As this is an exploratory study, our goal is increased understanding of student digital literacy development as a result of their exploration and/or development of curated collections on immersive technologies. One outcome of this current work will be the development of instructional materials for use across institutions as a means to build digital literacy through exploration and/or curation of collections on emerging technologies.
In the proposed project, instructors of technical communication courses across CPTSC institutions will be invited to use the instructional materials for similar student exploration and/or curation of collections that then become part of the Fabric of Digital Life (https://fabricofdigitallife.com/) repository. If an instructor agrees to participate in this study, the instructor will be provided with access to the instructional materials. In turn, the instructor agrees to share with investigators the learning objectives and timeline for specific exploration or development of collections on emerging technologies as part of an assignment in his/her course, and to provide a short reflection on his/her incorporation of an exploration/curation assignment and its impact on building student understanding of digital literacy. Participating instructors also will be asked to invite their students to complete a qualitative diagnostic for examining digital information literacy. Students who provide consent will be sent a short survey on components of digital literacy, asking students to describe how their exploration and/or curation work has influenced their development of proficiency on each component.
Participating instructors also will be invited to join follow-up group discussions with other instructors about the impact of repository exploration and collection curation on building student understanding of digital literacy. De-identified instructional materials, assignments, discussions, reflections, and survey responses will be archived using the UMN Data Repository for the University of Minnesota (DRUM). We will conduct a systematic thematic analysis of the following using the NVivo tool:
As part of continued discussions with instructors, we plan to follow design thinking methodology to organize subgroups and foster cross-cultural, innovative insights and solutions as participants continue to develop and refine instructional units, and we propose the use of collaborative autoethnography (CAE) methodology to study ongoing discussion and reflections.
The IRB (at UMN) has determined that this study meets the criteria for exemption from IRB review. To arrive at this determination, the IRB used “WORKSHEET: Exemption (HRP-312).”
--Summer 2019:
Invite CPTSC instructors to participate, explaining the goals for this research and timeline; receive responses and share instructional materials (N=five schools); begin bi-weekly team meetings, share IRB materials.
--Fall 2019
Continue meetings to share and discuss the project, instructional materials, and each instructor’s learning objectives, associated assignments and timeframes; begin analysis of the learning objectives and components of the assignments.
Facilitate collaboration with the Fabric archive for student exploration and development of collections; upon completion of collection work, begin analysis of the collections and associated artifacts as noted above.
Late Fall, post a second invitation to the CPTSC list for work during Spring 2020 (N=5 institutions). Share early results and collections from the Fall 2019 deployment.
--Spring 2020
Launch second phase of the project (similar to Fall 2019), begin analysis of the learning objectives and components of the assignments, and facilitate collaboration with Fabric archive.
Proceed again on analysis (see above).
Propose sharing this research at the Fall 2020 CPTSC conference.
--Summer 2020
Complete analysis and develop articles on this overall work. Share progress report with CPTSC.
--Fall 2020
Share outcomes of this research at the Fall 2020 CPTSC conference.
Complete final research report for CPTSC.