Thinking back about the semester, what have you learned?

Thinking back about the whole doctoral program, do you feel ready to do your dissertation?

That is a very difficult question. Based on my understanding of the process and my ability to accomplish the work, yes, I feel more than ready for this next step in my academic career. Based on my comparison to other students at this phase of the doctoral program, yes, I feel just as ready because I had to work mostly alone on all my reports and projects, unlike others that depended on others for help to succeed. My teaching schedule was overloaded this semester due to increased student enrollment, and I had 11 classes to teach. I must complete all my assigned tasks and devote 100% of my time to my dissertation formulation, application, and assessment.

What will you do with your career when you are done?

My lifelong goals are that I intend to pursue two aspects of my professional career. The first, and probably primary, is that of an instructor, and the second is that of a researcher. I enjoy working with and helping people who want to better themselves. I also want to keep current with the educational theories and applications of contemporary learning technologies. By combining the two goals, I can see what works and what new methods can improve what currently exists.

If time and health permits, I want to help develop XR training applications for the Naval Special Warfare Department, Space-X, and the Air Force Space Program. These are my deepest desires because (1) most of my life has been surrounded by the Teams, (2) astrophysics and deep space research have always been interests of mine, and (3) I hope to one day be one of the colonists on an alien planet.  

What is your plan?

After completing this program, I plan to research the uses and applications of artificial intelligence in the Stem curriculum. Currently, AI seems well-suited for Liberal Arts classes. In contrast, STEM courses are not as fortunate yet, even though more and more AI applications are being developed for the mathematical sciences. I also plan to pursue my Quasi-Molecular Structure of Super-Conductive Elements theorem that I was working on during my master’s program at UT Arlington. AI seems able to perform dynamic calculations and develop permutations of structured multi-variate calculations.

Reflect on where you are currently in the process of finishing your first three chapters. 

QUESTION 1: Consider whether you are done with your portfolio and, if not, what plans you have to complete it and schedule your defense.

ANSWER 1: I have been working on my Portfolio (in a Word document) and am working on putting it into a virtual portfolio format. I plan on finishing it by Friday (4-29-23) and will request a Portfolio Defense for some time in May whenever my esteemed committee members can fit me in.

QUESTION 2: Think through what you are currently considering in terms of the timeline for dissertation completion. Given your reflection on the potential unexpected challenges (e.g., storms, COVID), have you altered your planning?

ANSWER 2: No, I am following the slow and steady approach.

Chapter 3 was the most difficult part because it was about designing the dissertation’s research aspect with all the bells and whistles. I had difficulties thinking through all the pieces, how they would fit together, and how they would be structured. I finally submitted it with the final words – TO BE CONTINUED…

Chapters 1 and 2 should be easier because they tell a story of why I want to pursue that direction in my research, what others have done in the past, where we are now relevant to their findings, and what I am trying to discover. Chapter 1 tells why I chose that topic and what I hope to find. Chapter 2 tells the history of all the pieces involved in the dissertation, who did what, what they found out, and where we should go.

Do you feel like your methods are constructed solidly?

I have spent the past few weeks reviewing and reading numerous research articles on my topic and each related subtopic. The methodology is not really the problematic aspect of the project. The real difficulty comes from how the data will be analyzed once collected. This is a mixed-method type of research project. The data collected will be both qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative data will comprise pre-and post-test scores, recorded numbers of events occurring, and results from Likert-Scale type questions. Qualitative data will come from observations and interviews where coding will be required involving two or more individuals.

I have had multiple meetings with my Dean and Department Head regarding the structure of this research project, and they have assured me that they will provide complete support with whatever I need to complete this project. For example, multiple traditional and non-traditional calculus classes will be available at Mt. View and Cedar Valley, if required, for my use. Also, in the coming weeks, I intend to meet with Drs. Norris, Warren, and Foshay in person regarding my intended topic of research and my Portfolio.

Reflect on the status of my dissertation’s Literature Review, Portfolio, and Methods Sections.

