Dissertation and Promotion

The most surprising aspect about dissertation writing that the Dissertation Journey helped elucidate for me is that it is not supposed to be a contentious effort on behalf of the candidate but rather a chance for the PhD candidate to present findings, discuss the problem and the manner by which they went about their investigation of the problem, and most surprisingly, Roberts and Hyatt state that the defense is an "exciting and collegial experience" (p. 183). Now that do couch this statement in saying that the process may vary depending on the institution, but this was very surprising to me. I was envisioning a Star Chamber or Congressional Testimony whenever I thought about a dissertation defense. 

For example, when moving from the lower enlisted ranks to become a non-commissioned officer (NCO), soldiers must not only study for a test and attend a three week long class, they must also stand across from the highest enlisted leaders in the unit and be ready to answer any questions from the unit's policies and procedures, standard operating procedures (SOPs), the Ranger Handbook, or the NCO rules and regulations. My own panel was a fiasco and I was stunned that I passed. I was so nervous that when the First Sergeant saluted me, I actually forgot to salute back until someone prompted me. Yep, THAT bad. 

This was the model that I imagined when dissertation defense was discussed. Now, having read that quote, I'm not surprised. The second surprise from both the book and from the last year of working with my Major Professor, is how much help I'm getting to ensure I get things right. There's this book, this class and other classes like it, all of the professors. Instead of a contentious experience, the dissertation writing process seems more of a collaboration of like minds helping guide the student to success. Heck, even having a class dissecting and getting granular with the APA style book is a wonderful help to move me along. Why shouldn't the defense be conducted in a similar manner? NCO's at my unit were hardly as supportive in my elevation to sergeant.

This style of advancement, with multiple support systems such as 1) my weekly student study group, 2) my dissertation committee, 3) the professors with whom I interact and 4) the major professor is unique and beneficial. Already I've found I have more support than for most of my projects at work, or have ever had with any career advancement opportunity. I find that this style of support also has led to positive insights and to greater growth toward identifying the area of interest that I have, developing my thoughts within those areas, and fine-tuning my dissertation topic. It was not what I had been expecting. I may not have expected the rigor and defensiveness that came with getting my sergeant stripes, but I did not expect this much support either. Perhaps the corporate (contracting) world within which I work, where there is a definite "sink or swim" attitude and mind set has become too engrained in my mind. I am finding that I like having swimming lessons and a coach to help!

Instead of dreading the process I am looking forward to getting started and editing. Having read the Dissertation Journey, and having started building a committee, I'm looking forward to the next steps with verve and gusto. 

References:

Roberts, C. & Hyatt, L. (2019). The dissertation journey (3rd edition). Corwin Press.

More on Dissertation Writing

Dissertation writing is an interesting experience. In my last class I wrote a couple of chapters of a dissertation on emotion and Virtual Reality. Testing the extent to which VR is effective and adding an emotional element to it to make it more effective is some super cool stuff, in my opinion. But, in this post, I'm not going to get into the technicalities of it, I'll just focus on the writing. 

I've written about my dissertation before (see HERE) and about the surprises I've uncovered since starting this process. The writing of the dissertation is one. 

I have written three novels and each is over 80,000 words long (see HERE). I've already written about how creative writing is tougher than research writing. But what I've found out since, through discussions with my major advisor and others is that the dissertation writing process is really a secondary part of teh overall process. 

My major advisor told me last year to quit focusing on the writing of the dissertation and just read read read. Having written a couple of chapters of a dissertation, I realize that the writing is going to happen somewhat naturally, as a conseuqence of the courses I take. 

Sure, the chapters I just finished were on qualitative research and emotion in VR. My dissertation, if I keep the same path, will be a quantitative analysis of different computer based learning techniques, with VR being just one of them. But I can take the emotion in VR chapters and quite easily re-tool them for my own. 

Constructivism will be a fundamental theoretical framework. The methodology behind the research will be similar. The collection and analysis as well will be very much the same. I see what my major professor meant. The framework of the dissertation remains the same, it's all of the reading that builds up the content of that framework that is so necessary. Like reading Dick Francis or Lawrence Sanders before I start writing novels. 

My Dissertation Question

Lately I've been working more and more on my dissertation question and starting to write the dissertation itself. Just like writing a novel, it's tough to get started. 

