Content Analysis and Text-Mining

Exploring 35 Years of Research into ODE

Oldenburg, 5 October 2016

Olaf Zawacki-Richter & Som Naidu

Folie 2

Agenda

Content analysis and text-mining tools Mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in

the journal Distance Education Remarks and reflections from the Editor Reflections from a pioneer and world scholar of our field:

Otto Peters

Content analysis toolsthat you already know...

 

Slide 3

Folie 4

Qualitative Content Analysis

With tools such as MaxQDA or Nvivo. Manual coding, writing memos, etc.

Folie 5

Wordle Word Cloudshttp://www.wordle.net

Stöter, J., Bullen, M., Zawacki-Richter, O., & von Prümmer, C. (2014). From the back door into the mainstream – the characteristics of lifelong learners. In O. Zawacki-Richter & T. Anderson (Eds.), Online distance education - Towards a research agenda (pp. 421–457). Athabasca, Edmonton, Canada: Athabasca University Press.

Folie 6

Google Trendswww.google.de/trends

Folie 7

Google Books Ngram Viewerhttps://books.google.com/ngrams

Based on books published between 1500 and 2008

Folie 8

Google Books Ngram Viewerhttps://books.google.com/ngrams

Content analysis with a text-mining tool

 

Slide 9

Folie 10

Text-Mining with LEXIMANCER

Huge amounts of text can be analysed with text-mining tools Results are depicted in „concept maps“ based on relative locations

of concepts in the text that form a „thematic region“.

Folie 11

Cretchley, J., Rooney, D., & Gallois, C. (2010). Mapping a 40-Year history with Leximancer: Themes and concepts in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41(3), 318–328.

1416 articles over 40 yearsAnalysis of central themes by decadesShows different social-psychological trends

Bibliographic analysis

Folie 12

Content validation of qualitative text analysis

Harwood, I., Gapp, R. P., & Stewart, H. J. (2015). Cross-check for completeness: exploring a novel use of Leximancer in a Grounded Theory study. The Qualitative Report, 20(7), 1029–1045.

"Leximancer is not a panacea, it still requires analytical sensitivity and judgment in its interpretation, but it is straightforward to probe the data and cross-check via the resultant maps. [...] Leximancer enables the analyst to make sense of large narrative data sets with minimal manual coding. The result is an efficient and impartial second opinion on open codes (concepts, categories and dimensions) and potential links between them" (p. 1041).

Zawacki-Richter, O., & Naidu, S. (2016). Mapping research trends from 35 years of publications in the journal Distance Education.

Distance Education, 37(3). http://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2016.1185079

Open Access! And also published in Chinese:

 

Slide 13

Folie 14

Sample Distance Education (listed in the SSCI), since1980 Impact factor in 2015: 2.021 Owned by the Open and Distance Learning Association of

Australia Publisher: Taylor & Francis Executive Editor: Som Naidu Articles in the sample:

o 1980-1984: N=56o 1985-1989: N=50o 1990-1994: N=56o 1995-1999: N=75o 2000-2004: N=75o 2005-2009: N=101o 2010-2014: N=102

35 Years: 515 Articles

Folie 15

Sample Distance Education in the core of the DE journal network

Zawacki-Richter, O., & Anderson, T. (2011). The geography of distance education - bibliographic characteristics of a journal network. Distance Education, 32(3), 441–456.

Folie 16

Sample Titles and abstracts of 515 articles

Slide 17

1980-2014(N=515)

Overall scope of the journal

Articles on distance and open education in the context of higher education and academic learning

Two major themes "students" and "learning" are connected via "interaction”.

