This document outlines the author's proposed dissertation on studying emergent collaboration in the Rhizo14 and Rhizo15 open online courses. The author proposes examining why participants initiated, participated in, and completed voluntary collaborative research projects beyond course requirements. The study would use a case study approach to interview individuals who collaborated in groups of 2 or more on extra-curricular research projects from the courses. The author acknowledges challenges integrating multiple theoretical lenses such as leadership, motivation, actor-network theory, and learning organization theory.

1. Apostolos Koutropoulos (“AK”)
Cohort 7
EDDE 805
Assignment 1
@koutropoulos

2. Α
Dissertation 1
(something imported)
Greek numeral (1)
Corpora and language education: exploitation potentials in teaching
Greek and construction of pedagogically relevant corpora
- by Giagkou, Maria (2009)
Σώματα Κειμένων και Γλωσσική Εκπαίδευση: Δυνατότητες αξοιποίησης στη διδασκαλία της Ελληνικής και
συγκρότηση παιδαγωγικά κατάλληλων σωμάτων κειμένων. Γιάγκου, Μαρία (2009)

3. Dissertation Layout
1. Introduction
2. Applied Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics
3.Contributions of Corpus Linguistics to language education
4. Corpus Linguistics and the teaching of Greek
5. Characteristics of appropriate learner corpora
6. Readability of texts
7. Organization of Greek texts by readability criteria
8. Summary of findings
9. Bibliography
10.Appendices

4. RGs, RQs and Methodology
RG1: The derivation of
pedagogically useful
conclusions using (or
guided by) linguistic
research data.
RG2: The creation
(collection) of
pedagogically appropriate
corpora, meaning corpora
that can be included in
teaching practices and
useful to learners
Research-based
position paper
(chapters 2-4)
RQ1: What are the
measurable text
characteristics that
influence the
reading difficulty of
a text?
RQ2: How can this
influence be
quantified so that a
Greek text can be
evaluated on its
reading difficulty?
RQ3: How can
readability be used as a
criterion for automatic
collections of
appropriate texts for
specific groups of
learners, and hence
create a pedagogically
appropriate corpus?
Creation of new formula for readability based on
existing formulas for English. Validate using those
formulas and learners of a specific grade range
(chapters 5-7)

5. Methodological Approach (for Goal 2)

6. Research Participants
✘1,970 middle school students from 20 different schools in Greece
(7th, 8th, 9th grade)
60% return rate
913 of the returned tests were valid for study
✘Unnamed experts *

7. (Positives)
✘Very (very!) well researched
✘Bibliography draws from more than just Greek and English works
✘Reads well and has logical structure
✘Contributes to field by means of a new computational model

8. (Points of improvement)
✘Very long setup (lost sight of the ‘prize’?)
✘Felt like two related dissertations (not one connected whole)
✘Makes assumption that textbook texts are appropriate for learner
level (replace unnamed experts with actual human participants)

9. ✘A dissertation idea: analyze language use of community
participants in an online social network (Fb or Twitter)
✘Corpus Linguistics Analysis is an interesting approach to use:
creation of corpora from social media communities to be used for
analysis.
✘Could compare corpus-derived findings to other findings, such as
SNA derived findings (compare language use of in- and out- groups)
✘Verdict: a little too math-focused for me (at this time)
Connections

10. Β
Dissertation 2(something domestic)
Greek numeral (2)
Collaboration in Online Environments: Student
Perceptions of Purpose, Process, and Product.
- by Rochelle, Gail (2004)

11. Dissertation Layout
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3.Methodology
4. Data Analysis & Findings
5. Findings, Implications, Suggestions
6. Bibliography
7. Appendices

12. RQs and Methodology
RQ1: What are student perceptions of
collaborative research as it occurs using a
web-based electronic portfolio?
RQ2: How do students view the effects of
such collaboration on their learning
purpose, process, and product?
✘ Case study approach
✘ Using Naturalistic Inquiry Model
✘ Emergent design
✘ Use of Content Analysis

13. Research Participants
✘Students in a uVA class (EDIS 542: Language, Literacy, and Culture)
who are undertaking a collaborative project
✘18 students taking entry survey
✘2 students acting as cases
✘13 (of original 18) students taking exit survey

14. ✘Builds on work of 2 previous dissertations
✘Researcher has a emic & etic perspectives as a former student in
that class
✘Not just approached from one lense
Collaborative learning
Computer & collaboration
ePortfolios
Online Learning Communities
(Positives)

15. ✘Author didn’t quite understand Case Study method?
✘Entry survey more on focused on tech skills (connection to collaboration?)
✘Some sections a little short?
✘Surface-level literature review
✘Repetitive final chapter
✘Too much focus on future research (connects to lit-review)
✘Too specific in its implementation (title suggest something more abstract)
✘Missed opportunity for collaboration vs cooperation
✘Whither COP and CoI?
(Points of improvement)

16. Connections
✘Provided me with some literature that might have been overlooked
✘Similar approach envisioned for my dissertation proposal
✘Case Study, emergent design, collaboration context
✘What about a research data retention policy?
✘Researcher-as-human-instrument statement

17. Γ
My Proposal(hopefully a fine blend of domestic approaches and international actors)
Greek numeral (3)

18. Working Title
Open Course Collaboration: A case study of
emergent collaboration in Rhizo14 and
Rhizo15

19. Rhizo ‘14
The community that
piqued (kindled?) my
interest in collaborative
research in online
communities

20. What happened in Rhizo?
✘We learned...
✘We interacted… (student-student, and student-content)
✘We formed voluntary groups to research… (wait...what? This wasn’t in the syllabus!)
Not unprecedented, something similar happened in MobiMOOC in 2011

21. The Big Q
Why initiate? Why participate? Why complete? Why repeat?
Why?

22. Research Questions (currently brewing)
RQ1
Watch this space...
RQ2
Watch this space...
RQ3
Watch this space...

23. Research Participants
Individuals who enrolled in Rhizo14 and/or Rhizo15 and who collaborated
an extra-curricular research project that was published or presented at
a conference. These individuals participated in groups of 2 or more
people

24. Locations of Potential Participants

25. Challenge: multiple lenses
LeadershipMotivation ANT
(Actor Network Theory)
PLN, COP,
CoI, &
Learning
Org. Theory
Only some
of what’s
coming to
mind

26. “
Be ruthlessly pragmatic (paraphrased)
Marguerite Koole
EDDE 806 (01/2016)

27. Thank you!
Any questions?
You can find me at
@koutropoulos