Module 5: Writing the Methodology & Analysis and Discussion

You have prepared your readers for your review in the Introduction by telling them what you are reviewing, why it is important and how you have constrained your research to limit it to a manageable size. You have identified your research questions to tantalize your readers.

NOW it is time to get down to writing the bulk of your paper which includes the Methodology and Analysis and Discussion. The Methodology tells you how you found the research and the following section actually presents the review.

Methodology
While the Methodology that you will write for this review is not always included in the typical published journal reviews that you have been reading in your research, it is something that you will use to validate your research. The importance of the methodology is that it allows you to demonstrate your search's thoroughness to your readers so that they can personally decide how comprehensive your searches might be. If your readers feel that you have approached your research properly, then they will continue to read your Analysis and Discussion of the literature collection. You might say that your Methodology section provides the credibility which is the foundation of your whole review.

You will need to explain the search methods you used to find your resources. That isn't too difficult, but then you need to describe how you decided what to include. Once your search yielded a huge list of possible resources, you need to specify the orderly process you used to make the best selection of your bountiful harvest.

So what are the topics that need to be covered in the Methodology? It's simply a matter of explaining the process:

1. You begin by explaining how you gathered your resources. Which specific search engines did you use and what terms/phrases did you use for your search?
2. You were presented with hundreds or thousands of resources. You didn't have time to review all of the abstracts and resources. You had to decide which abstracts to review. You needed to make decisions about which sources to analyze. Explain your strategy for deciding which sources "made the first cut."
3. Once you decided which sources to trust, what procedures did you use to analyze the sources to identify if they are reliable enough to consider them for your review.
4. When you have winnowed your collection of reliable resources, explain the criteria that you used to decide which resources will be relevant to your review.

Analysis and Discussion

This is the section where you actually present research-based concepts in an organized fashion and use specific studies to support these ideas. Remember that this section has NOTHING to do with your personal ideas. You need to save your personal ideas for the Conclusions and Recommendations section.

The Analysis and Discussion section begins by identifying the research question (or questions in your masters paper) that you will be exploring.  You will use the opening paragraph to provide the framework for the rest of this section. Having identified your research question, you will then define the subheadings. This shouldn't be done in a boring bulleted list. This organization can be defined through the prose of your review.

 Here is an example of how this opening paragraph for a Full Masters Literature Review might be written:

Teachers’ beliefs regarding technology integration into the 21^st century classroom play a role in learning. Technology can only be embraced as an effective learning tool when teachers believe that what they are being asked to do will work, and that it is the best solution to an identifiable educational problem (Ertmer, Addison, Lane, Ross, & Woods, 1999). There are three specific areas that will be reviewed within the role of teacher belief systems in technology integration. These areas are common teacher beliefs regarding technology integration, teacher goals and knowledge concerning technology integration and supporting teachers as they integrate technology into the 21^st century classroom. 

Tour a Sample Lit Review: It is difficult to describe how to write the Methodology or Analysis and Discussion sections without examples, so here is a narration of a single literature review as well as some other examples you will want to read to "get the idea" of how to write these beasts.

Other examples will be included after this narration:

A fine example of this organization is the article, The Effect of Instructor-created Video Programs to Teach Students with Disabilities: A Literature Review by Linda Mechling (2005) Journal of Special Education Technologies 20(2) 25 - 36.  Open the article in another window and review it while you read this narration.

This is a comprehensive review about using video programs. Notice how this begins with an opening paragraph that sets the stage. It talks about the research and development since the early 1980s. It then supports the importance of the topic by showing research-based advantages to the method. This is followed in the 5th paragraph where Mechling explains the purpose and scope of the review. It also explains how the review will be structured.

The Introduction is followed by the Method (Methodology) where it explains the method for finding the studies and the criteria that were used to filter the research. You will noticed that the explanation of databases is not as extensive as we expect for this project, the critera are quite specific.

The results section is similar to our Analysis and Discussion. It begins by specifically explaining the grouping of the studies. It does a wonderful job of creating the framework of the upcoming contents for the reader. Your section doesn't need to be quite so statistically-oriented, but please note how it prepares the reader for the research that will be presented.

Each of the sections described in the Analysis and Discussion are subheaded and discussed as independent entities. The Video Feedback section is concept-driven. This begins with the video feedback concept and supports that with Dowrick's work. it then explains a variety of studies where the value of video feedback was explored in various fashions. Notice how the studies are not the emphasis of the section the effects of video feedback are central to what is being shared. The final paragraph combines and summarizes what was found in the studies. Please NOTE: the final two sentences are transitional sentences that lead to the next section, Video Modeling.

