My Research Year (Plus)

Officially Completed - At last!!

2010-11-29T02:04:00.000-08:00

So this is the end of the journey. Why I thought it would be finished within 12 months defies belief but, hey, who cares now that it is all over after three long years.

I had the email confirming that my corrections had been accepted by the examiners a couple of weeks ago followed by one from the Institute offering congratulations. Actually the examiners requested two further small changes which I was happy to make.

It was a strange moment. Once I had typed the last full stop I sat back and thought 'That's it - finished - no more worries, no more writing, no more isolation at a PC!! Now what?'

Needless to say the answer to the last question is lots of decorating, gardening and maintenance to catch up with jobs that have had to take second place. Of course the immediate answer was to print off copies of the thesis and to pass them to the binders. That was expensive as I chose to send a copy to my supervisor and both examiners, however, it was fantastic to see the finished article beautifully presented.

A useful tip I can pass on is regarding the corrections. Initially I was inclined to make the corrections with track changes and to pass the revised documents to the examiners. I don't know how you feel about track changes but I think they look unsightly especially in long documents. So instead I created a separate document with a table of corrections. In one column I extracted each of the examiners requested changes and alongside noted in the next column the page number from the viva draft. In the next column I noted the initials of the person requesting the change (including myself if I initiated any changes). In the final column I noted the page number of the correction in the final draft so that these could easily be found.

Under each correction requested I put an 'Action' heading and detailed the wording that was added, removed or amended to satisfy the request. Any changed figures or tables were included in an appendix at the end. I sent this document off with a full copy of the final text for the examiners to review. This worked well as the examiners commented on how this provided a clear and easily accessible way of checking the amendments.

Now I wait until April for the official graduation ceremony. I will be very proud to put the robes on and to go up to receive the certificate, but just at the moment it all feels a bit of an anticlimax. Still, like any bereavement, time will be the best cure and probably by the New Year I will feel like writing again!! In the meantime I can start to develop my new role as Reader in Distance Education.

If you have been following this blog, or if you are only now reading it, I hope that it has been helpful and given an insight into the trials and tribulations that doctoral research entails. If you have any comments or observations please do email them to me at w.n.mcneill@cem.ac.uk . For those of you working toward your thesis I say 'Good Luck - Never Give Up'.

I wish you all well for your futures.

Bill

VIVA PASSED!!

2010-09-19T01:05:00.000-07:00

26th August 2010. The scariest and best day of my life - but really worthwhile as the examiners passed my thesis with minor amendments.

I prepared well for the viva. I set myself a timetable to revisit all the references and, probably like most people before me, hunted down typical viva questions on the web. I had intended to prepare answers to these on paper but decided against this as keeping them in my head seemed more sensible. Wise move as none were actually asked but the process of giving thought to how I might answer was worthwhile. I wrote a synopsis for each chapter and collected all the essential supporting info (including this blog) in a separate file for quick reference and revision. I also talked to as many people who had experienced vivas as possible.

The main preparation was reading through the entire thesis as objectively as possible ie placing myself in the position of the examiners. Would every sentence, statement, chart make sense to them? I wrote copious notes on the blank page to expand, explain, justify any that I though might be contested. Even so I missed some!!

About 10 days before the viva Imet up with my supervisor and went through the possible questions and the detail of the viva day. I also arranged for a colleague who had read the thesis to give me a mock viva. This was beneficial as it is different voicing your research to reading it on paper!

I had elected to give a 10 minute presentation at the start. My initial inclination was to do a Powerpoint but decided that this was not appropriate for this type of exam. Instead I set out on one side of A4 the importance of the research and a single sentence summary of the research. The latter was an interesting experience as it takes a while to condense 3 years work into 50 words. Most of the page was a flow chart showing the thought process that I had followed and how the main propositions had emanated through this. The benefit in the viva was having this in front of me so that I had a visual reminder when needed. In the viva I talked the examiners through the importance, summary and flow chart which worked well for me and provided a good jumping off point for their questions.

On the day I travelled to London early as I had to drop off a copy of my IFS for the examiners to refer to if necessary. Although this meant I would not be affected by travel disruption it also meant I had time to kill before the viva started. I hate hanging around getting nervous but fortunately my sister was in London visiting my niece so we met for lunch. Talking about family, holidays and so on was a great distraction and I felt very relaxed going into the viva.

They say a viva should be not less than one hour and not more than two. Mine was three hours!!! We started a little late as the chair of the panel did not arrive and after two hours I was asked if I objected to taking a break and continuing. You don't say no to that kind of suggestion! The questioning was all very positive and constructive. Much was directed at establishing my reasoning for including data, the meaning of charts and tables, what I had not included or potentially overlooked, the generalisability of the concluding propositions and the relevance to current practice. Fortunately all the problem questions relating to economic theory that I had feared did not get asked (although I had prepared some good answers)!!

The viva was held in a most convivial manner and, as others have found, the time passed very quickly until the point was reached when the examiners were left to make their decision. After 30 minutes Andrew, my supervisor who had sat through the viva taking notes, and I were called back and the decision was pass with minor amendments. Phew!! What a relief!!

I am sure I am not the first to feel absolutely shell-shocked at the moment when the decision is given. Indeed it seems very surreal after all the preparation and anxiety that it is (almost) over. The nice touch for me was when Andrew appeared with four glasses and a bottle of champagne. 'Aha', I thought, 'you don't get offered bubbly if you have failed!!'.

And so to the concluding part of this journey. I now have the corrections to make and then to submit the finished thesis within 3 months. Andrew's notes from the viva were a very helpful reminder of the sequence of events and major statements / points made. It was rather irritating that it took over 3 weeks for the list of the examiner's required changes to be send through but now I have them I can get on with finishing things.

This blog isn't finished yet ............

And Next the Viva!!

2010-08-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Wow - 6 months on from my last post and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. My draft was duly scrutinied by one of the lecturers at IOE as well as my supervisor and a couple of colleagues at the College. Their combined thoughts allowed me to take the first draft and improve it considerably. It was less demolition and rebuilding and more a gardening exercise - pruning sections out, re-arranging sections and drawing out / highlighting the best blooms. It is certainly well worth getting others to read a thesis not just from a content point of view but also from a research process and plain English stance. I had the feedback around Easter and finally submitted the thesis on 21st May. Hurray! The great thing was I could go on holiday to Italy and enjoy Rome, Florence and Venice without a research care in the world :-)

Of course now comes the interesting bit - the viva. This is arranged for 26th August and I am now busily preparing for it. An essential book to read beforehand is Rowena Murray's How to Survive your Viva - full of good advice. I doubt I will get passed without any further work but I am hoping this will be minor corrections / amendments only.

Will update when I have the result.

.... and 6 months later!!

2010-02-17T05:22:00.000-08:00

My thesis has explored time and the lack of it. Naturally I would offer this as the reason for not posting anything here for the last 6 months. This is true to an extent but mainly the failure to post has been to avoid repeating the same thing week after week.

It may be inexperience or naivity but back in the early autumn I thought writing up the discussion and conclusions would be straight forward. How wrong I was. My initial attempts ended up simply repeating the findings. Eventually I worked out that this was as a result of looking at the results of the diary and survey in terms of numerically accounting for time. This provides parameters but did not really provide explanation.

It was not until I was on holiday in Egypt at the end of October that I stepped back far enough to realise that the answer had been staring me in the face and that the framework for explanating the findings lay within the principles of economics. I should have realised this from the references to consumption and utility in the time use literature but I guess my scientific background papered over this.

Now I am not an economist sothe time up to Christmas involved refreshing the bits of economics that I have done and learning new aspects that apply more to social behaviour.It was lengthy and at times tedious, but with the help my good friend and colleagure, Maurice, I believe I have come up with a new take on time use and economics that fits with the findings. Time and the viva will tell if I have!!

Effectively since Christmas all my time has been consumed by writing up the discussion and piecing together the conclusion chapter. The hardest part has been keeping within a word limit of 45,000 words. This has meant omitting sections that I would like to have included to give depth to what may be in danger of being too broad. Oh to have the word count of a PhD!!

Now I have to wait to see what others think. As well as Andrew I have a colleague at the College and someone at the Institute who have agreed to read and feedback. Naturally I hope they say it is perfect but that would be wishful thinking!! At least I can hope they will be kind and not condemn my work entirely ;-)

So now I wait and have time to check through the references numbering etc, but the important thing is -

THE DRAFT IS FINISHED!!

The End Game

2009-08-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

As predicted my week off last month did not see the end of the writing. It did allow me to read through what I have done and to get the final plot together. At present I am working through the copious notes that I have and getting them marshalled into some kind of order in the discussion chapter. In terms of words I have almost 10k but there is still a lot of pruning needed.

Last week I met up with my supervisor and talked through what has been written so far and what needs to be done. I have a new schedule which looks like this:

By 23rd August - complete draft discussion chapter
By 1 September (after week's study leave) - edit and complete first full draft - send to Andrew for feedback
Meet with Andrew 10/11 September
By 16th September - complete revised draft - send copies to reader(s)
By 28th September - receive reader's feedback
By 4th October - complete final draft and pass to editor for 'English' check.
[Early October - meet with Andrew for final sign off?]
12th October - print copies and deliver to binders
16th October - Deliver final copies to IOE.

