Research Methodology
Definition
This page is a resource page on social science research methodology with a special focus on approaches and methods used in various research types in educational technology.
See also: Methodology tutorial (a crash course with several modules).
Research methodology in educational technology
Educational technology uses the whole palette of social science methodology. Very few approaches originated in our field. One recent example is design-based research (DBR). But even DBR uses methods and techniques developed in other contexts. Of course edutech research does contribute to the evolution of various tools, e.g contributes to the methodology of log file analysis, dialogue and discourse analysis, observation of human-computer interaction, development of survey scales, etc.
See also: Educational technology research approaches for a discussion on what is considered to be good research. * What We Know about Research in Instructional Technology: Interviews with Research Leaders by Marshall G. Jones et al. presentation at the annual conference of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. St. Louis, MO. February, 1998.
Tutorials
So far, we don't have a very complete inventory. In particular, good tutorials for qualitative methods are missing...
Literature and Bibliography
See literature review and citation articles
General introduction to research methodology * Bill Trochim's nice Knowledge Base. This web-based text-book is a good place to start for quantitative research (including statistics) * Research Methods, by Christopher L. Heffner. This ten chapter research methods text is written for both undergraduate and graduate students in education, psychology, and the social sciences. It focuses on the basics of research design and the critical analysis of professional research in the social sciences from developing a theory, selecting subjects, and testing subjects to performing statistical analysis and writing
This page is a resource page on social science research methodology with a special focus on approaches and methods used in various research types in educational technology.
See also: Methodology tutorial (a crash course with several modules).
Research methodology in educational technology
Educational technology uses the whole palette of social science methodology. Very few approaches originated in our field. One recent example is design-based research (DBR). But even DBR uses methods and techniques developed in other contexts. Of course edutech research does contribute to the evolution of various tools, e.g contributes to the methodology of log file analysis, dialogue and discourse analysis, observation of human-computer interaction, development of survey scales, etc.
See also: Educational technology research approaches for a discussion on what is considered to be good research. * What We Know about Research in Instructional Technology: Interviews with Research Leaders by Marshall G. Jones et al. presentation at the annual conference of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. St. Louis, MO. February, 1998.
Tutorials
So far, we don't have a very complete inventory. In particular, good tutorials for qualitative methods are missing...
Literature and Bibliography
See literature review and citation articles
General introduction to research methodology * Bill Trochim's nice Knowledge Base. This web-based text-book is a good place to start for quantitative research (including statistics) * Research Methods, by Christopher L. Heffner. This ten chapter research methods text is written for both undergraduate and graduate students in education, psychology, and the social sciences. It focuses on the basics of research design and the critical analysis of professional research in the social sciences from developing a theory, selecting subjects, and testing subjects to performing statistical analysis and writing