This process of exploring each of the sections described in the opening paragraphs continues throughout the review. The Discussion section (p. 32) is close to the section that we would call the Conclusions and Recommendation section. The author reviews each of the sections and provides commentary on the effectiveness of the approach. This is also the place where the author can compare and contrast the various outcomes (i.e., Paragraph 3 on p. 33.)

The Recommendations for future research do a decent job of relating this technology to the future potential of Virtual Reality. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a very good job of discussing how these results might change policy and pedagogy for teaching disabled learners in the future. There are, however, a few sentences addressing these areas in the final sentences of the review.

The Summary at the end is not necessary if you have written your conclusions well. This section is well-written and much of it could be used as organizational material for the conclusions section in one of our papers.

This review is a fine example of the simple format of a literature review. It doesn't involve teaching readers the fundamentals of a topic as much as providing an organized review of the research in the field. 


Other Examples:

• High Tech Cooking: A Literature Review of Evolving Technologies for Teaching a Functional Skills.
• Methodology Examples
  

Using the UNI Rod Library at a Distance

www.library.uni.edu

Based upon some conversations with students, I am including some special postings that will address hints for researching.  Some of this information I may have already included but I want to make it inclusive.

Let me begin by directing you to the Distance Learners link from the UNI Library website.  I believe that this has been mentioned in previous classes, but perhaps it hasn't been explained deeply enough for your use.

Proceed to the Rod Library opening page. Down the left column of the page, you will find Distance Learners in the Information For: section. Click on the Distance Learners option. This will take you to the Distance Learners page adorned by Ellen Neuhaus. Click on her YouTube video to enjoy the introduction.

KNOW YOUR REFERENCE LIBRARIAN.  Ellen and her team of reference librarians are a researcher's best friend. Call them up and they will help you find or direct you towards finding the resources you need to use for your research.  Remember that you are not bothering them when you call.  They are employed to help you with your searches.  Their phone number is 319-273-2838 or 800-207-9410.

Using the Rod Library Resources:  I had already begun to create a video on how to use the Rod Library Panther Prowler research tool. Fortunately, I found a whole set of tutorials on the Rod Library website that are much better than I would have ever been able to create.  Go to the Rod Library website and in the left column under the Research Help section you will find a link to Tutorials.

Spend some time on this page:

• Down the left side you will find tutorials on using different research databases. Some are video and some are text. You may find the EBSCO, Google Scholar, and Wilson tutorials useful.
• Down the right side, you will find tutorials for using the UNI resources. You probably don't need to take the library tour since you are a distance learner. There is a TERRIFIC tutorial on How To Find Journal Articles Using Panther Prowler.  This is a MUST video tutorial. You many find some other tutorials that are useful to you in that section as well. 

If you are a textual learner, then you can access the Panther Prowler User Guide. 

InterLibrary Loans Can Be FUN!!!

Can't find the full text article that you need for your research?  Then maybe there is another library or information repository that has your desired information. It's just a matter of knowing who to ask.
We often don't know who to ask so there are master researchers known as Reference Librarians at our beckon call. What wonderful people they are, TOO.

When you use the Panther Prowler to search the UNI Library's offerings, you can often find the full text articles that can be downloaded in .pdf format with the click of a button.

Sometimes, however, the full text is not available. This is when you can ask for an interlibrary loan. An interlibrary loan allows the reference librarians to request information for other librarians. If this is in the form of a real world book, the UNI librarians will mail it to you for your use.  Sometimes, they can find a digital copy where we were not able to do that.

The important thing is to follow Dr. Z's Law #287 "You don't ask, You don't get." So ask.

The following short 7-minute video shows what to do when you can't find what you want and need to ask for an interlibrary loan.

Good Luck!!!

Z

Module 4: Using APA to Write a Lit Review and How to Write the Introduction

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You know what to write, now you need to explore how to write it. This module will provide some guidance on how to write a literature review. It will discuss the content and the writing techniques that you should use to create a successful review.

The Writing Process

• Read Chapter 9 of the Galvan Book.

• Composition of a Literature Review - Further explanation of the parts of the literature review and a review of writing techniques to make your review more interesting and understandable. (24 minute)
• Paragraph Song and Lesson - Short song and discussion of writing a paragraph. The ice cream example needs a little help but it demonstrates the concept. (3 minutes).
• To Write a Paragraph song - The song is much better, but not as informative. (1 minute)

Writing Using APA Format

• APA 6th Edition Part 1 introduces some writing strategies for research papers and explains APA formatting and citing. (Note: They suggest using "Running Headers" in the paper, but we don't do that at UNI.) (8 minutes)
• APA 6th Edition Part 2 explains how to format your reference list (9 minutes).
• Write in APA Format describes GREAT writing strategies and when and how sources are used (5 minutes).