As I really want to get this finished I will do everything in my power to keep to this and hopefully be able to take the viva in early December. Those of you who have been following this blog will probably say 'oh yes' at this point as the date has slipped several times over this year. Well time will tell who is right. All I know is that I go on holiday to Egypt on 23rd October so there is a great incentive to have it finished before then. Two weeks on a beach swimming and reading novels - I can't wait!!!!

Last Hurdle Approaches

2009-07-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been slow due to graduation ceremonies / conferences at weekends so it was only yesterday the four data and analysis chapters went off to my supervisor. It has proved quite a challenge to keep anywhere near the word limit I set for these so have had to include charts!

I struggled with how to show change across four modules for the longitudinal survey results in the last of these chapters. Luckily I came across stock charts which are a godsend for showing the movement in values over time and work well for three or more sets of data.

I am taking next week as holiday and hope to make good progress with the discussion. I am not expecting to finish it but you never know ... !!

Data and Analysis Complete (almost!)

2009-06-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

Another month goes by with few postings but progress has been made. I took a week off at the end of May which was the first time I had properly returned to the data since January. Have you ever had that overwhelming feeling of being on an ocean without a boat or a buoyancy aide? That was how I felt to start with and feared drowning under the volume of information.

Rather than writing, that week was spent re-reading the data and refreshing my memory - a frustrating but necessary time but which resulted in a clear plot for writing up the findings. Since then I have taken a further week off work and managed to produce a reasonably comprehensive but condensed set of four data and analysis chapters. The first presents the overall descriptive information of time use before, during and after the focus module . The second uses disaggregated analysis of time against the survey answers to establish trends and peaks in the results. The third reports the findings from the time given to the online learning activities and the final chapter considers the changes in time use experienced by the sample tracked over the succeeding three modules.

I still have about 800 words to write for the last of these chapters but it is substantially complete. Overall I have about 33k words written which is almost 75%. The final hurdle is to write the discussion of the findings and conclusions. I reckon I will need at least one more week of concentrated writing to finish the draft and then a further week or maybe less to mould it all together into its final form. With a fair wind I hope to have the draft finished by the end of July and the final document submitted by early September or earlier if possible.

Methodology done

2009-05-21T23:24:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I finished the first draft of the methodology and sent it off to my supervisor. Having this blog proved really useful as it meant I could check some of the detail for the methodology without having to rack a tired brain to recall things from months ago!! I suspect I have included some justification that is not necessary and possibly not included enough detail on other aspects. No doubt Andrew will advise in due course.

I have a week off next week and aim to get the findings written up. I have a large folder containing all the various print outs so that is my starting point. I have been through it this week and collected the different headings together into an outline structure for the chapter. I have a feeling that there may be a need for more analysis but hopefully not too much.

At present I am about 50% through the first draft of the thesis. If I complete the findings in the next week that will be around 70% done. With a fair wind the whole thesis could be complete in draft by the end of June.

A RED LETTER DAY!!

2009-05-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Finally after 4 months in total, and a huge amount of reading and drafting, the first version of the literature review is complete and has been sent off to my supervisor. Actually the writing has only taken a month although it seems longer as I have put a lot of hours in at weekends and before the day job.

The version as it stands is actually the third draft and each of the three have refined and reduced the 75k words in notes first to around 50k words then to 27k words and lastly to 14.5k words. This is still more than the 12k that I had allowed for the review but there is little point going further until I get feedback from Andrew and the rest of the thesis takes shape. At the moment all the words are pretty precious so it has been hard to cut stuff out. No doubt in a few weeks they will not be so sacred and I can be more objective about losing some.

I have been pretty assiduous in keeping my references. They need tidying up but there are over 200 books, articles and papers listed which I think shows reasonable diligence but really highlights the breadth of 'time' as a research area. Trust me to choose a focus that requires several gallons to be squeezed into a pint pot!!

The bonus of the last month's exercise is that I now have a number of notes to build into the methodology so with luck I will be able to complete this in the next 10 days or so. The end of July is not looking impossible as things stand! Just at the moment though I am enjoying the warm glow of finishing what I consider to be the trickiest part of research.

I feel a large gin and tonic followed by several glasses of wine is needed to celebrate - do join me!

Tipping Point Reached

2009-04-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

Finally I feel that I have reached the tipping point in this journey through time!! Two weeks ago I started a three week block of time away from work which has allowed me to concentrate on completing the review of the literature. This has taken longer than I anticipated but when I look at the volume of material I have gone through I cannot really be surprised!

Since January I have gone through over 60 textbooks collecting comments relating to time, time use and the teaching and learning process. Similarly I have gone through over 300 articles and papers that I have collected during the last 2 years and made notes of the main points. All the notes have been entered into a Word table (as previously described) and I have around 75,000 words now.

The one thing that has really helped with this is the use of dictation software. I bought Dragon Naturally Speaking a year ago but only recently got round to using it properly. The brilliant thing is that I can dictate as I read so save a lot of time in not having to stop to type. I am amazed at how accurately the software picks up words and I reckon that it gets around 90-95% of words - even complex ones. You do need to glance at the screen to check the words but this is milliseconds.

A caution I would offer to anyone thinking of doing the same thing is to buy a really good headset with a good quality mike. My original set was cheap and cheerful but the software kept rejecting the words. Having invested in a Sennheiser headset all those problems have disappeared.

The great thing now is that I can dictate the drafts rather than typing them. This will allow me to skip around my notes without stopping and starting. I am pretty clear as to what the drafts need to include and I met up with my supervisor yesterday to talk these through. He is between sabbatical trips to Singapore and Hong Kong so it was a valuable meeting. He has agreed my plans so now I can really begin. I am also feeling more confident about the sorts of conclusions that will come out of this research but more on these later.

Last week I sent in the examination entry forms and put end of July as the anticipated submission date. All being well I should have the draft finished by the end of June so with a fair wind I should be on course.

So - Back to the writing!

Tempus Fugit

2009-03-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go!!? A month has flown by without posting so what have I been doing?

Well literature is the answer. I may be being far too conscientious in collecting my references, quotes etc together but for my own peace of mind I have to do this comprehensively. I am over half way through going back over the books and articles I have collected. For the last month I have tried to get to work by 6.30-7.00am so as to get a couple of hours in before the day job starts. Weekend time has been less than intended due to various events that have come up but have still managed to get some reading done every week.

The good news is I have now agreed a block of 3 weeks time off work starting 23rd March and running up to and over Easter. This should ensure that the literature research is finished and written up together with the methodology. The findings are all there waiting to be written up so I am still hoping that the back of the thesis will be broken by end of April and the complete first draft finished by the end of May. I suspect that submission will now be towards the end of July. It may be earlier as I am planning to take a further two week block of time off to get the final draft completed.

Today I am writing a paper for a conference which is drawing on the time use data. Although it interrupts the literature research it is giving me another line of thinking to include in the findings as it is considering the differences between UK and Non-UK students.

During the last month I have also heard that a couple of friends have got their viva dates set up. Knowing this certainly spurs me on to get to that position too.

So - Back to it!!

Literature, Literature

2009-02-07T23:22:00.000-08:00

Well another month on and progress continues, mainly with the literature. Over the last 18 months I have collected a lot of books and articles which I am now distilling into notes ready to compose the literature section. I had made a start on this last year but annoyingly I have lost the file of typed notes so have had to start over.

It is a slow process as I am probably more methodical than I need be. I type the notes and quotes into a Word table with columns to describe the detail of the note, the note itself, source page number and the full reference. This way I can sort the notes and make sure that I have the correct citation. I'm also anticipating that having the notes will be helpful in advance of the viva as the literature section, at around 12,000 words, will be a very concentrated version of all the work that has been done on time over the last century or so!

I have yet to hear whether I can take a short sabattical around Easter so as to put some concentrated time into completing the draft. Certainly by the end of March I will have got the literature materials together so all being well I feel on course for submitting in June.

A book that I am finding helpful in preparing the thesis is 'How to examine a thesis' by Lynne Pearce (OU Press). It is actually aimed at new thesis examiners but I have found it useful to understand where they will be coming from both in reading the script and in conducting the viva.

Finally - Since my last post I have become a grandad as we welcomed my beautiful granddaughter, Nuala, into the world on 10th January. I now look forward to finishing this degree so that I have more time to spend with her!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2009-01-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

And a happy new year it is so far ;-) Christmas and New Year were very toned down in this household as I have followed my plan and spent as much time as I can on processing the data. This was not popular with my family but has meant that I now have all my data organised properly and checked.

The need to check arose when I discovered that I had reversed two sets of data which came to light when I ran the variables through a correlation check. Overall there is only very weak correlation between the results but there are a few stronger values to follow up. I have run the numeric data through alongside the categorical values and generally there is good comparison between them which provides a useful indicator.

