Speaker: Rebecca Eynon, University of Oxford & Oxford Internet Institute

Abstract:

This talk offers a critical account of methodological challenges facing interdisciplinary researchers seeking to understand learning at scale. Drawing on two research projects, Conceptualising interaction and learning in MOOCs (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) and Online Learning in the Crowd (funded by Google) the presentation will demonstrate that big data and small data, computational and qualitative approaches, are not, on their own, sufficient to extract meaningful insights into how people learn in MOOCs. Through a critical examination of the work we have carried out at the University of Oxford, the presentation will offer constructive ways of addressing research challenges – providing concrete examples and strategies – and argue for the affordances of adopting a pragmatic research paradigm for furthering work in this area.

Speaker bio:

Dr Rebecca Eynon is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford where she holds a joint academic post between the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and the Department of Education. Rebecca is co-editor of Learning, Media and Technology and has published a number of books, academic articles, reports and conference papers. Her work has been supported by a range of funders including the British Academy, Economic and Social Research Council, the European Commission, Google and the NominetTrust. Prior to joining Oxford in 2005 Rebecca held positions as an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, City University; as a Research Fellow, Department of Education, University of Birmingham and as a Researcher and Lecturer, Centre for Mass Communication Research, University of Leicester.