With the program’s emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and innovative learning experiences, this course is an in-depth treatment of the research process and techniques for planning and designing research projects. Emphasis will be placed on the appropriate choice of methodologies for a variety of problem situations.

A Quantitative Study:
Leadership in Professional Learning: Future Ready Librarians as Instructional Technologists:
The purpose of this (mock) quantitative study was to explore how school librarians perceive themselves in the role of future ready instructional technologists and facilitators of professional learning. The study will also examine what type of technological and leadership skills school librarians must obtain in order to become future ready.

Reflection: This assignment helped me learn how to formulate the required components of a quantitative study for a dissertation. I learned how to properly write Chapters 1 - 3, including creating possible research questions, a thorough literature review of relevant studies and theory, and a methodology section that included the research design, population and sample, and using an existing instrument for data collection. I also learned how to write a letter of permission asking to use the author's existing survey with modifications.

A Qualitative Study:
School Librarian Obligatory Leadership Roles and Expectations: A Collective Case Study of
Three Medium-Sized New Jersey School Districts:
The specific purpose of this (mock) case study was to identify obligatory roles and leadership components that school librarians need to recognize in forming more collaborative and supportive roles within their school districts. Their different kinds of leadership roles were examined for dispositions, along with their intraschool collaborative relationships.

Reflection: This assignment helped me learn how to formulate a mock qualitative collective case study. I specifically enjoyed learning how to implement the limitations, delimitations, assumptions, and researcher's position of the study. While performing additional references for the literature review, I learned a few more leaders in the field of librarianship. When creating interview questions, I learned to group my questions into categories so that they flow better when engaged in the interview.

A Mixed Methods Study:
The Collaborative Role of School Librarians in Fostering the Use of Educational Technologies:
The purpose of this (mock) convergent parallel mixed methods research study is to explore the collaborative interactions of school librarians and teachers as they utilize educational technology in selected school libraries. The research will ascertain whether or not the use of educational technology enhances the collaborative interactions amongst school librarians and whether these interactions lead to the effective implementation of educational technology. Both teachers’ and school librarians’ perceptions about how often they collaborate and how essential the implementation of educational technology to student learning outcomes will be evaluated and analyzed through a collection of data samples pertaining to survey and open-ended responses.

Reflection: This assignment helped me learn how to formulate a mock mixed methods study. I learned from researching the literature that utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research methods permits for triangulation of data, ultimately enhancing the reliability and validity of the research study. The convergent parallel mixed methods research design permitted me to learn that researcher use this design in order to instantaneously compare and contrast both quantitative and qualitative data for validation intent.

This course provides an introduction to systemic inquiry using assessment methods to understand, evaluate and solve user and organizational needs. Candidates integrate their knowledge of research methods with the real-world challenges of conducting and analyzing research in educational and corporate settings.

 

Observational Exercise
The observational exercise included a concise, written documentation of occurrences and impressions depicted in keywords and phrases that were observed at a Reference Desk in a public library.

Reflection: I was a non-participant observer whose goal was to observe the interactions between a public Reference librarian and patrons. Jottings, full observational notes, and coding were included. While practicing the role of a non-participant observer, this exercise allowed me to code my full observational notes. The codes I created helped me realize the different types of questions that are asked by patrons in a public library.

Qualitative Research Project -
The Use of Twitter as Self-Regulated Professional Development: Perceptions of School Librarians in Online Communities of Practice (CoP)
This (mock) qualitative research project was designed to explore the extent of how school librarians use Twitter, the social media tool, in order to enhance their professional growth. Communities of practice served as the theoretical framework used for the study. The method's procedures included data-collection activities, consisting of interviews and observation of participants’ tweets.

Reflection: This project enabled me to create interview questions, establish preliminary codes, and devise an anticipated time-line for completion.

Proposal of Field Research Study -
Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Research Study Proposal
This (mock) mixed methods research project was designed to explore how an online community of practice of school librarians utilize Twitter in order to enhance their professional growth.

Reflection: This project enabled me to create a brief description of questions, both closed and open-ended, for the method section of a mixed methods study.