Over the last 10 days I have used the analysis spreadsheet to work through all the main time events variable by variable. Although the correlation is weak in most cases the chart does show up where there is a tendency for change between the groups. As the analysis also collects together students by answer this means that I can note those students in categories where there is a significant difference to be followed up through examination of their overall profile.

I have been really pleased with the spreadsheet as it allows me to exclude students and to view results by different combinations of days of the week. Even if I say so myself it is a brilliant bit of work and well worth the hours expended on it.

Having now gone through each of the events the next task is to pull these together. I am grouping them into four - those affecting study time, those affecting work and travel and those affecting home life (ie social, domestic, leisure and Internet). The fourth is rest which I can now confirm plays little part in student's use of time. Over the next couple of days I hope to pull this together and start to draw initial conclusions on the diary week. Over the forthcoming weeks I need to combine these with conclusions drawn from the longitudinal survey and thence to arrive at overall conclusions on student's use of time.

I went into IOE on Monday to see my supervisor before he departs for warmer climes on his sabbatical and have agreed this as the way forward. He has signed the examination forms which I will submit next month once I am clearer about my actual timescales. I am still hoping to arrange a short sabbatical around Easter during which I hope to blitz the writing up. Maybe in the next week or so I will hear if this is going to happen!!

To end I wish everyone reading this a healthy and (let's be optimistic) wealthy 2009.

Happy Christmas!

2008-12-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the eve of another Christmas! If you asked me where this year has gone I would point you to the inumerable spreadsheets, books and piles of printed papers that I have accrued over the last 12 months.

The last 2 weeks have been a mixture of triumph and disaster. The disaster was discovering a basic error in the analysis spreadsheet that meant all the work I had done up to a week last Sunday was wrong. The air was blue when I found this but since then I have corrected the error, checked the calculation cells and run the data through again. This time rather than print the results out I have simply marked up a summary sheet with colours to show the highest difference between results of those within a category and everyone else. This minor triumph shows very clearly that rest is not a factor at all in almost all the variables and that work is also less of an issue.

I have also exported the final results for the students taking the Part 1 course and this gives me a picture of who stayed the course and who dropped out early. Once Christmas is over I can make a proper start on going through the data variable by variable. I have primed the family that I will be otherwise engaged so hope to finish this by the end of the month. I am taking the first week of January as annual leave and hope to have made a start on writing before I return to College on the 12th.

Those of you following this blog will notice a change in the title as the 12 months is now stretching towards 18 months. All being well I trust I will not need to change it again!

I wish you all well and hope you have a very Happy Christmas and, credit crunch or not, a prosperous New Year.

Analysis on Course

2008-12-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

The last 2 weeks have been reasonably productive. The spreadsheet for analysing the diaries against the different variables has worked well and I have further refined it so that I can drill down further to look at times by total for the week, weekdays, weekends as well as by day. I have also refined it so that I can look at specific groups of students and if necessary to exclude students who answer Yes to specific questions.

I have identified those activities and variables that I want to examine in the first round and I have almost completed their analysis. The output gives me an indication as to whether there are significant differences and the second round will be to drill deeper and to compare against the student profiles. All being well this will be completed by the end of December. At the end of this week we have the results board for the target students so it will be interesting to add in their overall result to the profiles.

I am taking the first week in January off work and will use this to crack on with the writing. I have already set up the chapters in Word so feel more or less prepared! Also early in January I will be seeing my supervisor before he jets off to Singapore and Hong Kong for his sabbatical. There really is no rest for the wicked. At the moment I'm not sure that I have time for Christmas but no doubt time will be found!

Confidence Returns

2008-11-27T03:47:00.000-08:00

What a difference a week makes! The optimism I felt on returning from holiday has now converted into great confidence that this thesis can be completed.

After a few days work I now have the spreadsheets set up to analyse the diary data. This will tell me how students spend their time depending on their answer to individual questions on the various questionnaires. Additionally it will also display how many 'episodes' of different durations students were involved in. I can look at this either day by day or by week or by weekdays or weekends. With over 10,000 permutations this is too many so my aim is to examine weeks first and to drill down as necessary.

The spreadsheet will tell me the average hours of students within the answer category and also the average of those not in the category. This will highlight where there are differences. To help with this I have included coloured flags that change depending on whether the difference in averages is less than 15%, 15-40%, 40-65 or more than 65%. The forthcoming week will be running through the permutations to identify where the biggest differences occur. From this I will be able to go back to the individual student profiles and investigate possible contributory factors. If necessary I can also examine the daily or weekday / weekend results.

The overall plot is to have the analyse completed by the end of December and to then get on with the writing up. I have now mapped out the time between January and June to keep the writing on schedule. The target is for the first draft to be finished by the end of April and then to submit at the end of June. All being well this will allow the viva to be held in September. I discussed this with Andrew, my supervisor, on Tuesday and he agrees that it should be doable. He is off to Singapore and Hong Kong for a 6 month sabbatical from January so good communications will be vital. Hopefully this blog will assist with this.

Beware the Leprachauns of Time

2008-11-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go to these days - I must be getting older!! There may not have been as much posted here as I would have liked but progress has been made. Largely this is due to the opportunity that holidays give for taking a step back and reflecting but also thanks are due to Charlie at IOE who gave me an hour and a half of his time to help me sort out a major issue.

For some reason that I'm still not sure how I let happen I have spent a long time searching for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. This pot contains the details of students who share similar profiles and the search for this has been driving me potty - just like the Leprachauns, as you may have read! Of course grouping of students don't exist in a neatly packaged form - just as the end of the rainbow can never be found. Thankfully with Charlie's help I have now abandoned this wild goose chase and went off to Egypt with revived determination to re-examine things from a different angle.

As you will be aware from previous posts I am not a 'do nothing' person on holiday. After a couple of days chilling (not literally as it was by the red sea!) I read William Michelson's book on Time Use and also Barbara Adam's book on Time. Both are listed on the IATUR web site and the Michelson book has helped both to confirm that much of what I have done is worthwhile but also provided new ideas for analysing all my data. With this I have spent the last 2 days building a new set of spreadsheets which I hope will provide new insights before the end of the week.

I do now feel that I can get this thesis written and have vowed to get the final draft finished for the end of April. OK this is a little over the 12 months that I set myself but some things just have to follow their own course. If April is to happen I will need to sort out some time away from work although an extended sabbatical seems unlikely. I have created a new calendar which I will discuss with my supervisor in 10 days time.

One last thing for this post is to welcome members of IATUR who may follow the link sent round by Kimberly in her newsletter. Keeping this blog is not purely self-indulgence as it serves a variety of purposes. Firstly it helps me to track my own progress and to record some of the stages I have gone through so that I can refer to them when writing up. Secondly it is an experiment in using a blog for supervising research students at distance and allows Andrew to check what I am up to at any time. All being well we will compare notes at the end and I may be able to introduce blogging with my own students! Thirdly it is open to fellow EdD students who may want to compare notes on progress and problems as they go through the same process. Lastly it allows others to comment as they wish on my experiences so it will be good to hear from anyone out there in cyberspace:-)

More shortly - hopefully with some positive outcomes!

Crazy Time

2008-10-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Despite my best intentions here we are nearly a month on from the last post! I would love to report that I have made a lot of progress but that is sadly not the case. This is due to all the other events that suddenly have to take priority in life. So two weeks ago my precious weekend time was taken up with getting a report written up for work and last weekend I was away first at a wedding in Leeds and then travelling to Paris for a research workshop.

The workshop was quite stimulating. As 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights the focus was on access and rights to education. I presented a paper on disability and distance education students which I had had accepted for a special edition of OPEN Praxis earlier this year. This resulted from a joint call for papers made by 6 international journals so I was pleased both to have mine accepted and then to be invited to present it in the UNESCO building in Paris. As with all conferences it was good to catch up with friends and make new contacts, and it was good to spend a leisurely lunch chatting with Corinne who is also taking the EdD course at IOE.

I wish I could report that this weekend will allow progress however this will be limited as I have students coming in to Reading today at the start of their course.

On the plus side I ended up with 28 responses to the last questionnaire. Not as many as I had hoped for but enough to complete the longitudinal survey. Also I have (very belatedly) discovered that Jonathan Gershuny (see earlier post about his book) has set up the Centre for Time Use Research at the University of Oxford. I have made contact and hope to meet with them soon to exchange ideas on analysing data.

As I said in my last post I am getting more and more concious that the year is nearing an end and I am still a way off starting the writing. I have now arranged a meeting with Andrew, my supervisor, at which I hope to agree where the focus should be for the thesis report as I have too much data for 45,000 words. I have also broached the idea of a sabbatical from work which hopefully will find support.

More in a week or so before I take a week's holiday in Egypt.

Abandon Ship!

2008-09-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

It is now over a month since I last posted and if you have been looking in you might have formed the impression that this blog has become the Marie Celeste - totally unmanned!

Actually my title for this post reflects abandonment of that great ship of research HMS Statistic otherwise known as SPSS. After spending considerable time trying to get anything sensible out of the software using cluster analysis I finally realised that the solution to my question doesn't come from analysis of values but from comparison. The reason is that all my data gathered from the various questionnaires are in the form of categorical data (or have been converted) so does not yield meaningful values.

