Qual 2/Dissertation Fieldnotes

Okay.  The first thing is that after my class last night, I realize that I am doing a field log more than I am doing field notes.  At least that is what I think I am supposed to be thinking and doing.  Whatever. I am going to write a little bit about how my topic has solidified in my mind a bit since discussing it so much over last summer.  THEN I will dig out my old proposal draft and see where my idea has grown and changed.  Should be interesting.

One day, just before Christmas, my mother-in-law and I had a chance to talk, and she's always interested in my graduate work beyond just the 'when will you finish' conversation.  Being done seems impossible.  Anyway, she asked me about my dissertation.  She's a career educator; she taught in the elementary classroom for several years, then she completed her Master's in Psychometry and was the Special Ed director at a large school district. So she cares about education and students and learning.  She's definitely a quantitative person, but she's kind to her qualitative daughter-in-law.

Our conversation went like this: (This is my memory, not a transcription.)

Melba:  What is your dissertation about?

Stephoni:  It's about meeting objectives in online courses.

Melba: So you are wanting to know if online courses work? If students learn anything in online courses?

Stephoni: Well, it's down that road, but a little different. I want to find out if an online Intro to Philosophy course (for example) can meet the same objectives as an onland Intro to Phil course.  Maybe I want to find out if online courses meet related but different objectives.  Maybe I will even find out that neither course meets the predifined objectives.

Melba: So, are you wanting to find out if students learn anything in online courses?

Stephoni: No.  Measuring their learning won't be my primary focus.  I may be using assessment features of each type of course to figure out if those assessments actually assess the meeting/not meeting of objectives, but I don't want my focus to be on learning.

Melba. Oh. 

(Assessment she likes; not measuring learning she doesn't get.  Maybe I don't get that either.  Maybe I need to think about that.

Anyway.  Enough of our conversation.  I like that I have honed down my idea down to a few words:  Meeting objectives in online courses compared to meeting objectives in the same, onland courses.

ttfn.