The image here shows a model of what I'm hoping to investigate in my dissertation. To put it into a sentence or a research question it would be:

What technology aid/tool is most beneficial to our learning community when applied to the standard CBT offering, virtual reality (VR) exercises, interactive games, or spaced practice.

One of the features I wanted to be sure to include in my dissertation is a focus on our learning community. We have a typically underserved learning group. Field technicians for industrial work do not typically have the most cutting edge training in our society. For example, when I was working for a contracting company I developed and wrote a series of manuals for working with our large heavy machinery. One of the tools that I used to help develop this program was McDonald's training manuals. 

McDonald's has a series of training manuals that are extremely well developed and effective. This is for their line workers and fry cooks. I'm not saying they shouldn't have great training, or that ours should have been as good as theirs, but what concerned me was that our training was for vacuuming up gasoline and flammable products in refineries while theirs was for flipping hamburgers effectively. Our training was far from the level it needed to be at. Think about it, a "whopper-flopper" was potentially getting more advanced and more effective training than a technician who was working with hazardous and flammable liquids and materials. 

My dissertation (at this point) will be focused on not completely remaking our training dynamic. We have a library of over 5000 courses and a delivery mechanism that is extremely robust. If we are going to tweak that through some different tools, which tool is the best for our learning community. 

Already we've looked into VR (see here). We offer VR exercises as a part of one of our primary courses and are about to include a second. We've already analyzed this against the standard and have seen a greater than 10% better long term memory development for the learners. 

How would gamification work? Would it be better for our technicians or worse? 

Spaced practice reinforcement is usually extremely effective for developing long-term memory, is that true in this case as well?

I look forward to delving into this and finding out more. This is the first in the series of dissertation, so stay tuned for more. 

Comps or Quals

I’m in the midst of comps. What’s a comp? Well . . . it's a Qual. What's a Qual? A comp (or a qual), according to my good friend Andrew who is an associate professor at Southern Connecticut State University, stands for comprehensive exams (or qualifying exam depending on where you go). It’s one of the final pieces of the PhD puzzle, and now that I’m living it, I have to say it’s among the most stressful pieces. 

Sure, I’ve finished my classes, but that just means part one of the PhD process is over. Part two is writing and completing my research dissertation. 

How Did I Survive March?

I turned in my final paper today. You see,  . . . Before a PhD student is allowed to propose their research, they have to finish all of the coursework. 60-something hours? I took 21 classes, 3 hours per class and a couple of hours for dissertation writing? So, maybe closer to 70 hours over the past three years. 

Now that I’m done with my coursework, I’m allowed to submit my proposal. My proposal is really the first 3 chapters of my dissertation. 56K words of boring and bland academic writing about VR and adult learning. It explains the research I want to do. In my case, I outline a quantitative experiment comparing VR courses to determine how to optimize the use of VR for the learning community I support. Once the proposal is approved by my committee, which is not a sure thing, and I won’t know for a few more weeks, then I can perform my experiment, write up the results as 2 more chapters, then defend my work and then I’ll be done. Hopefully sometime in December. If not then January or February at the latest.

ProQuest

It took a while, but finally, my dissertation has become public!

What does that mean? 

When Writing Isn't

I just spent three hours writing . . . but not writing at all. How is this possible? What does it mean? 

I'm back to dissertation and academic writing. My last two chapters are due in November. What does that mean? My proposal consisted of three chapters. Chapter 1 was my introduction, Chapter 2 was my literature review, Chapter 3 detailed my methodology. 

An Annotated Bibliography from Advanced Qualitative Research

Article 1 Link

McHugh, M., Farley, D., & Rivera, A. S. (2020). A qualitative exploration of shift work and employee well-being in the US manufacturing environment. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 62(4), 303–306. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000001823

Summary 

This is a qualitative study of shift work in the US manufacturing industry using interviews and focus groups across several large companies focusing on the National Institute of Occupation Safety and Health's framework of five domains for worker well-being. The sample includes about 60 total interviews. 