I spent quite a lot of time casting around for other methods of comparing data values. For a while I was drawn towards the principles behind DNA and protein analysis. These are represented as strings of letters representing the different components (sorry exact description evades me). The software compares the strings, which can be lengthy, to arrive at matches between values. Needless to say the software that does the analysis is hugely complex and expensive, however, I did find a simple version that had been written for Excel. Sadly it was long out of circulation and the author (with the activation code) could not be traced. Actually this was a bit of a blind alley as the spreadsheet compared protein strings with published ones - not helpful for me but I was impressed with the basic principles.

What this highlighted for me is that what I want to know is whether sub-groups exist within the cohort of students. The sub-group need not share exactly the same characteristics but should be close enough to be distinct from other groups. Taking the principles of DNA analysis I then looked for solutions which compared letters as if these were words and found a simple Excel add-in that looks through words to spot typos. It is based on fuzzy logic and the approach is used in Internet search engines to find similar spellings.

The add-in, called Fuzzy Duplicate Finder, cost £20 (so not expensive) and will look through a list of words and group them into similar clusters. It can be set to identify groups where there are from one up to six letters different. I have now got the spreadsheet set up to sort students and their responses with the categorical values converted to letters and strung together into single 'words'. Using the add-in the spreadsheet will then create 7 sets of clusters for identical words, words with one letter different, two different and so on up to 6 letters different.

There is a caution in using this approach as the sequence in which the data is searched can influence the cluster. I need to do more work on this but as the students are listed in random order this should be a useful starting point. To start with I am looking at responses to related questions eg respones to questions about social life, domestic circumstances etc. Once the clusters are created it will be a case of looking at the individual students to find any shared features. To help with this I have also spent time setting up a spreadsheet to analyse pairs of response. These are collected and shown as values in a bubble chart. The advantage of bubble charts is that the size of the bubble indicates the scale of the values so is very visual.

The final piece of progress to report is that I circulated the last of the end of module questionnaires last week. This will bring to three the sets of data included in the longitudinal study and for this one I have included specific questions about time out for holidays and for preparing for exams (which come up in a couple of weeks). I have sent the questionnaire to 34 students and so far 25 have replied. If I can get 5 more to respond I will be happy!

As you can see the last month has not been without progress but I am at a point where I am starting to think about presenting the findings in 45,000 words. I suspect that I may already have more than I need so I hope to meet up with my supervisor in the next couple of weeks to discuss this.

All being well I aim to post the next entry sooner rather than later!

The Right Statistic 2!

2008-08-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

The trouble with statistics is that even when you think you have the right one the data doesn't want to play ball! Correlation was productive but has not revealed anything too startling. There are some average correlations but nothing particularly strong that could not be anticipated. So the last couple of weeks have been investigating other techniques.

The one I am now looking at using is cluster analysis. This is because what I really want to know is how different variables gravitate towards each other. With this I can look at the individual students to get a better and more grounded picture. The problem has been that the data has to be in the right format to use cluster analysis in SPSS so I have have to amend the data to get it to work. Unfortunately the online help from SPSS is only partially helpful so thank goodness for the internet where others who have passed this way have posted their procedures.

It is all very frustrating at times as I don't really want to get deeply involved with advanced stats methods but that is the price I have to pay for not designing a simple investigation using basic techniques! Hopefully in a week or so I will have some facts to work with. I'd better as I have to present initial findings at a workshop in two weeks time with some of our tutors!

No rest for the wicked.

The Right Statistic

2008-08-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

Another two weeks on and progress has been made but frustratingly so. The latest questionnaire went out to the 41 tracking sample of students on 21st July with the request for them to be completed by 1 August. The date came and only 24 had responded, however, an email reminder to those who had not completed has now yielded 37 responses with a further one likely when the student returns from holiday.

That is the progress so what is the frustration. Needless to say that is the statistics. My intention of using ANOVA was scuppered once I started to look more closely at the detail. Originally I had a mix of free and categorised data. When I looked again at the frequencies I realised that the free data had a very wide range with some extreme outliers. As most of the data is already presented in categories (ie 1, 2, 3 etc) I took the decision to convert all the data into this form. This is now done but again valuable time has been used.

Now that I only have data in categories the next frustration was realising that simple ANOVA is not suited to this as there are no figures to provide means. So which statistic to use? Rather than follow trial and error I have spent over a week re-reading the statistics books to refresh the bonce! What I am interested in is the relationship between variables to see where further investigation is needed. Correlation will provide this, but thereby results another frustration - there are different methods of determining this in SPSS! The method most suited to my categorised data is Spearman's rho correlation. I have now started to put the data through this but the SPSS output is immense. Consequently I am taking it into Excel so that I can both process and sort it but also to condense it for printing out! It may be that I will convert some data back to values at some point but at the moment I have plenty to do.

A Moment for Optimism

2008-07-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

Apologies if it appears that all I have to write about is getting the data into SPSS but it has taken nearly all my spare time! Two weeks ago I attended my son's graduation at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. It was a very proud occassion that I thoroughly enjoyed - but of course interrupted my time for working on the thesis.

Last week I attended the Pan Commonwealth Forum which was held at IOE. Apart from hearing a lot of interesting talks and presentations worthy of the international education taught module, and catching up with a number of friends and acquaintances, it also gave me an opportunity to check my data and to see my supervisor. All seems well on all fronts so I progress!

I said 'nearly all my time' as I have also created the latest questionnaire for the longitudinal time study. In this one I am repeating some questions but have reframed others to ask about the effect of work, domestic, personal problems on the time available. I am also interested to find out whether students have settled into a pattern of weekly study that enables them to 'protect' time ie hours when they are definately studying and which are ring fenced against interuption or interference. I have sent this to the 41 students who answered my previous questionnaire and already 6 have responded. I anticipate that the number completing will drop off with each new questionnaire so hope that I started with enough to see the study through!

Last Thursday we had about 200 students come to a face to face workshop in Reading which gave me the chance to talk to some in the breaks. They are interested in the outcomes and I have been able to use some of their comments to frame the latest set of questions. Of course another questionnaire means yet more data but as the saying goes 'you can never have too much data'!!

This week my aim is to start the analysis of the data in earnest. My plan is to use one-way ANOVA to identify where there is significant variance in the data and then to use this to review the printed profiles. Currently I have 323 variables (not all of which I intend using!) and will pick off the main areas likely to impact on time in clusters. Hopefully my next posts will start to summarise findings.

All in all I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the research - long may that continue.

Where does time go?

2008-07-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

So two weeks on from my last post and not a lot to report. Mainly this is because family matters are absorbing the precious weekend time. The last two weekends my son and his girlfriend have been staying with us. He has just completed his Event Management degree at Manchester so is now looking for work (if anyone knows of openings anywhere in the world let me know!!). This morning was the ceremony for my students who have completed their course, and tomorrow I go to Manchester to attend his graduation ceremony. It will be wonderful to see him receive his degree but it does mean I have less time!

Mostly I am still sorting out SPSS data. I had forgotten how long it takes to set up variables and with 323 so far it has been a lengthy process. I have also had to resort to IOE for assistance in getting clear how to deal with missing data. With Charlie Owen's help I think I have the solution now so hopefully can get on with the analysis.

One thing I will need to do in the next week or so is to create the next tracking questionnaire as my sample of students are about to finish their latest module. No rest for the wicked!!

Time to Reflect

2008-06-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

Over a month has passed since my last post, however, the lengthy delay is due to my rewarding myself with a holiday in Portugal! Actually this was an opportunity to combine a break with attendance at the European Distance and E-Learning Network conference in Lisbon. I presented a paper titled Time and Borderless Distance Education that introduced the main issues surrounding this research. I am pleased to say it was well received and attracted a few questions afterwards.

Holiday is always a good time for reading. I did allow myself a couple of novels but additionally managed to finish reading Ron Barnett's book A Will to Learn. I found his perspectives on student 'being', motivation etc very interesting albeit that he was focusing mainly on full time students. If I get a chance I must talk with him about distance learners.

Taking a holiday provides good opportunity for reflection. I feel pretty happy that the data collected so far is representative and that apart from the follow up surveys to track my sample of students I can definately draw a line under the data collection. Incidentally 46 resonses have been made to the first of these follow up questionnaires which I have yet to analyse.

I had my annual review with my supervisor at the Institute yesterday- we both agree that things are on track and that the next stage is to analyse the data collected in clusters to identify any significant relationships. These can then be examined in more details from the collected data. I am still remaining optimistic about completion and aim to have the first draft written by the end of this year.

Better get to work!!

Stage 4 Preparation

2008-05-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been slower due mainly to the mini heatwave that we experienced for the first 10 days of May. Last weekend was too hot (30 degrees) to do a lot on the computer so time was spent in the garden with a cooling hose or in the shade!!

Not that the EdD was overlooked entirely. As mentioned in my last posting, this research not only aims to understand what happens with student time during the period of study for a module but also aims to track a sample of students through a sequence of modules. Therefore the last couple of weeks have been spent looking through the initial output data to identify which students will be asked to participate in the follow up surveys.