Slide 18

1980-2014(N=518)

OUs established in the 1970s Beginning of professionalization (Keegan, 1980) Reflection on professional practices based on cases from

various DE institutions, e.g. organizational structure of Deakin University in Australia as a mixed-mode institution (Jevons, 1984)

1980-84: Professionalization and institutional consolidation

(N=56)

Slide 19

(N=50)

DE students in focus Instructional design in specific domains Ed. tech. to bridge the gap between

students and teachers

1985-89: Teaching and learning in distance education

Slide 20

(N=56)

Problems with quality emerged Focus on student satisfaction and ID Remote video and audio systems

1990-1994: Quality assurance in DE

Slide 21

(N=75)

1995-1999: Student support and early stages of online learning

Student-centred approaches to ensure high quality learning experiences

Design of online courses andthe role of online Tutors,strategies for online teaching

Slide 22

2000-2004: The emergence of the virtual university

(N=75) Research on online learning is

moving into the mainstream Issues: student engagement, the role

of the e-moderator, interaction in the online learning environment

Slide 23

2005-2009: Collaborative learning and online interaction patterns (N=101)

Collaborative learning Computer-mediated communication Analysis of online interaction

patterns

Slide 24

2010-2014: Interactive learning, MOOCs and OERs (N=102)

Interaction as mediatorbetween students andlearning

OERs and MOOCs Special issues

Slide 25

Three waves of research

1. Consolidation of DE institutions and instructional design2. Quality assurance and student support3. Virtual University, and online interaction and learning

Slide 26

Alternating research perspectives

The Editor’s Perspective

Slide 27

Folie 28

Cautionary remarks about the sample

Nevertheless… Our sample is sourced from one English language journal. And it offers us one window into the development of scholarship

in distance education over the past 35 years

Folie 29

Is it the full story?

Does it tell the whole story? Nope… It would be useful to extend this to other journals in the field and

see if patterns differ, and why or how? And other sources should include:

o Content of academic programs,o Program directors and their backgrounds,o Masters theses and PhD Dissertations,o Distance Education Handbooks,o etc.

There are other mediating factors as well.

Slide 30

Folie 31

The Gatekeepers…!

Editors and their backgrounds Editorial policies and their biases Members of editorial boards and their backgrounds Reviewers of submissions to the journal (DE Board members and

others who are not members of the Editorial Board).

Folie 32

Executive Editors of DE journal

Founding Executive Editors: o 1980-1990: Ian McD. Mitchell and Desmond Keegan

A changing of the guard and its implicationso 1990-1997: Executive Editor Ian McD. Mitchello 1997-Present: Executive Editor Som Naidu

The impact of their backgrounds and training

Folie 33

However if you build it, will they come?

Is a journal as good as the submissions it receives? Do you or don’t you publish from the best you have? How proactive does one need to be (in building networks,

searching for and commissioning articles)? Working with promising authors (Feels and sounds like

working with PhD student projects and papers). Editors should be prepared to nurture and help. And to actively support and promote equity.

Folie 34

Influence of the publisher

Distance Education always subscription based. 1980-2000: Distance Education published by various University

Presses. With varying publication schedules. 2000 to present (Taylor and Francis Publishers). Fixed

publication schedules (journals have to got to press on schedule)

Folie 35

Frequency of publication

From 1980-2005 two issues per volume Publishing about 15-18 articles per volume From 2005 onwards increased to THREE issues per volume Publishing about 22-25 Articles per Volume.

Folie 36

Role of special themed issues

Special themed issues (only way 3 issues per volume was possible).

Role of special themed issues (attractive and helped improve the journal’s profile as well as its impact factor).

Special themed issues offered opportunity to spread the workload, invite other experts to bring in new and different perspectives.

And an opportunity to capture the spirit of a topic of current interest.

Folie 37

Special Issues Special issues in Distance Education by year

05/01/23

38

05/01/23

39

Altmetrics and the role of social media

The new kid in town

Open Access Publishing

Slide 40

Folie 41

Role of open access publishing

Helped improve access to articles to a much larger audience. Helped improve access to research outputs to a much larger

audience. As a result, helped improve impact factor of the journal.

February 5-7 2017 ODLAA Conferencehttps://odlaa.org/odlaa_events/2017-conference/

Slide 42

Professor Otto PetersReflections from a pioneer in the

field

Founding Rector of the FernUniversity in Hagen (Germany)

 

Slide 43

Folie 44

...