Hands dirty, feet wet...

I am completely in agreement that in order to conduct a study, especially one with an ethnographic component, you need to go out into the field and immerse yourself in the activities and settings of the people and processes that you are looking to investigate.

I think that real, first-hand perspective about the subject of one's research often provides a framework for uncovering insights that could not be possible in the library or in front of a computer. It is that tangible, experiential quality of being in the field that allows for this and these realizations are, a lot of the time, in the moment and not the result of time spent in reflection or analysis.

As a good chunk of my research is going to involve ethnographically studying MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) environments, MOOC takers and their motivations and frustrations, I was compelled to look up some interesting applications of ethnographic research to virtual communities and interactions. Hancock et al. [1] and Paccagnella [2] suggest some useful strategies for virtual community research and observation and also touch upon the implications of their findings for educational environment design.

This article by Margaret Weigl provides an excellent summary of some of the most comprehensive research efforts in the online learning space, pertinent to MOOCs. One of these studies [3] carries out a decent ethnographic examination of motivation/procrastination issues during the online learning experience of a course offered on Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). I am definitely going to use some aspects of the study as inspiration for my own.

The only prior experience with 'fieldwork' that I've had is running usability studies on beta participants for an iPhone app developed by a start-up that I was working for at the time. I got a sense of the first time user experience in the users' native environments (as much as that could be simulated). This was great as it allowed us to record a number of useful observations and then use these to further prototype and  iterate on our designs. I will definitely be drawing of some of this experience in my own study but I intend for it to be even more immersive than a usability experiment. To understand a  MOOC taker's thought process and understand motivation issues from their point of view, one needs conduct personalized, unbiased interviews, monitor and analyze relevant data and really be a 'fly on the wall' observing in as true a setting as possible. Need to start figuring out how best to do that.

REFERENCES:

1. Hancock, R., Crain-Dorough, M., Parton, B., & Oescher, J. (2010). Understanding and Using Virtual Ethnography in Virtual Environments.Handbook of Research on Methods and Techniques for Studying Virtual Communities: Paradigms and Phenomena, 1, 457.
2. Paccagnella, L. (1997). Getting the seats of your pants dirty: Strategies for ethnographic research on virtual communities. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 3(1), 0-0.
3. Michinov, N., Brunot, S., Le Bohec, O., Juhel, J., & Delaval, M. (2011). Procrastination, participation, and performance in online learning environments.Computers & Education, 56(1), 243-252.