EDU-6920: Educational Research

Prior to participating in this course, I was unfamiliar with the methods used for educational research. Action research has provided a framework for conducting research that utilizes valid and reliable data driven results that can work to improve many aspects of the educational experience. By applying action research to inform my Information Technology work, I have been able to make substantial IT improvements and recommendations while providing insights into the future needs of students and educators.

The Educational Research course was relevant and helpful for me. I have spent numerous hours attempting to convince people using my own knowledge. What I learned is that by grounding research and/or recommendations in peer reviewed and full text resources, convincing takes much less effort. For instance, if I were to propose a change to the IT infrastructure with only my recommendation, I would have to answer many questions. If I were to provide a white paper, use cases and documentation (research) on how the proposal will improve our Ed Tech infrastructure, many questions would already have been answered and I have to do much less convincing. This is the purpose of the literature review that I completed for the assignment. I will utilize the structure of a literature review as a key piece for proposals moving forward.

The discussions and topics presented in the course were interesting and provided a solid overview of educational research. Topics of validity and reliability were of great importance to reinforce and keep in mind during any research process. These topics were explained in depth and were a large part of the success of my research project.

I enjoyed understanding the process of a feed back loop that action research provides. Research a topic by reviewing relevant literature, apply this research to a topic area, triangulate results using three data sources, analyze data, make recommendations based on the research. Then use these recommendations and data to make data driven decisions to better the topic that was studied.

Although research can be tedious and subjective, data that research provides is useful beyond my own grasp. If a research project gets published it is unknown what additional research projects or processes the paper can inform. We all benefit from the research process. This class has inspired me to continue to think of research in my own profession and how I can provide useful insights for all others to benefit.