Friday, August 2, 2013
The Best Research Paper
As a professor, I am proud when my students receive research awards. Almost 10 years ago, I was about to teach my advanced research methods class in a doctoral program. The course is focused in quantitative methods. I asked myself, why people write research? Well, to change policies, to improve settings, to learn. Now what happened when you write a paper and nobody reads it...nothing!. After giving some thought I decided that will be incomplete teaching/learning experience to ask students to write a paper, and then give them a grade. The learning experience has to culminate when the student is able to present the paper in a peer reviewed conference (not in class!) or published in a journal. His or Her work will be read it, discuss it for several people, and forever, posted in his / her resume. That program begins in 2005...next year, we will have the paper number 100 produced in this class.
Check them out in my website http://www.internationalprofessor.com/cv/index.html
Students have presented in India, France, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Canada, and the United States. In the United States, students have gone to Las Vegas, Seattle, Florida, New York, Connecticut, and counting. I am proud of them, they have received several awards: Best Paper in IBEC conference, Czech Republic, Best Presenter in One Voice International Conference in New York, Best Case Study in IBEC Conference in India...and so on. The course requires several meetings and reviews of the paper before the paper is actually approved to be sent to a conference. I am writing this blog, because now I am teaching an online course that requires research, how can I repeat this success in an online course? That’s what I am up now. I have begun with Skype meetings, phone meetings and preparing some guidelines. I found this interesting blog that discusses 22 ways to teach research skills. I may explore some of them. What ways of synchronous/ asynchronous communication do you think I can use to assure the contact and feedback to the students papers?
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I think Skype meetings, email, and phone calls are good ways to contact students writing research papers and give them feedback once their papers have been written. Posting specific guidelines to follow and examples of well-written research papers are also very helpful. I think once the paper has been written, if the professor can write comments electronically on how to improve the paper or what needs to be changed, by using Google Docs or some other collaborative editing program, the student can get the appropriate feedback to make the proper changes and write a very good paper. I don’t necessarily think that synchronous communication is better than asynchronous; as long as the communication lines are open, it can all be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteGood Idea, I will make accessible some previous research papers so people can see them.
DeleteUsing both synchronous and asynchronous methods of communication during research is important in ensuring that students excel. Teachers must determine the learners needs and abilities before choosing any of the communication tools available. Skype, Ooovoo, Facebook chat, BBM, telephone calls etc., are excellent ways to guide and provide students with assistance and feedback. Emails can be used to provide detailed critique, guidance and additional information to students during their research. It is critical that teachers try to use more than one tool to communicate with students or find the tool that the student is most comfortable using, has access to, or has time to use. I therefore won't say what tools are ideal for use by the teacher, instead I believe the ideal tool is dependent on the needs student/students being supervised during research.
ReplyDeleteIt has been my experience in teaching that students respond with excellence when learning results in a rigorous, relevant and relational experience and a tangible product. The goal of producing a finished publishable article induces students to approach work differently- rather than treating academic work as an exercise, the student must approach the work as a professional endeavor.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the best way to work with a student online for this purpose would be to keep them on track with the parameters that were initially set and to suggest research directions for the article. The preferred method of communication-whether synchronous or asynchronous- to achieve this goal is probably dependent of personal preferences. In a large class, giving multiple opportunities for communication might be a wise idea.
....Definitely for me, the best way to communicate with you is via Email. My life is very hectic with my young son, and I know that my cell phone is always connected to me and my email. While Skype/facetime is highly effective, depending on the individuals involved, it could be hard to link up. I also like to know the due date and to be able to do my own thing as long as I submit everything by due date time.
ReplyDeleteWriting research is done to change policies, settings but also the researcher becomes an expert in whatever the research topic is. To have students “publish” is a great idea! What a great way for students to get their feet wet and lessen the intimidation factor of publishing! It is very commendable the amount of research papers that you have published with your students. You have been a great mentor for writing research papers. I think it is hard to synchronously give feedback unless it is done through Skype of face-to-face. However, asynchronous feedback I feel is a great way to give feedback for editing a research paper. Perhaps, Snag it could be used for that purpose. You can edit the paper and give feedback while the software is recording both visually and verbally. Then the student writing the paper can edit the paper at a time that woks for their schedule. I’ve used Snag it and liked it a lot.
ReplyDeleteThe art supplies children choose for their work reflects their approach to process and outcomes.
ReplyDeleteArts and Education
At 100 papers you are going virtual, congratulations and I am sure much can be delivered via Skype, email and the like. The idea of Snagit is a great one. But I think if you want to capture the essence of the course you will need to develop a little pop-up "Dr. Morote" VOKI that spontaneously chides, reminds, criticizes and shouts important nuances like, "You must LOVE your data!" or "The title is not sexy enough!" Getting those snappy little chides was a very powerful motivator...at least for me.
ReplyDeleteMy first comment on a blog post ever. I am meeting a requirement of a class requirement, lead by Dr. Morote. I have read the research blog, finding it very helpful, and great resource for what I need now. I am guiding a high school student through research project, so he can make the graduation requirement. The information found here has led me to a great resource. This brings me to the required reading, Teaching and Learning with Microsoft Office 2010; use of technology is here and now, main stream. Learning, reviewing, polishing, program skills is a need. Being Microsoft is the leader, most popular, software available, it make sense to utilize the text for the class. I am looking forward to learning, reviewing, and polishing my program skills. Thank you. (5611 Winter 2014)
ReplyDeleteG, yes, I believe that we have to begin learning the most used software, like Microsoft, before exploring the new or the ones who are on "fashion" mode. For example, I am working in a presentation, being a tech person, I would like to make it spectacular, and use other software than Microsoft PowerPoint, there are several in the market. The advantage is that if you know PP very well, you can easily learn, the new ones.
ReplyDeleteI am currently working on my research paper in Dr Morote seminar for educational research. This is my first qualitative study. I have to admit at first, I was a little apprehensive about doing a research of this scope but overcame and now running with it. My study is on inclusion in the classroom. My research is going well and there is a lot of information on inclusion and plenty of studies. I plan to do semi-formal interviews of classroom teachers and get their perception of inclusive classrooms and the effectiveness for students and teachers. Coming up with questions and figuring out how to compile my data is the one concern I have. So far in my research the studies that used interviews listed their data collection in percentages. I’ve spoken to some teachers just in conversation and feel real confident on the topic. I’m trying to formulate my questions and find the most convenient mode of interview for my participants. Some prefer a phone interview and not interested in skype, others don’t mind face to face and being recorded. I think this is the easiest part of my research. Its putting it down in writing where the challenge comes in.
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