The study uses the framework to provide their analysis, breaking the results of their interviews into the framework using: (a) workplace policies and climate, (b) physical environment and safety climate, (c) health status, (d) work evaluation and experience,  and (e) home, community, and safety which makes it easy to see how the authors determine their conclusions and analysis. McHugh et al. (2020) admit that a limitation of the study was that their study was that their "data collection instrument was not specifically designed to capture  perspectives on shift work" (p. 305) however their coding, using both deductive and inductive codes based on new concepts provide confidence to the reader regarding their results. 

The data analysis for this study was both deductive coding and inductive coding based on new concepts found during interviews. McHugh et al. (2020) state that "because the topic of shift work emerged frequently during the interviews and focus groups, we created an inductive code related to the effect of shift work on well-being" (p. 304). The authors also used thematic analysis based on the coding that they apply to help break the data into the framework. This is similar to the type of methodology I propose to use in my own study with qualitative interviews regarding the lived experiences of workers leading to coding for analysis and identifying themes. 

McHugh et al. (2020) report their findings broken down by the five dimensions framework that they apply: (a) workplace policies and climate, (b) physical environment and safety climate, (c) health status, (d) work evaluation and experience,  and (e) home, community, and safety. This framework is a good way to help understand and find themes within workers lived experience both for the authors work, but also in the study I intend to make. They provide numerous quoted excepts from the interviews they conducted. 

The authors voice when writing this article is formal and academic leaving the reader with the impression that they are experts within this field. The challenge I have however is that McHugh et al. (2020) admit their study was that their "data collection instrument was not specifically designed to capture  perspectives on shift work" (p. 305) which seems to be a glaring error for a qualitative study on of shift work, but the work does serve to narrow the focus of the study and future studies. 

 

Article 2 Link

Olubiyi, O., Smiley, G., Luckel, H., & Melaragno, R. (2019). A qualitative case study of employee turnover in retail business. Heliyon, 5(6), e01796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01796

Summary 

This is a qualitative study of shift work in the US manufacturing industry using a case study interview format of 18 workers within the retail industry focused specifically on employee turnover.  The study uses multiple foundational theories and established models to collect and analyze the data and cite numerous established experts in their fields to provide credibility to the study and the conclusions. First, the authors discuss the person-organization or (P-O) fit theory which Olubiyi et al. (2019) explain is "a holistic concept that describes compatibility between individuals and organizations, covering how an individual's values, interests, and behavior are consistent with, or compatible with the organization's culture as a whole rather than as a specific function or task" (p. 1) and go on to describe why this theory is used by writing that P-O fit is "is typically measured in terms of value congruence; an alignment of the values of individuals and the organizations they work for" (p. 1). This is the theory that guides the focus of the study and provides background and grounding. Additionally, the authors apply and allude to the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model to the study. This Olubiyi et al. (2019) write is a model similar to P-O fit that implies that job applicants will be attracted to and selected by those organizations whose values are similar to their own; and that once they have joined the organization, those employees whose values do not fit with the organization's values will either leave voluntarily or be removed by the organization" (p. 2). 

Additionally, the authors use the general environment fit scale or (GEFS) that "to investigate value congruence within a single dimension of fit in a particular social context and assess individual perceptions of similarity to others in the setting" (Olubiyi et al., 2019, p. 3). 

The analysis of the data is provided using coded data drawn from Nvivo's verbiage analysis obtained from the case study interviews of the 18 participants to discover trends and themes within the data. This is presented both in histogram or bar chart format as well as described in the written text. There are no quotes from the interviews to back up the themes or data representations. 

The authors voice comes across as deeply expert in the field of employee retention especially as they cite so many theories and models to align their study and results to established works and background. However, the lack of any interview quotes to provide color or context to the data that they provide in histograms leaves the reader believing that the study is coldly analytical. 