The decision has been helped by the question asked at the end of the post-module questionnaire. Only those students who positively agreed to participate further were considered - a total of 184 students out of 310 (64%) that completed the questionnaire.

Of these, deciding which students to include has not been too difficult, and has either been based on a process of elimination or on a need to include basis. Having the detailed analysis of the IMC forums, and the Blackboard access statistics, has proved useful in determining those students who appear to have provided accurate data in their diaries about their study. In the believe that an 'honest' student will continue to offer truthful answers these students were included in the pot.

On the 'need to include' side, this stage aims to track students longitudinally over the course of their Part 1 studies. Consequently only those students who are taking the full course without retake or exemption were included. Additionally, due to the nature of the EdD those students located overseas were automatically included - not least as they are a relatively small number in comparison with UK ones. As family circumstances are a (critical) focus for the research all students indicating that they have a family aged below 16 were also included.

This provided a pool of 122 students who either invited themselves into the follow up stage or did not exclude themselves. This was considered to be too large a sample and the final step was to look through the data again to decide who to leave out. This was not done entirely scientifically but did aim to generate a representative sample by gender, age, location and study route (ie property or construction). The aim was to end up with a sample of 50 students. In the end 62 students have been identified which represents about 20% of the main group of 295 students. The larger number allows for casualties along the way.

The tracking sample will be emailed later this week and invited to complete a follow up 'tracking' questionnaire. This aims to collect changes in time use and life circumstances from the students and will be repeated after the next two modules as well. It contains several questions identical to those in the post IMC questionnaire allowing comparison to be made. It also includes questions that drill deeper than the previous one in areas related to time and the course, study, personal circumstances and employment issues. Lastly it feeds back the summary weekly time commitment from the student's own diary and asks them to update on how their use of time has changed.

I'm not sure that I want, or even need, more data, however, my objectives will not be met unless I can see how students use of time changes as they come up against different life events.

Onward and upward!!

SPSS and all that!

2008-05-05T05:46:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I have looked again at the diary data and find that there are a further 74 sets of data which are complete except for the post-module questionnaire. Therefore I have added them to the collection making 295 sets of partial or complete data. Each set has been printed out on 6 sides of A4 consuming reams of paper and several printer cartidges. The whole collection now fills six 2 inch (5 cm) ring binders!

Apart from printing and filing, my last couple of weekends have been taken up with re-acquainting myself with SPSS. I haven't really used it since the taught module on methods of enquiry (about 2004) so am somewhat rusty- also of course it is now in a new version. Thank goodness for up-to-date textbooks! SPSS 15 Made Simple by Paul Kinnear and Colin Gray is particularly helpful.

Having spent many hours checking through the Excel data relating to students and the Pre-Course questionnaire to ensure that the variables are complete and the data in the right form to import I have hit a problem today with licencing. Basically the student version that I bought tells me that the licence has expired which, as it is not yet the end of the academic year, it should not.

So rather than go further I have passed the query back to the help desk and will spend the afternoon in the garden. I'm not unhappy about this as the sun has finally come out, but it is a bit of an irritant as I had planned on getting the data into SPSS by the end of this holiday weekend.

On another front, in the next week or so I have to decide on the group of students that I will track over the coming months. Not only do I need to identify the significant profiles but I also need to prepare the questionaire for their feedback.

Hey Ho - never a dull moment in research!!

Initial Data Collection Complete!

2008-04-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I drew a line under the initial phase of the data collection when I closed the online questionnaires to further responses.

To summarise the target students for this research:

705 students are registered to study the year 1 course in 2008, and thus were invited to complete the Pre-Course questionnaire. 567 responses were returned to the questionnaire which yielded 506 usable sets of data once duplicates were removed. As a principle the latest version of the questionnaire has been included unless this was a blank response, in which case the next earliest that included answers was taken. Overall this equates to a 72% response rate to the Pre-Course Questionnaire.

470 students are registered to take the Information Management and Control module which the initial phase has focused on. Of these 74 students were retaking the module after failing or deferring it in a previous year. 381 students submitted a copy of the diary that they kept for week 2 of the module, of which 363 were usable for research purposes. This equates to a response rate of 77% for the diary.

In respect of the module assessment 447 students submitted their first assignment and 438 submitted assignment 2, a submission rate of 95% and 93% respectively. In terms of module outcome this results in 430 students passing the module - a pass rate of 91%.

348 students submitted a response to the Post-Module questionnaire. After duplicates were removed (following the same criteria as for the Pre-Course questionnaire) this yielded 310 usable responses - a response rate of 66%.

When these various sets of data are combined, the result is a total of 221 complete sets of data that include responses to the two questionnaires, submission of the diary as well as details of student's assessment marks and their participation in the VLE forums. This equates to 47% of the module population, however, as only 2 students retaking the module submitted a complete set of data this is effectively 55% of new students taking the module.

In respect of profile of the full sets collected, 56% are from male students (compared with 65% across all students taking the module), which would appear to be representative. What appears less representative is that 99% of the students submitting complete sets of data are passing the module whereas only 1% (2 students) have failed it. This does suggest that a proportion of students (up to 45) may already have dropped out or deferred before the module ended. What is not clear is the extent that time may have caused, or contributed, to this.

The next phase is to analyse the data. All 221 sets of data are now printed and a visual examination will be the first step. This should reveal those factors which seem to contribute to time pressures, and so will be extracted into SPSS for more detailed analysis.

Never a dull day!!

Data Collected?

2008-04-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

Maybe this scenario is familiar to you. You have a period of free time coming up and you plan to get a lot of work / research / writing done - then life intervenes!! This was the story of my Easter break. I had some leave to use up before the end of March so booked to take the week off after Easter. My plan was to sort out the data and get it into a form ready for SPSS. All went well until Easter Sunday and then the dreaded 'flu virus struck and that was me finished for a whole week! It is a long time since I've been so badly affected to the point that I have not even wanted to switch the computer on!!

So now I am trying to catch up with my schedule. In reality I am still collecting data from the students. Despite reminders there are still a number who have not sent me their diary, however, I reckon this reflects the accuracy (or lack of it) so I am no longer pushing for these. Actually I have done pretty well and have 358 diaries to work with.

I am still pressing students to complete the post-module questionnaire as the response has not been as good as I had hoped for. 327 have so far completed it which is not bad but leaves quite a few incomplete sets of data (pre-course questionnaire, diary, post-course questionnaire) which if I can get a further 80 or so to submit will be good.

I have now finished analysing the module forums which give me actual details of messages posted and replied to, and at what time on which day these were made. Combined with the Blackboard stats, this not only allows me to compare the actual access and activity against the diaries but will also give me a picture of whether a student was posting to the study schedule and, if not, how far behind they may have got.

The last set of data that I have yet to complete is the assignment mark data. This is now waiting for one or two slow tutors to return their assignment 2 results. Once in I should be in a position to start printing out sets of results per student. As of today I have around 190 sets of complete data but with luck (and the cooperation of the students) I am hoping to get this up to around 240 students ie half the students taking the module.

The last three months have been very pressurised in terms of data collection. I am now looking forward to a period of analysis and drawing interim conclusions from the data.

.... and Even More Data

2008-03-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

As predicted this week has seen a deluge of diaries hit my inbox. Overnight from Sunday to Monday 75 arrived and this morning I have 326 diaries in total, hopefully with more to come.

I have now got opening the diary file, removing the password protection, copying and pasting the data into the master file and then saving the original diary down to a fine art. I reckon each now takes me about 2 minutes - so getting on for 3 hours work just to collect the data.

The post-module questionnaire went live last Sunday and already 200 students have completed it. All being well I am anticipating having a complete set of data (questionnaires and diary) for around 300 students. More would be nice!

One of the benefits of being in the UK is the ability to pop into IOE. I was in London for a workshop on advanced scholarship 10 days ago and arranged to have 20 minutes with my supervisor on the way home. It really is helpful to use occassions like that to take stock and to articulate where you are at with someone. Makes me think that a 'buddy' system could work equally well for times in between.

Incidentally it was graduation day at IOE so nice to see the students dressed up in all their finery and caps and gowns. Have to say the EdD robes look well worth the time and effort:-)

Data, Data and More Data!

2008-03-01T02:41:00.000-08:00

Funny how time disappears so quickly!! Over the last couple of weeks I've been processing the diaries as they come in. I now have over 160 sets of data but the real rush will come in a weeks time when students submit the assignment that the diary is attached to. My guess is that most are waiting until after they have finished writing the assignment before they send the diary to me. 479 students are taking the Information Management module so I've probably only received around a third of the diaries so far!

One tip to pass on from the experience with the diaries is to write down safely any passwords used. I password protected the diary spreadsheets leaving just the cells requiring entry to be accessible. The spreadsheet collected all the export info into a single hidden column of 1133 items so that the cut and paste into the analysis spreadsheet would be straightforward. Only when I went to unprotect the first diary did I discover that the password I thought I'd used did not work and remissly I had not written it down anywhere. You can imagine the frustration trying different words to access the data without success. Fortunately a search on the web revealed a handy bit of software that can be loaded and will unprotect spreadsheets. I don't know how it works but it does and now I have my data - relief :-).

