I found tended to make generalized statements about discussion posts or interactive quizzes, but didn't specify what about the discussion post or quiz made it effective and more engaging for students. The gap in my research is that specific forms of delivery are not compared and contrasted. There were a few sources that did give specific examples of modes to try, but there wasn't an experiment done to compare the effectiveness of one form to the other. I feel as though I only scratched the surface of my topic. It was difficult to know what to search to find sources that were primarily focused on the design and writing instead of the instructor's delivery. Since writing my literature review, I have done more searching and have found some sources that I think are more related to technical writing, though they also do not seem to be so specific about which forms of delivery are most effective. 
3 comments
Read more

Blog Post #2 - Potential Sources for Research Proposal

Research Question: W hat course-design strategies increase student engagement in undergraduate asynchronous learning? 1. Dozier, J. N. (2014). An examination into the experiences of online undergraduate students. ProQuest Central.   https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/examination-into-experiences-online-undergraduate/docview/1594942143/se-2 Research describes students' interaction with technology. I'm interested in survey information regarding their satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with online classroom tech. 2. Glover, B. M. (2025). Educators facilitating online student-centered learning strategies within universities in North Carolina. ProQuest Central. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/educators-facilitating-online-student-centered/docview/3217009141/se-2 Research focuses on how instructors deliver asynchronous instruction and how they motivate and engage their students through student-centered learning. This paper's themes are right on par with wh...
2 comments
Read more

Blog Post #1 - A Topic of Interest

I am interested in empowering teachers in online, asynchronous settings. This interest is derived from my passion for accessible and individualized learning. Given these interests, I'd like my research topic to relate to instructional design strategies. The question I've drafted and would like to answer is, "Which instructional design strategies most effectively increase student engagement in asynchronous online courses." My most immediate goal would be practical in nature: I teach an asynchronous class and would love to find better ways to design my instruction. One way I think I could improve my research question would be to select a specific course and class of students (e.g. first year undergraduate students or grad students) to study.
2 comments
Read more