Writing an Introduction

• Writing Effective Introductions (Webster University) - Explains the importance of introductions and provides examples to follow.
• Introductions (University of North Carolina) - Explains the role of introductions and and provides a variety of successful and not-so-successful introductions. Pay careful attention to How to Evaluate Your Introduction Draft. 
• Intro to the UNI IT Masters Template video - You will have to use the UNI IT Masters Template to submit your introduction. Watch this video to learn how this template can save you plenty of time and effort in formatting your manuscript.

Creating a Research Table

• Read Chapter 7 in the Galvan book.
• Your assignment is to create a research table with at least 6 articles.
• Submit it to the appropriate drop box

Quantitative Research Activity

• Read Chapter 5 of the Galvan book. 
• Follow the assignment page to evaluate two of the articles you have found in your research and then compare and contrast these articles.

Module 3: Writing Research Questions, Using Research Techniques & Creating an Outline.

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You are finally digging into your actual research so it is necessary for you to decide what you will research, how you will do it and then create an initial outline for organizing your final paper.







Writing the Literature Review: Knowing what and why you write a literature review is important. Here is an overview by David Taylor at the University of Maryland. He is actually presenting it in the context of using the lit review as part of a larger document, but it is good description.


Creating Research Questions:
Creating research questions is not necessarily an easy task. Sometimes they will pop into your head but often you have to spend some serious time developing and perfecting the questions. Even when you think that you have perfected your questions, you will sometimes find that as you read more articles and learn more about the topic, your research questions will need some slight modification or wholesale replacement.  That is OK.  It's all part of learning.

• Watch this 12-minute video on Developing Research Questions (by Dr. Z). It will provide you with some background, guidelines and help you develop your own research questions.
• Here is another 3-minute video by Dr. Jill Ostrow about creating good questions.
• The Goldmine find for developing a research question is this interactive website from SUNY Empire State College with a plethora of materials about it.

Now that you have identified your research questions, post them along with your research topic on the Research wiki 2011 under your name on the page.

Using Research Techniques for Finding and Gathering Your Information:
You have decided what you want to research and the questions you want to answer. It's time to find your materials. Google Scholar is a great way to begin your research. It is free, comprehensive and proven to be almost as effective as the dedicated research databases. It even has additional capabilities over and above the dedicated research database in that it provides a great deal of information about how specific articles are viewed/used by other academics in the field.

One problem that some of you may have been running into is that you are referred to articles that cost money to access. Usually you won't have to pay for these articles because you can get them through the UNI Library. 
In this section I have included some videos on using Google Scholar and UNI resources:

1. Using Google Scholar from off-campus: 
2. Searching the UNI databases to find what you want; and 
3. Creating an RSS feed from your searches to bring up-to-date results directly to your iGoogle.

Creating Your Literature Review Outline: 
If you are experiencing writer's block, it is just because you don't know what to write . . . Duh!
Here are some resources for learning how to create the Literature Review Outline that you are expected to create before you begin writing your review.

Here is a video that describes creating your Lit Review Outline.

Last updated by Dr. Z on 5/24/2011

Module 1 - Introductions (Due Sun, 5/15)

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Welcome to the opening module of our Seminar: Writing a Graduate Paper. We will begin by having you create your own introductory discussion postings on eLearning.

Who Am I Blog: Make your eLearning Discussion posting on the Who Am I blog which is on our eLearning website. Remember that we threw out the challenge for you to introduce yourself through a vlog (video log). It would be appreciated (but not required) if you could keep this below 5 minutes. This is just a challenge so you can post to this blog using only text (and/or images) if you wish.

You will answer these questions:
1. Tell us who you are, where you work and what makes you special.
2. What is your area of interest for study? You don't have to have a topic of review yet, but where is your passion? You don't have a passion? Get one and share it.
3. Explain what effects you would like your research/review to have on learning in your specific institution, subject area or education as a whole.

Once you have completed your posting, provide meaningful responses to at least two of your colleagues. Remember that this is presented in a Blog fashion so you will be replying using a comment format.

Discovering Your Learning Styles: Complete the Felding Index of Learning Styles. Yes, I know that you have probably already completed this last year, but wouldn't it be interesting to see if things have changed. Don't try to remember how you answered it last time, answer what is true today.  Copy or Print the results so that you can add them to the database in the next step.

Entering Your Learning Styles: Enter your Learning Styles results into our Seminar database. After you get this all done, I will make the results from last year's and this year's available online so you can compare them if you wish.

What Do You Know?: Complete the Technical Skills Survey. I will make this information (Sans ages) available online as well so that you can make comparisons to measure your growth as well.

Read the Course Materials: I want you to know what is expected in this course. Therefore, you will have the opportunity to read all of these materials.  There are some tricky requirements in this class so you need to know what they are. 

Read Chapters 1 & 2 of the book.

Looks to be a wonderful semester of exploration and creation.  I look forward to enjoying your work.

Z