As indicated I am collecting the diary results into an analysis spreadsheet which allows me to analyse each line of data to get summaries and averages. It also allows me to build a proportional chart from all the responses so that I can compare an individual student with the 'average'. From this comparison I am hoping to identify like groups of students who have similar time profiles, and who can then be followed up in greater detail.

The other thing I've been doing since the last post is to analyse the students' contributions to the online discussion forums. A couple of years ago I wrote a spreadsheet that will produce a simple analysis of messages and tells me who has posted with date and time, whether the post was an original message or a reply to another participant and how many times the message was read. From this I will be able to verify the online (VLE) entries in students' diaries and gives a more accurate profile than the statistics of hits that Blackboard provides. It is a bit lengthy with 24 tutor groups to open and then to collect, copy and paste the messages from each of the 10 forums but it does the job.

Gradually all the different sources of data are being combined into summary pages for each student. Once this is complete I will have a better idea of the full set of variables available for detailed analysis. In the meantime my next job is to prepare the post-module questionnaire ready for the 10th March when students submit the end assignment. No rest for the wicked as they say!!

Getting Down to Stats

2008-02-17T23:50:00.000-08:00

This last week has been one of facing up to the volume of data that this research is generating.

Completion of the pre-course questionnaire continues at a trickle with 561 students having now completed it yielding 481 usable sets of data. So far 70 students have returned their completed diaries. Interestingly some appear to have chosen to give someone else's ID for the diary!

How to analyse the diary content has been high in my thoughts. During the teaching week in London last week I had a one-to-one session with one of the lecturers who knows about stats and SPSS. It was really helpful to 'voice' the research and data issues, and the result is I am much clearer about the form in which the data needs to be recorded .

One issue that stats cannot resolve is that of sequencing ie the order and times that students spend on different activities during a day. My thinking at the moment is that this will have to be looked at visually. I have therefore created a spreadsheet that shows the time students spend on the four main activities (resting, working, studying and other) as colour coded 10 minute blocks. Already this serves to show whether an individual is blocking longer periods of time or grabbing short sessions, and whether this is happening during the week or at weekends.

Another tool I have created is a proportional 2-D chart that summarises the student's week, and is based on one illustrated by Gershuny (see previous blog). Created in Excel, it shows the proportion of time spent on the 4 main activities as a grid with columns of width equal to the percentage of time spent on that group of activities. Each column then sub-divides into the time activities within that group with the height of each block proportional to the time spent on it. One idea for using this is to print each chart on acetate and to overlay them. This should help to identify common patterns of time usage (and may be simpler than trying to do multi-variate analysis!!). I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm one of those people who is more than happy crunching number but still get lost with the more advanced stats - mainly due to not using the techniques often enough. For anyone in a similar position, or even for those who are unsure about statistics, can I recommend a book by Reva Berman Brown and Mark Saunders called Dealing with Statistics. The great thing is that there are no formulae or numbers included at all!! What they do is to talk you through the basics of statistics and what techniques can / should be used for different purposes. It is only a short book so doesn't take long to read but quickly gives the sorts of reminders that a rusty mind like mine needs.

Diary Recording Week

2008-02-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

The official notification that the research proposal has been approved by IOE came through this week - nice to see it in writing and signed off by the chair of the committee.

This week the students have (hopefully) been recording the time they spend on the different time activities. The week has run from midnight last Sunday and finishes at midnight tonight. Fortunately there have not been too many queries about which code to use. Either this means the instructions were very clear or that they have not actually filled in the form yet!! We will see next week how many start to email their completed spreadsheets.

Yesterday was a face to face day for the students targeted for this research. Around 150 students came to Reading for a day of talks covering subjects and specific aspects of the course that they need to be aware of. It gave me the opportunity to introduce and explain the project and to field questions about the research and particularly issues involving the 7 day diary. Most students seem to be clear about what is involved which is a blessing.

When I decided to set the diary for this week I overlooked the fact that students would be coming to Reading, however, on reflection that will be no bad thing as it will allow me to look at the time impact on students of taking a day out of their weekend. Certainly compared to face to face days arranged during the week the numbers attending were lower.

The discussion forum for the diary has mainly been used to discuss the value of podcasts by students. Many point to the value of having audio versions of the printed materials either for downloading or as CDs which they can play in the car or train while travelling to work or between client sites. However, they also want the printed version too!

There is still a slow trickle of students completing the pre-course questionnaire. 553 returns have been made but this reduces to 472 after duplicates and substantially incomplete forms have been removed.

In the time I've had this week I've started to clean the pre-course questionnaire data for entry into an Access database. I've also collected the base details of all the current students from the College's student records system. Once I've learned better how to work in Access I should be able to start building a comprehensive set of records!

First Results of Pre-Course Questionnaire

2008-02-05T00:13:00.000-08:00

The course and module that this research is targeting started last week on Monday 28th January. By the end of last week there were a total of 682 students enrolled of whom 63 are retaking modules. The total includes students who completed a foundation module last autumn and 195 new students who were given exemption from the prelim study. These are all first year students and the total enrolment for all three years of the course is expected to be around 1275 students.

So far over 450 students from 38 nationalities have completed the pre-course questionnaire (over 90 were spoilt) representing 67% of target students taking year one. Two thirds are male and their employment ranges from trainees up to director level.

Responses indicate that the average working week is 37.2 hours with an average of 3.9 hours paid overtime. This gives an average working day of 8.2 hours and with an average daily commuting time of one hour gives a total weekday time commitment to work of 9.2 hours.

In respect of non-work time students indicate an average of 2.4 hours per day spent in domestic duties and 2.8 hours per day participating in social activity. Outside work most students spend between one and ten hours per week online engaged in activities such as emailing, banking, shopping, networking and general reference. Potentially this adds in a further 1.5 hours per day which increases to 2 hours if the average of 30 minutes per day spent on mobile phones is added in.

Overall the averages suggest that students already have 16.4 hours committed before sleep and study are taken into account. Adding in 8 hours sleep brings the daily average to 24.4 hours leaving zero time for study!

If these averages were accepted then the conclusion must be that students are cramming all their study into weekends. Clearly this is not the case and this highlights the fruitlessness of using average values to identify the time characteristics of the ‘average’ student.

A lot more analysis still needs to undertaken but one interesting outcome is the students’ weekly use of Facebook.

Over half the students use the social networking site with a clear pattern of increase from young to old for both genders - shown in this table.

If Facebook is a valid indicator of changing times then the conclusion may be drawn that the digital natives are indeed coming - and perhaps faster than first thought!

Thesis Review

2008-01-26T10:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a red letter day! I attended a review meeting at the Institute and was quizzed on my proposal by a panel of three including my supervisor. Thankfully the panel approved my proposal without conditions which means that I can get on with the data collection without fear that I have to change the research.

Actually the meeting was very helpful and each member of the panel gave some most useful and constructive advice. It does help to have input from others if only to clarify one's own thoughts.

The time since my last post has not been without progress. I needed some winter sun so had a week by the Red Sea in Egypt earlier this month. To be honest there was not a lot to do as it was too windy for me to go out on a boat to snorkel, and camel riding is not a favoured excursion. This meant sitting out of the wind by the pool reading.

I completed the Gershuny book (previously mentioned) which provides a lot of background about diary keeping and changing patterns of work over the last thirty years. It also has an excellent way of presenting diary info which I aim to use for my own data. Apart from this I got through a report on Work-Life balance produced by the Institute for Employment Studies in 2002 and made a start on reading up on different interpretations of post-industrial / information / knowledge societies. As this was one of the panel's questions it is clearly something that the thesis will need to address in presenting an interpretation and context.

The last thing to report is that I had anticipated a successful review and have already issued the pre-course questionnaire to students. Goodness only knows what I would have done if its use had been rejected or substantial changes suggested as up to today 385 students have completed it!! Now all I have to do is teach myself Access as the best way to manage the various sources of data and bring them together will be through a database.

The course that the research focuses on starts on Monday so the next few weeks will be pretty hectic. With over 550 students signed up I should have a decent set of data to work with!!

Preparing the Diary

2007-12-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

A book I was given for Christmas titled Changing Times: Work and Leisure in Postindustrial Society has inspired me to get on with preparing the diary instrument for recording how students spend their time. The book by Jonathan Gershuny is an excellent introduction to the issues of societal change and whilst it does not focus especially on students but on the wider population it has some very good sections on the use of time-diaries (and their problems) for collecting data.

As a result I spent the last three days building the diary form. This is actually an Excel spreadsheet which allows the student to enter up to three codes to describe their broad activity in each hour of the day. As I am less interested in the detail of what they do I am only using ten codes. Three of these cover different aspects of distance study - physical study time, online study time and time caught up in administration. One is for rest covering time asleep, two cover time spent at work and travelling (essentially commuting) and the last four cover home related activities such as domestic duties, social and leisure activities and time spent on the Internet shopping, banking and so on.

