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This mini-workshop is designed to align your personal goal (why you are studying at all) with your research aims and then to use that alignment to develop clear, unambiguous, answerable research questions.
Introduction and background: The research onion (Saunders, 2007)
Cronje, J. C. (2020). Designing Questions for Research Design and Design Research in e- Learning. Electronic Journal of E-Learning, 18(1), 13–24. http://doi.org/10.34190/EJEL.20.18.1.002
How to choose a research question that genuinely matters, by Professor Lennart Nacke, PhD
Here are examples of What, How, Why and When questions
The purpose of What is to obtain inventory - to identify elements, etc. The purpose of Why is to explain or understand, the purpose of When is to describe condidions (under what circumstances) The purpose of How is to indentify actions or relationships.
1. What (Obtaining Inventory and Identifying Elements) These questions aim to explore or describe the situation by identifying specific elements, types, or phenomena.
What types of messages do students and lecturers send via WhatsApp?
What level of success has been achieved in each circumstance using WhatsApp?
What are the key features of WhatsApp that students utilize most often for collaborative work?
Which media formats (text, voice notes, documents, images) are most frequently shared in academic WhatsApp groups?
What are the common technical or connectivity barriers students face when using WhatsApp for learning?
What time of day do students typically participate most actively in WhatsApp academic discussions?
What are the main topics discussed in student-led, unofficial WhatsApp study groups?
Which emojis or reactions are used most often to acknowledge lecturer announcements?
What proportion of students actively contribute to the WhatsApp group compared to those who only read the messages?
What is the average response time for a lecturer answering a query in a class WhatsApp group?
2. Why (Explaining and Understanding) These questions seek to explain the underlying reasons, motives, or causes behind certain behaviours or phenomena.
Why do some uses of WhatsApp work better than others for teaching and learning?
What are the reasons for students preferring WhatsApp over traditional university learning management systems?
Why do some students remain silent or choose not to participate in large class WhatsApp groups?
For what reasons might a lecturer choose to disable student replies on a WhatsApp announcement group?
Why does the use of voice notes sometimes lead to better comprehension than typed text messages?
What motivates students to create separate, student-only WhatsApp groups without the lecturer present?
Why is WhatsApp perceived as a more immediate and informal form of communication compared to email?
What are the underlying causes of miscommunication or conflict in academic WhatsApp chats?
Why do certain types of multimedia content generate more engagement and discussion on WhatsApp?
What explains the difference in WhatsApp participation levels between first-year students and senior students?
3. How (Identifying Actions, Relationships, and Processes) These questions focus on how elements relate to one another and the mechanisms by which things happen.
How do students’ and lecturers’ messages facilitate teaching and learning on WhatsApp?
How do lecturers establish boundaries and etiquette in a 24/7 class WhatsApp group?
In what ways do students collaborate on group assignments using WhatsApp features?
How does the informality of WhatsApp affect the professional relationship between students and lecturers?
How are complex mathematical or scientific concepts explained using a mobile chat interface?
How do students navigate the distraction of personal messages while using WhatsApp for studying?
In what manner do lecturers assess student understanding informally through WhatsApp interactions?
How does the use of WhatsApp impact the overall sense of community and isolation within a distance-learning class?
How are administrative queries handled differently on WhatsApp compared to official university channels?
How does the asynchronous nature of WhatsApp discussions influence the depth of student reflection?
4. When (Describing Conditions and Circumstances) These questions aim to determine the specific circumstances, contexts, or conditions under which a phenomenon occurs.
When (under what circumstances) do WhatsApp messages lead to optimal remote learning?
Under what conditions do lecturers feel overwhelmed by student queries on WhatsApp?
In what scenarios is it more appropriate to use a WhatsApp broadcast list rather than an open group chat?
Under what circumstances do students feel that academic WhatsApp groups intrude upon their personal privacy?
When does a WhatsApp academic discussion start losing its educational focus and become too social?
In which specific learning contexts does WhatsApp fail as an effective teaching tool?
Under what conditions are voice notes more effective than typed text for explaining a difficult assignment?
When do lecturers typically decide to transition a conversation from WhatsApp to a more formal channel like email or a video call?
In what situations does the use of WhatsApp exclude certain demographics of students from the learning process?
Under what circumstances does peer-to-peer tutoring on WhatsApp yield the best academic results for the group?
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