Artifact 4

ETR 525: Qualitative Research in Education

Introduction and Reflection

Research Title: A Case Study of Faculty Experiences and Perspectives on Mobile Technology
Use in Teaching at Northern Illinois University

This paper was the final project of the course ETR525 which I took in fall 2016. ETR525

course is an introduction to qualitative research. It introduces students to qualitative methodologies

and approaches and teach students how to collect and analysis qualitative data. In this course, I

have had the chance to practice a different method of qualitative research data collection. This

course helped me to understand central theories and concepts of qualitative research. Also, I

learned techniques that helped me to interpret and analyze qualitative data.

The artifact shown above was the final project for ETR 525. I conducted a qualitative research

entitled A Case Study of Faculty Experiences and Perspectives on Mobile Technology Use in

Teaching at Northern Illinois University. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the

perspectives and experiences of faculty members experience and use of mobile technologies in

teaching at Northern Illinois University. Theoretically, the design of this research study was guided

Rogers model (2003) diffusion of innovation. This research was guided by three research

questions:

What are the university instructors views towards the advantage and disadvantage of using

mobile technology in teaching?

How frequently do university instructors use their mobile technology in teaching?

What are the factors that promote or limit the use of Mobile technologies in teaching?
 In this research, the method used to collect the data was in-depth semi-structured interviews

with four faculties at educational college at Northern Illinois University. This qualitative study

used 13 questions to gather the data. The interview questions were divided into three categories to

explore types of Mobile technologies used, the extent to which Mobile technologies are used, and

the benefits and challenges of using Mobile technologies from faculties perspectives.

Briefly, the finding of this study indicated that participants showed a positive attitude toward

the use of mobile technology in their teaching because of its advantages. Regarding the facultys

views of mobile technologys disadvantages, participants stated that the use of mobile technologies

in the classroom would motivate students and instructors to spend much time on social networks,

reading newspapers, and play games rather than use these technologies for teaching or learning.

Regarding the nature of participants use of mobile technologies, participants reported that they

use mobile technologies for three educational purposes: teaching activities, administration

activities, and research activities.

Evidence of Mastery of Objectives 1, 3 and 8.

Objective 1: design a study of an educational research problem or phenomenon using

appropriate methodologies.

By conducting the research study above, this objective is met. ETR525 helped me to design

and conducted an educational phenomenon which is the faculty members experiences and

perspectives on Mobile technology use in teaching at Northern Illinois University. Based on the

nature of the study, qualitative methodology was used to conduct this study.
Objective 3: distinguish between ethical and unethical behavior when conducting educational

research or evaluation

This objective is met because the design and the conduct of the above study required careful

attention to ethical issues. The related ethical issues to this research study include explaining the

purpose, confidentiality, informed consent, and data access and ownership. For this study, I

provided the participants with an explanatory statement that states the purpose of the research, the

possible benefit, and the time required of the participants, as well as addressing expected

inconvenience/discomfort concerns. Also, I provided the participants with a consent form that

makes it clear participation in this study is voluntary and that participants are under no obligation

to be involved with the effort. To preserve confidentiality in this research study, none of the names

of the participants were revealed or identified when analyzing data.

Objective 8: engage in research-related activities in diverse settings

This objective is met because taking the course ETR525 motivated me to engage in research in

diverse settings. During the research design, I had the chance to interact with participants at

Northern Illinois University to conduct my research which allowed me as an international student

to be involved in research in different settings.