 

Article 3 Link

Leung, A., & Chaturvedi, S. (2011). Linking the fits, fitting the links: Connecting different types of PO fit to attitudinal outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(2), 391–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2011.02.007

Summary 

This article begins with a discussion of PO fit from the perspective of perceived fit and subjective fit. Doing this helps to change PO fit from a black-and-white, binary type of values fit methodology and moves it toward one with varying shades of grey; or from an objective to a more subjective methodology. The authors then take this subjective view of fit theory and apply it to various hypotheses to determine how these subjective fit views might lead to greater organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Next, the authors look at how the subjective perspectives of fit mediate these two results of job satisfaction and commitment. The authors find that “our research findings indicate that while objective fit, perceived fit and subjective fit are all positively related to organizational commitment and job satisfaction, the extent of their influence varies” (p. 399) and their “findings suggest that when organizational values espoused by management translate into employee perception, it has a positive effect on an individual's subjective PO fit judgment as well. Organizations, over and above their attempt to select employees with the right fit, can cultivate PO fit and hence positive individual outcomes by “walking the talk,” that is, putting their espoused organizational values into practice, hence generating a high level of “objective fit,” which subsequently influences employees' subjective perception of fit and translates into positive attitudes” (p. 400). 

What does this mean for the purposes of my own work? The research we are conducting does not take into account perceived or subjective fit, but rather takes the objective view of PO fit. Is there an opportunity to look at PO fit through this more subjective lens with my research? Perhaps. This might entail getting interviews and analysis of the hiring organizations as well as the employees. At the moment the extent of the case study research is aimed at interpreting the lived experiences of the employees who are hired and not looking at the other side of the values fit equation; the employer's side. Would it be worthwhile to investigate the two fits, to look at the values fit from both sides? Yes. However, that would require re-performing the interviews and including the hiring companies' fit perspectives which might be best for a subsidiary article, rather than going back and trying to reverse engineer the work we have already done. 

Finally, this article is well-written and draws valid conclusions from a cogent and well-laid-out analysis. The literature review brings up terrific sources for further PO fit and values fit history and discussion. This might be a good article to use as a framework for further PO fit investigations, but other than the literature review, the conclusions and analysis will not immediately fit the extent of my current research. 

 

Dissertatin 1 Link

Shin, H. (2007). Main and interaction effects of personality and p-o fit in personnel selection Available from APA PsycInfo®. (622010864; 2007-99010-026). https://er.lib.k-state.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.er.lib.k-state.edu/dissertations-theses/main-interaction-effects-personality-p-o-fit/docview/622010864/se-2

Summary 

Simply, this study looks at the validity of PO fit on personality assessments, especially in terms of values congruence and job performance as the author states that PO fit, and attitudinal outcomes is already quite clear from previous studies. There is a tremendous amount of historical and literature review information contained in this dissertation, compared to that which is usually found in articles, but that is expected due to the depth of research inherently a part of dissertations. There are some novel concepts that my research, again via articles, has not addressed such as TWA (theory of work adjustment), TVC (theory of vocational choice), and the Big Five model of personality, all of which are concepts that both are built on PV fit, or person vocation fit.  The framework for the literature review is built based on personality traits rather than on values fit and values congruence as I usually discuss in my research and work. The dissertation investigates specifically whether conscientiousness and emotional stability correlate positively with overall managerial performance. Additionally, the researcher investigates whether extraversion, a part of the personality, correlates positively or negatively with managerial performance. The author continues the research by looking into whether emotional stability, conscientiousness, and extroversion led to greater overall performance. Most of the hypotheses proposed by the author are found to behave as expected except that there was no significant relationship found between conscientiousness and overall job performance. The author states "the present study demonstrated partial support for the moderating effects of PO fit on the relationship between personality variables and job performance criteria. The results of hierarchical multiple regression demonstrate that two proposed HPI variables, Ambition and Sociability, significantly interacted with PO fit in predicting overall job performance" (p. 63).

 

The author has a background in psychology and this dissertation was written for a PhD in psychology, so this is to be expected. It comes from the University of Tulsa and was printed in 2017 so it's not international and it is current. The study however is a quantitative study that is easy to read and process thanks to my own qualitative proposal on VR efficacy with emotional videos, but my PO fit article is focused on a qualitative framework, so it is a unique perspective for me in terms of PO fit.