LITERATURE REVIEW

I have spent a lot of time locating articles relevant to my proposed research topic and have not found any that deal precisely with my subject. So, I have to review and read many articles and piece together what I can. As with the methods section, I am spending too much time doubting myself and deleting what I have done because I don’t think it sounds accurate enough. But from now on, I will send Drs. Warren and Foshay what I have completed and discuss what I have. I am my own worse critic. I want this to be perfect, and anything less is not acceptable.

PORTFOLIO

My initial issue with my portfolio was that I did not like what was in it. After reviewing other students’ portfolios, I decided that I have been on the right course all along, and I simply must put everything that has gotten me from where I was up to where I am now. I have completed the Curriculum Vitae, Personal and Professional Overview with Reflective Introduction, and five Professional Presentations. I am not sure about the Scholarly Writings and Creative Works sections.  I will submit what I have and discuss this with Dr. Warren.

METHODS SECTION

I have worked on the methods section several times and now feel confident with what I am putting together. I should have the completed methods section by the end of this week and will send it to both Drs. Warren and Foshay for review and comments.

WHAT ISSUES DO YOU FORESEE IN THE FUTURE WHILE WORKING ON YOUR DISSERTATION

The primary issue that may occur is new research being published or presented that may require me to modify or completely change the direction I am taking now. The more articles that I read, I find little pieces that affect what I have thought initially and factored into my writings.

For example, while reading articles on technology integration models into the post-secondary curriculum, I discovered that someone else had already considered some of my beliefs. More articles were published recently, which made me change the direction of my dissertation research. Although these modifications are expected, they are not insurmountable. They simply require me to put in more time to develop my line of thought. There were also other instances where “articles” were published online on a non-refereed website that seemed very close to what I thought and wanted to write about. Argh!!!!

PROMPT: What I learned from writing and sharing my methods and what I would like to learn going forward with my research.

The reading and writing of the articles is the most difficult part because each article, at best only, discusses only one modality and reports on whether or not that method was significantly effective or not. I know that I am missing the short report for our last assignment, it is just that I don’t want to submit a space filler. Instead, I prefer to formalize a well-structured submission that I can use to build it further.

From this point on, I would like to learn more about analyzing and synthesizing what I have read. Another aspect of research I would like to further develop is how to create a well-written Abstract because that is the bait that will lead the reader into reading what I write. I know what I want to say, it is putting it down in the correct format that is giving me the most issue. I just have to keep reading the APA directions and writing my papers. Practice makes perfect.

I feel that this research study will be valuable to the field of learning technologies because it will be the only one that compares student preferences given a choice of learning method. Instead of comparing one virtual method selected by the instructor (author) to the traditional face-to-face instructional method or one virtual method to another, I am proposing presenting the students with four or five of the most common virtual instructional methods and allowing them to select which method works best for them and why. This way, current and future educators will be able to have a better understanding of how to design their virtual math classes to maximize the students’ virtual learning experience.

I believe this research study can be completed in one semester, or two if needed. The study will focus on only one section of one chapter, i.e., the concept of the slope or the difference quotient. It will be presented in multiple ways, i.e., in-class face-to-face instruction, synchronously via live streaming lecture, asynchronously, voice-over PowerPoint slides, asynchronously, and a couple of other widely used online presentation formats. The students will be introduced to the different methods during a live session for practice, and they will be allowed to select the method that they prefer most when it comes to the topic of discussion.

The proposed timeline is (a) one month to produce the online material for a future College Algebra course (Math 1314) or College Calculus course (Math 2413), (b) two weeks to produce the instructor training and reference materials, (c) one week to test the proposed methods that the students will select from, (d) one month into the following semester to complete the proposed research project, (e) one month to send out the questionnaire and perform individual and group interviews, (f) three months to collect and analyze the interview data, and (g) four months to complete the reporting of the results.

