August 8, 2011

[RESEARCH DESIGN] Phillip Grim

Introduction: This document has been constructed to display the overall research design for a study of the incorporation of Moodle into the classroom environment. The paper shall display; the questions that have been developed for the study, the procedures that will be involved in the process, assessments designed to bring forth the pertinent information for the study, and finally the overall rational behind the design of the research. Research Questions: Does the use and incorporation of Moodle into the classroom help to improve the efficiency of the dissemination of information to vocational students in a Technical Drafting classroom? Procedures: The first procedure to be discussed will involve the separation of the experimental and control groups. Students from third period will receive instruction in a blended learning environment incorporating Moodle within the curriculum. Students in this group will receive the same teacher lead instruction and demos that the control group will receive. However, they will also receive tutorials (examples include drawing and modify commands in SolidWorks CAD software package), course content, and other review materials (Machinist Hand Book formulas and reference materials) via Moodle. As well as the use of its forum and blog capabilities, that the students could use to openly discuss the different segments of the course content. The fourth period control group will receive instruction via the current method of teacher lead instruction via the use of LCD projector and white board. No additional resources will be incorporated other than standard texts and CAD workstations. The groups would comprise 40 observable subjects total, with 20 per period. Once the groups have been established the next phase of the research will begin. As learned through the exploration of other researchers from the literature review a longitudinal study would be implemented to track the two groups progress throughout the course of an entire school year. This would allow for the documentation of overall student progress through the course curriculum segments as well as collection of demographic information to further add diversification and depth to the study. Assessments: The assessments used in this study will be formative and summative. Pretests showing the students knowledge of the subject would provide a base line to measure from. This assessment would cover basic drafting topics as well as CAD operations. Once this base line is established individual student progress would be charted via summative assessments in the form testing based on curriculum segment standards. These would range in topic as they would cover segments required by the state of Michigans NOCTI Mechanical Drafting and Design curriculum. As such they would cover up to nine technical standard content areas depending on the students progress including; Preparing to Draw, Applied Mathematics, Identify Measurements, Geometric Construction, Engineering Drawings, Multiview Drawings, Section Views, Auxiliary Views, and Dimensioning Skills. These in turn would provide aggregate data to show overall progress for both the control and experimental groups. This process would help to provide the quantitative data for the study. The study would also include further quantitative data gleaned from questionnaires provided to the experimental and control groups. These would be developed using a five point Likert scale system and the data produced arrange into a graphical representation. Qualitative data would be derived from follow up interviews done with the experimental students as well as direct observation of the classes themselves. These methods are

August 8, 2011

[RESEARCH DESIGN] Phillip Grim

aligned with the research done by others on similar topics that were discovered during the literature review portion of my research and seem to be the most beneficial. Design Rationale: This study has been developed with a very specific goal in mind and one that shall produce quantifiable results that will show either the benefit or negative impact of the incorporation of Moodle within a Technical drafting classroom. The procedures and assessments included within the study will build on the foundation of the studies of fifteen other research groups findings. The study will include a large cross-section of students with diverse demographic base. Looking at the greater scope of overall all educational research this study is adding further depth to the discussion of blended learning environments in the secondary classroom environment.