 

Dissertation 2 Link

Kennedy, M. (2006). An integrative investigation of person-vocation fit, person-organization fit, and person-job fit perceptions Available from APA PsycInfo®. (621558254; 2006-99002-103). https://er.lib.k-state.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.er.lib.k-state.edu/dissertations-theses/integrative-investigation-person-vocation-fit/docview/621558254/se-2

Summary 

This dissertation has terrific background information on PE fit and begins with a definition that PE fit is the theory that an individual's positive experiences in a workplace is due in part to that person working in an environment well-suited to his or her personal characteristics. Like the other dissertation, there are aspects of PE and PO fit theory that are defined and sued in this work that is new to me and my research including the idea of Needs Press theory or the idea that the work environment presses, which means aids, or blocks workers from meeting their psychological and physical needs and complementary and supplementary fit, concepts I've read about before but not studied extensively, and a deepening of the idea of values congruence to include Goals Congruence, Interest Congruence, and Personality Congruence. Some of the other concepts that I'm familiar with including TWA and ASA models are also covered. The researcher states, "the focus of the current study involves an integrative empirical study of three fit-level theories: PV, PO, and PJ fit. Each of these constructs will be discussed in detail later in the study. PG fit is excluded from the current study to allow for a more comprehensive discussion and analysis of PV, PO, and PJ fit" (p. 4). Also, it should be noted that this study focuses on Fit theory subjectively but does not go into perceived fit as the previous dissertation did. The hypothesis the researcher uses is that the studied fit items will make distinctions between PO, PJ needs supply fit and PJ demands ability fit perceptions and how these characteristics fit with, mediate, and affect employee intent to quit, job satisfaction, career satisfaction, job performance, and occupational commitment.

The study used 955 participants using a questionnaire to gather data. One of the things that my major professor continues to do is ask me to make my studies more concise and simplify as much as possible. I have gone from a multi-variable study with many expected interactions, to one that is quite simple and to the point. This study could have used that same advice from Dr. Kang. It is far too much information compared to making much sense of the relationships, the methodology, or the analysis. The models are replicated in the end and expanded on, so the researcher considers the study a success, but the complexity makes it challenging to understand. 

The author has written an intensely professionally researched dissertation on PO Fit and PE Fit and subsidiary concepts. The tables that summarize work done, and the relationships between the concepts are particularly well done and should be used as a reference for any future research I might do.

Concept Mapping

My concept map looks like something out of the Russell Crowe movie A Beautiful Mind or worse Charlie Day and his thoughts on who Pepe Silvia is. It's a mess of arrows and routes, and bubbles here and there. UGH! 

Well, I've decided to clean that sucker up a bit for the dissertation. This is the concept map I've been working on since last summer. It's supposed to show my thoughts in regards to my dissertation. Everything I bring up in my dissertation should be represented here with its relationship with other concepts. It's an illustration of my dissertation. 

Write Everyday

My colleague, Anne, and I were on a team recently, and she brought up a great line from our book. She wrote that we as students writing our dissertation need to write from the “outset of their study.” 

Although I was not struck by that particular line and page as Anne was saying, but I will say that I have heard similar advice from many people in my journey so far. The most prescient being "write a little everyday." I might not be following that to a "T" just yet, but I am "moving forward every week." 

Stress and Dissertations

I’m in the midst of writing my defense. I may have written this before, so if I did, feel free to bypass. There are several different steps in finishing my doctoral degree. There’s the courses and classes of course. I needed what? 60 or 70 total credit hours to graduate? Of those only 12 or 15 are for writing the dissertation. So that leaves like 45 or 60 credit hours for classes. That was the first three years. Each semester and every summer I took between 6 and 9 credit hours just to complete that aspect of the degree. 

My program with KSU was a tad different than others. Mine had a “residency requirement.” I picked a program with this quite purposefully. I didn’t want a 100% online experience. I wanted to have to go to an actual class and meet actual people and professors. Well, I got that. Every summer I’ve had to take a trip up to Kansas and sit with a class and do homework, live out of a suitcase, and meet and hang with my classmates. Well, worth the experience. Far better than just online courses. 

Ever Evolving Concept Map

 Really, it's not just an ever-evolving concept map . . . it's an ever-evolving dissertation and dissertation topic. 

If there is one thing I'll remember from this dissertation process, is that it's really just a process of refinement and narrowing. Everyone tends to start with grand ideas and over the course of time it keeps getting whittled and whittled and whittled down. 

When I first started I wanted three points of comparison, VR vs gamification vs spaced practice. Which technique is "best" for adult learners (What an idiot I was then).

This is WAY too ambitious and muddled I now know. 