I am also asking students to record the time they spend on different aspects of the five learning activities they are scheduled to complete during the recording week. Clearly this is likely to be a best estimate unless anyone is keeping a stopwatch by their side but should provide data on the time they spend reading, reflecting, taking quizzes, posting and reading messages etc.

As well as setting up the student spreadsheet (together with instructions and guidance) I've also created the import file to analyse the base data once it is exported. This will give a clear picture of how an individual student uses their time across the week and will provide an at-a-glance view that should make initial comparison easier.

All in all it's been a good few days work to end 2007. I wish everyone well for 2008.

Happy Christmas in the post industrial society!

2007-12-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

I'm probably a bit sad but I find that the days before, during and after Christmas are a good time to take stock. Earlier this month I was reflecting on the title for this research. I included 'post-industrial' in the title to reflect the step change in the way distance education has moved in the last 10-15 years. Otto Peters is acknowledged as one of the Gurus of distance education theory and in the early 1980s he published a comparison of distance teaching with industrial production. As an engineer by background I found this particularly interesting and could see much of what he described in the way my College was set up. It could clearly be seen to organise its work around the needs of a correspondence style design and delivery. This was afterall its original approach but one that has not changed dramatically in the 19 years I have worked there.

Essentially only the technology used has altered whereas the pedagogy remains virtually the same. This has been in contrast with the expansion of information and communications technology which has forced change in the way in which distance learning is designed and delivered. Peters recognised this in the early 1990s and wrote that ‘in a post-industrial society the traditional industrial model of distance teaching will no longer satisfy the new needs of new types of students with their particular expectations and values which, seemingly, not only differ from those of the students in the industrial society but are in many cases even the exact opposites of them.’

It was this interpretation of post-industrial to which my title alluded. Doing further digging around in the last 3 weeks I have become more aware of how many different interpretations exist for post-industrial society. These include variations on post-modern society, information society, knowledge society and more. It may come as little surprise that my Christmas presents from my family have included several books examining these different meanings which I am reading through in between mince pies, turkey and the rest of the festive events!!

I hope that your Christmas has been peaceful and that 2008 is a good one for you what ever you do.

Ethics Clearance

2007-12-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas I received the good news from my supervisor that my proposal has been cleared at the ethics review and this will now be reported to the ethics committee at IOE. This is a great relief as it means that I can go ahead with my data collection next month without worrying about getting retrospective approval. There are a couple of things to check in the letter to students but nothing too problematic.

The proposal still has to go through the formal review within the School but this may be delayed as finding a time when 4 of us are available may be tricky. That said I look forward to the discussion , hopefully later in January.

The Intended Research Stages

2007-12-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

The design for the research follows four distinct stages.

Stage 1: Pre-course questionnaire
All students commencing the first year of a postgraduate conversion course will be asked to complete a questionnaire. This will provide background details about individual students and a profile of the group as a whole. The information collected will provide variables for correlation with diary results and will enable adaptation and/or verification of Juler’s interactional network. Students will be encouraged to complete it as soon as they receive an introductory letter explaining the research with their study materials. The questionnaire responses will be reported in Excel and the variables and data will be entered into SPSS for analysis.

Stage 2: Module diary
All students taking the Information Management and Control module will be required to keep a 24 hour diary for a 7 day period. Additionally they will be asked to record the time that they spend on specific learning activities scheduled to be studied during the recording week. Keeping the diary and recording their time for activities will be an explicit learning activity within the module. Students will be required to submit their diary with their second assignment at the end of the module. The students will be provided with an Excel spreadsheet to complete. They will be provided with instructions in how to interpret and enter their time for a limited range of pre-determined daily activities. For assessment purposes students will be required to provide an analysis of their diary and to present the data in an appropriate manner.

The spreadsheets will be collected electronically and data retrieval used to strip out individual results into a summary spreadsheet. The results will then form variables to be entered into SPSS for comparison with the pre-course data so providing conclusions on student’s use of time and weekly commitment. The results for the scheduled activities will be compared with the estimated times to assess the validity of the rules-of-thumb used. Analysis of the diaries will also provide insight into student’s online time and provide evidence of how much time is appropriate for such learning.

Stage 3: Post-module questionnaire
All students taking the module will be asked to complete a short questionnaire on completion of the module. This will establish both their feelings about their use of time and give opportunity for any specific problems encountered to be identified. It will identify the level of usage made of the different resources during the module study period. Combined with other source information (see below) it will provide conclusions about the effectiveness of the activities and the time student’s devote to these. As with the pre-course questionnaire it will be administered online and the variables and data entered into SPSS.

The data collected through these three stages will be supplemented / verified by secondary data taken from College sources. These include:
Blackboard statistics – detailing access to different areas and discussion boards within the virtual learning environment. This provides a means for validating the accuracy of the student diaries.
Forum participation – detailing the messages posted by individual students and enabling rating of the quality of student engagement with the online activities. Results from this will additionally verify diary entries and enable validation of the assignment mark (including the mark for participation). The level of participation will also assist in validating student’s perceived learning as expressed in the post-module questionnaire.
Assignment feedback and mark – detailing the tutor’s view of the student’s performance in completing the assignment. This provides an independent verification of the effectiveness of the student’s learning through the activities completed.
Module mark – details the overall performance of the student and enables testing of the results from the post-module questionnaire.

Stage 4: Case studies
A sample of 50 students will be tracked over the succeeding three modules to establish how their circumstances and performance may change as they progress further with their studies. This final stage will enable validation of the results for the focus module. Each student will be asked to complete post-module questionnaires as they finish the modules. The extension of the research to cover these modules enables differences in subject to be considered for possible affect on the use of time. Students will not be required to complete a post-module questionnaire for their fourth module. Instead short interviews will be conducted by phone with each of the sample members to obtain overall views and to verify findings.

Submitting the Proposal

2007-12-20T03:18:00.000-08:00

My ideas for my thesis crystallised over the sumer and autumn. In early November I attended the teaching week at IOE and talked through the outline proposal again with my supervisor. He agreed that it was viable and that it now needed to be formally submitted so that it could receive ethics clearance and approval from the research committee.

As I will explain my data collection is linked to a module running in February / March and requires a pre-course questionnaire to be issued in January. This placed an urgent time constraint (appropriate for this project!) and I spent 5 days working up the outline into a full proposal, complete with draft questionnaires, diary sheets and letters.

In order to complete the ethics statement I needed to demonstrate that the proposal had been scrutinised within the College as the data will focus on its students. I was also very keen to avoid problems resulting from lack of support within the College. Therefore before sending it through to IOE I submitted the draft to the College's Principal for her approval. This was especially beneficial as she has recently completed a PhD so understands the implications of research in the professional context. She made a number of suggestions for improvement in the draft. Following a detailed discussion the Principal gave her support for the research and forwarded a copy of the draft to the Chair of the College's Education and Research committee to keep the Trustees informed.

The thesis proposal was sent in on Wednesday 21st November. The following provides a brief summary:

Research Title:
Time and distance study in the post-industrial society

Research Aim:
To investigate the influence of work-life events on study time.
- The research will be conducted within the context of contemporary societal and workplace demands.
- The focus will be internationally dispersed vocational distance learning students studying with The College of Estate Management.

Research Objectives:
1. To examine Juler’s interactional network and verify its composition and structure within a 21st century international context;
2. To determine whether a relationship exists between the domains within a student’s life circumstances and the time they give to their studies;
3. To identify whether a boundary for the optimum weekly study time can be established;
4. To establish the viability of rule-of-thumb measures for quantifying study;
5. To establish whether different student age groups give time to online study activities differently.

Intended Outcome:
To offer conclusions as to whether study feasibility, as proposed within the Framework For Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area, can reasonably be evaluated.

Preliminary Work

2007-12-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

The IFS provided the steer towards looking at time. In the report I referred to an interactional network proposed by Philip Juler. I had been directed to this during my MA when looking at distance learning students and the various factors that impact on their lives. Juler had (I think) developed his network when looking at discourse but so far I have not been able to find any published work by him that refers to this.

I initially developed a schematic outline for the research which I discussed briefly with my supervisor at IOE and the College Principal. If either saw immediate problems in it then I knew I would have to go back to the drawing board! Fortunately both were supportive.

Before finalising my proposal I spent the summer and early autumn of 2007 investigating what has already been written on time and study workload. A trawl throughthe main journals has yielded a number of articles related to time but mainly these centre on full-time students whereas my interest is in distance learners.

From my engineering and management background I am particularly interested in quantifying study. Ellie Chambers at the OU wrote several influencial articles and chapters relating to this in the early 1990s but little appears to have been done since then. I was at the OU earlier this month and confirmed that the rules-of-thumb used to calculate the time for reading, watching and listening to study materials have not changed in twenty years or so.

Now that we have online interaction I am also interested to know whether anyone has come up with any rules to cover quantifying this. So far as I can see there is nothing. Gilly Salmon suggests that it takes at least one minute to open and read a message posted online. Otherwise the best that I have found is advice to 'pilot' online activity and record the time taken. What I find concerning is the emergence of the 'digital natives' whose expectations for study are potentially a lot different to the older students.