Pilot Field Study with IRB -
An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study on the Perceptions of School Librarians Who Seek Self-Regulated Professional Development Through the Use of Twitter
This (mock) explanatory sequential mixed methods pilot field study was intended to explore how informal learning through Twitter helps school librarians acquire innovative information and helps them develop into lifelong learners, ultimately improving their professional growth.

Reflection: Communities of practice served as the theoretical framework used for the study. The literature review helped me acquire references for my dissertation proposal. This project enabled me to fill out a mock IRB form for my intended study, devise a survey consent form, design a survey via Qualtrics, and create a set of interview questions for participants.

 

 

Candidates develop competence in applying, synthesizing, and evaluating statistics from sources including dissertation, journals, technical reports, and websites. With an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching, candidates will move from basic to context-driven statistics, applying the fundamental concepts and procedures of descriptive and inferential statistics to real-world applications.

 

Reading and Writing About Statistics -
Statistical Inference in Mainstream Media and Scholarly Articles
The purpose of this assignment was to compare two articles (one mainstream article and one scholarly journal article) that provided statistical analysis on how students are performing in online courses versus face-to-face classrooms. The mainstream media article explored a content analysis on several quantitative studies that focused on higher education online courses in comparison to face-to-face classroom instruction. The scholarly journal article explored how online and face-to-face students are performing in a first-year undergraduate college course. The statistical results from the two articles were analyzed and discussed, including evidence that formulated the studies’ conclusions, along with their strengths and weaknesses.

Reflection: This project enabled me to explore the difference in how a mainstream article uses data and statistical statements in its writing compared to how a scholarly article implements descriptive and/or inferential statistics in its work.

 

Statistical Concepts Website - Group Project
The Statistical Sensations statistical concepts website was a group project designed on Google Sites to serve as a reference and explanation of various statistical concepts. Each web page features a different statistical concept featuring examples, videos, and data sets. Concepts include mean, median & mode, quartiles & box plots, z-tests, t-tests, and p-values. Each group member submitted a self-evaluation log detailing who completed what parts of the website.

Reflection: This group project enabled us to work together and support each other in completing the website in a timely and efficient way. Creating my contributions on specific statistical concepts reminded me that  in order to fully grasp material, one must need to teach it to others. The website will serve as a reference to viewers who are looking to sharpen their statistics knowledge, as well as our cohort when reviewing for the Portfolio Qualifying Experience.
(Co-authors: Hayet Bensetti-Benbader, Steven Lahullier, and Laszlo P. Pokorny)

Statistical Concepts Website - The Statistical Sensations

 

 

Peer Project Evaluation - Peer Statistics Reference Website Critique
An exhaustive peer evaluation of the “Group 2: Livin' on the Edge - of Significance” statistical concepts website. The website's required elements and contents were evaluated and assessed according to a rubric developed by Dr. Kip Glazer.

Reflection: This peer evaluation provided me with a chance to provide constructive feedback for both the website's content and design components.

 

Statistical Analysis of School Library Print Circulation, Database Usage, and Collection Count Used to Evaluate the Need of Elementary, Middle, and High School Libraries in the XYZ School District
A data set obtained from the ABC School Library Consortium was used for a statistical analysis of total annual [print] circulation, database usage, and collection count. The data set was used to run a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the annual circulation means of ABC elementary, middle, and high school libraries in order to make inferences about the circulation of print collections in school libraries. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also used to compare the annual database usage means of ABC elementary, middle, and high school libraries in order to make inferences about the usage of databases in school libraries. In addition, a bivariate Pearson Correlation explored the strength and direction of the linear relationship between the total annual circulation and collection count variables.

Reflection: This assignment allowed me to practice creating null and alternate hypotheses, perform and report descriptive statistics, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), several different post hoc tests (comparison types of tests), such as Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD), Homogeneity of Variances - Levene, and Welch and Brown-Forsythe, and run and interpret graphs in SPSS.

With the emphasis on educational technology leadership and the scholarship of teaching, in Dissertation I, candidates develop and refine their hypothesis, research contemporary related literature, and explain in detail their research method and procedures, as well as design all necessary research, permission, and data collection instruments. In Dissertation II, candidates will conduct their research, process the data gathered, draw conclusions, and reflect upon their study.