Next, it was comparing CBT to CBT with VR and CBT with VR and emotional videos. This is still fairly close to what I'm doing. But really what I learned from my meeting with Dr. Kang yesterday is that I need to have an overwhelming and intense focus in all my writing just on VR with emotional video. You'll see it's now the center and primary block of the concept map. 

Now I have to go and re-write the dissertation (that I think stands at 25K words and almost 70 pages) and refocus it around just emotional videos with VR. 

Lot of lot of work. 

First Qualitative Publication

During the midst of my dissertation study, I took a moment to interview a few of the participants. We had almost 2000 participants in my study, but two days in August, I set up a table outside the VR stations and asked about 10 of them, individually, to sit with me for a few minutes and tell me about their experiences. 

Each interview took about 15 to 20 minutes, and it was random in that I didn't pre-screen or designate who I would talk to. I just took the first 10 or so who showed up. The results were very interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I decided to write them up for a qualitative article (HERE). 

Plagiarism at Harvard

Politics aside, I'm stunned by the revelations around the Harvard president, Claudine Gay. Having just completed my dissertation, I am VERY sensitive to some of the rules of plagiarism and giving propers citations. To find out that she lifted MANY portions of her dissertation and of her subsequent articles from uncited and other sources without proper attribution is STUNNING to me. (I know, lots of caps, but I think this deserves that).

While writing my own dissertation, I was surprised by the amount of paraphrasing that was necessary. They do not want just a ton of quotes and citations. They want you to distill other scholar's thoughts and lift them up and use them, but not copy and paste them. If you do quote . . . cite properly. If you take a sentence from someone else, you can't just switch a word or two and cite them. Either quote, paraphrase completely, or don't use. 

Safety Publication

In my scholarly writing class, our professor said that our goal should be to publish five peer-reviewed academic articles from the results of our dissertations. Our dissertations should be unique and distinct, but there should be enough data to parse the results in a way to develop four or five other articles. 

I published one that focuses on VR vs Non-VR training in Research in Learning Technologies (HERE). I just had a second published, this one was focused on qualitative interview responses from my dissertation participants (HERE). Well, today, I was able to get a third published (HERE).

Weekly Writing Status Update - 4

This week I “completed” a lot of my writing . . . And started a really decent (so far) writing habit. Two great things if you ask me. 

The completions consisted of submitting my article to Interactive Learning Systems. This is a Taylor and Francis academic journal that I selected as my target journal for one of my articles that I drafted from my dissertation. It’s not all of my dissertation. The first three chapters of the dissertation are 25K words. I’m only allowed 6K words for the article so I pared it down quite a bit. 

Back to the Grind

Lately I’ve had to hang up the ole type writer and get back to the dissertation. Actually this turn of phrase doesn’t work. I’ve had to hang up the creative writing and focus on the academic writing.

I was talking to a local Houston author friend, Shina (see her book HERE and order it!) and I told her how jealous I was. I think she works full time as an author and that’s the dream isn’t it? Full time writing. Full time creative writing even better. 

Holy Shit!

There are times when I say things at work where I know . . . I know! . . . that Julie and Tommy, and I'm pretty sure Russell and Paul think to themselves  . . . "uh, dude,  . . . you're full of shit. You're just using a bunch of big words to try and pretend to know what you're talking about."

Am I? Could be, but not really. 

I ran into my own "uh, dude, . . . you're full of shit" moment. 

We had a PhD student come in and talk to us about their own dissertation defense and her own Vee Diagram (see mine in the image above). She used her Vee diagram as the basis of her defense. There was more to it, but the first page of the presentation was just that Vee diagram. 

When I saw it (and I asked her to send it to me so I can see it) I tried to get process it, and I could tell immediately I was in for a doozey. Basically, her dissertation was a qualitative review of K-2 Kansas Education Dept policies to determine if there was perceived culturally responsive language to support social justice education for teachers. 

So, a couple of questions:

• How does this have anything to do with Adult Learning?
• Why do I want my K-2 teachers to teach culturally responsive social justice education?
• How can you judge these values and if they are in the policies?

Ugh . . . I know how Tommy and Julie feel!

Critical Synopsis and Methodology

I was asked by my colleague David about two things, first was my intent in my dissertation regarding research methods, and about a critical synopsis method we are reading about for class. 