A couple of months ago I read the EU document The Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area developed as part of the Bologna process. Credits and qualifications within this framework are expected to be described in terms of learning outcomes, levels and associated workloads. The definition given for workload is ‘a quantitative measure of all learning activities that may feasibly be required for the achievement of the learning outcomes’ and in tandem with this, time is considered to be that ‘required for an average student to undertake the workload’.

Two significant assumptions seem clear from the framework. First, that all learning activities can be identified and rated for the time they will take to complete. Secondly, that the average student and the time he or she has available for study can be defined. To my mind this means that only if these two sets of parameters can be identified will it be possible to determine whether study feasibility can actually be evaluated.

Society is changing and I know from my students that what was acceptable 20 years ago is no longer the case. Therefore I feel it is very important that the academic community discovers more about today's learners and the pressures that they exist within. These thoughts are what is driving this research and the thesis proposal developed from this.

The Institution Focused Study (IFS)

2007-11-25T06:09:00.000-08:00

The IFS is unique to the IOE EdD programme. The study is presented as a 20,000 word report and its intention is to show that you can complete a piece of research within a professional setting. Although not compulsory, most students complete the IFS within their employing institution, and as such it provides excellent experience of being an ‘insider researcher’.

I chose to do my research on the retention of students within the College of Estate Management and the reasons why some drop out. I had already looked at this in respect of first year degree students for the MOE2 assignment. I titled my study ‘Towards Quality Improvement: Mapping Student Drop Out Against The Student Value Chain’ as I was interested to know at what point in their journey through the College they dropped out. My aim was to follow this up with identifying the reasons and thereby the actions that the College could take to remedy these where possible. I started by analysing the data that the College holds on students and used submission of assessed work (assignments and exams) to identify the point at which students dropped out of study.

Originally I had intended to send a questionnaire out to all drop out students to discover their reasons but this was blocked within the College. Negativity in the question phrasing and lack of resources were the reasons cited. This was an unexpected move and demonstrated one of the problems facing the insider researcher. The impact was to introduce a 6 month delay while an alternative approach could be arranged. Eventually a short emailed questionnaire was sent to drop out students but the response was minimal (actually zero). The reason was that the time interval was so great between when the students had ceased study and the questionnaire arriving that it had little relevance to them. Again there was a delay until the next set of degree courses finished when the same questionnaire was sent to students who had more recently dropped out. This produced a decent set of responses which were followed up with a sample of interviews.

The main conclusions from the IFS showed that College students behave in the same way as other students and drop out mainly for time reasons. What was interesting was that time became an issue due to different combinations of factors involving the course, workplace and home. It appeared that there were a limited range of factors that act to either increase or decrease the time available for study. It also appeared that there was a minimum time below which the cost of continuing with study was too high in spite of the potential benefits of completing the course. I have always been interested in time and its influence on work processes and planning, and as a result of these findings I decided to make time the focus for my thesis.

Despite the IFS being wholly relevant to the aims of a professional doctorate many of us found it more time consuming than anticipated and in many respects on a par with the thesis. That said it was worthwhile in hindsight and many of the problems and issues encountered were valuable lessons in advance of the thesis. Having sent in the IFS proposal in Summer 2005, by rights I should have completed the report by Autumn 2006. However, due to the unintended delays and a bout of ill-health I didn't actually submit my IFS until Summer 2007.

The EdD Taught Courses

2007-11-25T04:37:00.000-08:00

The EdD at the Institute of Education starts with four taught courses, each taken over one term, which then form a portfolio around which a reflective statement is prepared.

1. Foundations of Professionalism in Education (Autumn Term 2003)
This course looked at the various models of professionalism found in education. As well as getting you to think about the meaning of professionalism the course was also very useful practice in reviewing literature as a key stage in the research process. I found this a fascinating module and wrote my assignment on ‘Vocational Professionalism: A Crisis Of Identity?’ in which I explored the conflicting expertise required of professionals in higher / distance education.

2. Methods of Enquiry 1 (Spring Term 2004)
Not the most original of titles, this course explored different approaches to designing and conducting social research and evaluation. It addressed the big picture issues of strategy and methodology as well as ethical issues. It was a very useful means of practicing the design of research. My assignment was titled ‘Martini - With Or Without The Olive?’ in which I examined the issue of disability and study impairment in the context of distance learning students and how research into this might be designed.

3. Methods of Enquiry 2 (Summer Term 2004)
This course extended on from the previous enquiry course and focused much more on the nitty gritty issues of data collection and analysis. In this sense it was more applied than MOE 1 and the assessment required a piece of collection and analysis to be undertaken. My assignment was titled ‘Is The World Equal?’ in which I investigated the differences in assessment performance of international distance learners studying for degrees.

4. Specialist Course in International Education (Autumn Term 2004)
This course looked at the different conceptions of ‘international’ education to be critically examined. It was not quite what I had expected but through it I did come to view the issues facing my overseas students in a different way. My assignment was titled ‘Educating In A Post Colonial Era’ in which I reflected on the problems associated with delivering professional level legal studies to overseas students through distance learning.

Portfolio (Spring Term 2005)
The culmination of the taught element was the submission of the four 5,000 word assignments as a portfolio accompanied by a reflective statement in which I gave an honest assessment of my own learning and preparedness for further research. Technically the portfolio was an approval stage within the degree to ensure I was suitable for continuing to the Institution Focused Study, but I found writing the statement very helpful and almost cathartic for me.

What is an EdD?

2007-11-23T00:07:00.000-08:00

For those of you who may be reading this but do not know what an EdD is, it is commonly known as a 'professional doctorate' ie one that is studied for from within a workplace. This makes it distinct from a PhD which tends to be completed within an academic research environment. The main difference is that an EdD has taught components whereas a PhD is entirely research based (often following on from an MPhil).

Academically the EdD is equivalent to the PhD and requires the submission of a similar number of words. The PhD thesis is usually around 80,000 words in length. Due to the submission of work for the taught elements the EdD thesis is about half of this at 40,000 words. Different universities arrange the taught components in different ways but collectively the word counts amount to approximately 40,000 words.

The EdD has suited me as it has provided a good grounding in research through the taught modules and has fitted in well with my work in distance education. I would have found studying for a PhD on a part-time basis to be too open offering too many opportunities for procrastination!

Purists may say that an EdD is a second class doctorate. I don't agree as the intellectual, academic and research skills are just as demanding but more focused on practice. Either way I will (hopefully) still end up with the title of Doctor.

How I've got to this point!!

2007-11-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

The first degree I took was in Civil Engineering, which I studied at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (UWIST) back in the 1970s. Sadly UWIST no longer exists having merged with the University of Cardiff. I spent happy years there in the days when the docks were still a no go area and the clubs and pubs were pretty rough and ready but generally very friendly. I still try to support the Welsh at rugby but they make it hard sometimes to be enthusiastic!

After university I worked as a highway engineer on projects in the midlands and the north of England. Again these were happy years during which I got married and started a family. When the recession of the early 1980s came along I had a career rethink as the government was cutting back on major capital projects which meant less road and bridge construction. My then brother-in-law was lecturing and, as I was interested in the theory side of practice, I decided to follow him and applied for jobs in further education. The first interview I got was for an LII post at Reading College of Technology which I was offered and accepted.

I spent 6 years teaching on professional courses at the 'tech'. Although I had been recruited to teach engineering I quickly took on the management teaching which I found more interesting. Most of my students were studying for professional membership of one of the property or construction institutions, mainly the RICS and CIOB.

In 1989 I moved up the hill to work on the campus at the University of Reading for the College of Estate Management. The College is independent of the University but since 1971 had provided the University with full time staff and students when it moved from London to occupy the new urban and regional studies building that it funded. When I joined the College it only provided distance learning courses for the professional bodies - again mainly the RICS and CIOB. Its courses were designed following the Open University practice of supported study.

After 5 years tutoring students I took on the role of project manager to lead the specification, contract negotiation and implementation of an integrated information system covering all the College's activities. Through this two things became apparent to me. First that I had not fully understood the principles behind distance education, and second, that the rapid expansion of information and communications technology was set to change things still further.

So in 1997 I enrolled for the MA in Open and Distance Education at the Open University. I was in the first cohort of students to take what the OU claimed as its first online course, and had the benefit of excellent tutoring from staff in the Institute of Educational Technology. It was very salutatory to experience what I subjected my students to in combining work with study and a domestic / social life. I completed the degree in 1999.

As with most distance learning students I took a break on completion of the MA and got on with implementing many of the ideas I had learned in the day job and decorating and other maintenance in the free time! By 2003 I had taken on the role of Leader in Educational Development at the College and felt ready for a new challenge. The OU did not at that time offer part-time doctoral study, but a friend had recently started the EdD at the Institute of Education at the University of London. IOE had just introduced an international version of the course which I thought fitted in with the global nature of distance learning and my students. I applied and was accepted so commenced my doctoral journey.

Since starting I have completed the taught modules and the Institution Focused Study - and I have become the College's Director of Teaching and Learning. More on the course so far later in this blog.