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!!
Saturday, 7 February 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
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.
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.
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Happy Christmas!
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.
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.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Analysis on Course
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!
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!
Thursday, 27 November 2008
Confidence Returns
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.
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.
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Beware the Leprachauns of Time
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!
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!
Friday, 24 October 2008
Crazy Time
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.
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.
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