After reviewing over 300 articles on Google Scholar, I have only found roughly 50 articles that even remotely match my search criteria. I have over 200 articles saved during the course of this program, but are only functional for structural purposes. I also need to work on the questionnaire that will be distributed during the study.

I plan on continuing my article search on Google Scholar and will contact the UNT Library and the Librarian at my college for assistance on search assistance. I also need to:

1. Review the programming procedures of R,
2. Review the qualitative interview analysis procedures,
3. Developing an instructional packet for the faculty that will help me with this study, and
4. Develop the different instructional modalities that the students will be able to choose from for this study.

One of the most challenging processes that I have every attempted is trying to narrow down what I want to study and research for my dissertation. Everytime I read an article, I find something else that I would like to pursue. But, fortunately, I have noticed, with the help of the AGFs, that all of my interests are centered around the same thing – understanding the design of online math courses that would benefit both the instructors and students.

The topic I decided to address for my dissertation is what modality, method, application, and structure students want in their online math courses. Since realizing that was my interest, I have searched various existing research articles related to – student opinions of the structures of online math courses and similar search criteria. Although these searches have produced from just under 200,000 articles for open-ended searches to under 20,000 articles since 2019. Out of the 300-400 articles that I have reviewed, I may be lucky if 1% of the articles are even remotely on the same topic.

I am excited about this topic because it seems (I hypothesize) that when instructors design their online courses, they do so from their point of interest and not from the student’s standpoint. Practically all of the articles take an apriori approach to course design. This may be one of the main reasons why some researchers have noted that online courses have a lower level of success than their in-person counterparts. I believe that students are more technologically advanced than most of their instructors, and the instructors (course designers) need to understand what the students want from an online course.

Real world example 1: My wife and I went on a trip to Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA, and after we got our tickets the cashier informed us that self-guided headsets were included with our tickets to the prison. The cashier stated that the instructions on how to use the headsets are clearly defined on the sets themselves.

When we got our headsets we didn’t notice any instructions on them anywhere and after a few moments I decided press some of the buttons. Then we noticed that the limited instructions were on a very small screen on the base of the headset. We are used to earlier modes of audiotapes and self-guided tours where you press the start button and the tape would play telling you where to go and what to do. However, this device required you to first find the starting point of the tour (which was not at the point of purchase) and press a specific code for that section in order to receive your information and instruction for the next part of the tour.

The goals of the cashiers instruction was to teach us how to use our headsets; but, we finally figured out what we had to do after a series of trial and error. The instruction that we were given was worthless. This was evident by the group of people that followed us and had similar difficulties.

Three things that I learned and will not likely forget are: (1) always ask for clarifications on any event that involves any sort of technological device, (2) if given the option for a self-guided versus guided tour, take the guided tour because it is more interactive and they know where they are going, and (3) never take anything for granted when it comes to giving and receiving instructions (lectures).

Real world example 2: This weekend my school required that all faculty must attend a Google workshop so that we can spend the summer learning how to incorporate the new functionalities of Google in our classes next academic year. The goals of the training session was never really made clear other than we will learn about Google and what it has to offer the teachers and students in any classroom.

The training sessions were interesting because we were learning something new; but, we never really were given any idea on how we were supposed to use said application(s). Rather, we were just informed that we are expected to use it next year. We all thought that that objective was pretty vague and worthless as was the overall consensus of the training itself.

The three things that I learned from that event were: (1) always give real-world examples when it comes to introducing new information because it will make the learning more connected, (2) never rush through a topic that may seem simple to me; but, may be difficult to the audience, and (3) always have multiple forms of instructional devices (lecture, online notes and power point descriptions) available for the students so that they can follow the discussion will less anxiety.

I think that what I read about instructional design will be very important in my future work goals in that I will be more conscious about the structure of the courses I develop from now on. I never really gave much thought to my course design. I simply thought that mathematics was straight forward and that each chapter and section followed each other. But, from now on I will spend more time making the goals of each class more clearly stated so that the students will have a better understanding of what I will expect to cover in that lecture.