Personally, I've been so waiting to dig into this discussion. Up until I started reading The Dissertation Journey by Roberts and Hyatt I had only thought there were two outlets in terms of which methodology to use, Quantitative or Qualitative. In our study group someone would say, "which are you picking?" and for some reason I thought there were only two to pick from and it was a binary choice! 

It was with some great relief that I read that mixed or multiple methods as a methodology for data evaluation. As I might have mentioned before I have the great benefit of having a learning community to constantly experiment on and have ready data at my fingertips. We ran a test to determine which type of elearning helps develop long term memories last year and we used a mixture of the actual raw data from the learner's integrated knowledge checks throughout the elearning, the final assessment after the elearning and a follow up assessment a week after having taken the elearning. We also had the learner answer some survey questions and our proctors interviewed each learner and asked them about the experience. 

When I was asked "quantitative or qualitative" my mind would freeze because our past experience used both and I wasn't able to immediately answer the question. Now I know that mixed method is what I should say because with the data from all those test and quizzes to compare, as well as the survey data and interviews, what I'm trying to create is analysis that is both subjective and objective. So, like I said, I should have realized there was some grey area and a non-binary choice, but for some reason I never realized it. 

Regarding Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates by Wallace and Wray, a book I'm having a particularly hard time getting through, I learned to love the Critical Synopsis Questions. I really like the fact that the Critical Synopsis Questions helped cut through the fat so to speak. So often I get lost among all the lingo and pronouncements in a scholarly article and I forget what I'm trying to learn from it. I like that these articles are all written in a similar manner, with similar standard sections, but when reading them, particularly if the article has been translated from another language, I lose track of the overarching concepts and find myself losing the thought train. I like that the Critical Synopsis Questions help refine and retune my focus on that which is important for me. Like a hand rail when walking up the stairs in the dark, it helps to remain on task and on track. 

Qualitative Article Contract

We were asked to provide a contract for our semester that outlines how we are going to meet our writing goals for the class. My goal is to write a qualitative article for publication. Others have a goal to write a chapter of their dissertation. This can't be my goal. My dissertation in quantitative in nature. I've already started writing and submitting it. How can I use that in a qualitative class?

So, I came up with several tools to help me outline and meet my writing goals. I came up with a chart, a form, and a bunch of sample questions. Is it overkill? Sure. Is it too much? I don't think so. It helps me keep things straight and it would be what I would expect if I was the professor of this class. 

Project Summary

I intend to write a scholarly article that is qualitative in nature and helps the industry I support better understand the nature of and expectations that our learners come to the industry with. 

For this project, I intend to draft findings from a case study for an article for a refereed journal. This article aims to understand the experiences of newly hired employees working at a contractor organization within the energy industry with a goal of understanding what aspects of their new positions might lead them to leave or abandon the job sooner than they might want. The contractors in the industry have a high turnover and this article will help us understand this phenomenon and perhaps lead to interventions that will alleviate it. To accomplish this, the article will focus on a phenomenological case study that is designed to better understand the essence of being a new employee in the energy industry and the lived experiences of the 10 participants in the study over the first three months of their being hired.

If there is the potential that the contractor organization cannot solicit a suitable number of volunteers, the backup plan will be to solicit volunteers from HASCs new hire training course. This course trains up to 200 newly hired employees in the industry every day. By soliciting from this course the study can still focus on aspects of contractor organizations' retention and turnover, but cannot be as focused on one organization. The benefits of this backup plan is that there is a greater number of potential participants to volunteer and I have a greater ability to control the aspect of soliciting volunteers.

The timeline I will propose and will turn in on Sep 4 as a part of our graded assignment is shown below. The volunteer acceptance form that I've created and sample questions are shown below as images. 

What's the problem? 

I'm looking at my classmates answers to the same question, and no joke, I see a few that are less than impressive, and another that says: 

    I want to improve my writing. 

Well, not exactly that, but more like:

1) To be able to consolidate research and be able to present it in a coherent flow

2) To get into the habit of writing a little daily

3) To sound academic, but not too much

Now, it could be said I take my assignments too far. But this is a PhD level class. This isn't even a Master's class, this is only other PhD students. I would expect a bit more than "get in the habit of writing daily" from a PhD student. But that's just me.