A qualitative descriptive case study of instructors teaching at Carrotall
Community College was appropriate, as the perceptions of individuals transitioning from traditional classrooms to online classrooms were determined in this study. Qualitative in- depth interviews were used, as they provide information about the perceptions of
individuals (Yin, 2003b). Study participants included fulltime instructors who
transitioned from teaching in a traditional classroom to teaching in an online classroom. Their transition experiences were examined with open-ended questions to ensure that participants were given opportunities to provide information on all aspects of their transitions.
A pilot study was conducted to determine if the interview questions were appropriate for the study. Instructors were interviewed individually to ensure that responses were not tainted by responses of other participants. All transcripts were kept confidential and locked in a safe, inaccessible to anyone other than the researcher. Results were not discussed with other individuals or with participants to ensure integrity of the data and all information collected in the study.
Research Methodology Design Appropriateness
The design of the study was appropriate to the data collection, as a case study design allows researchers to emphasize explanations and make sense of what they believe is critical for an understanding of the social phenomenon (Gall et al., 2007). The
instructors were asked to elaborate on their experiences in transitioning from the
traditional classroom to the online environment. The role of the researcher was to ensure objectivity was maintained during all interviews so information gathered in one interview
was untainted by information gathered in other interviews (Leedy & Ormrod, 2005). Each participant was asked open-ended questions regarding his or her experiences in the conversion from a traditional classroom to an online classroom. The interview responses were compiled to identify the claims, issues, and concerns experienced by the teachers during the transition.
The researcher used a descriptive case study research design. Descriptive research involves observation of an occurrence in a population (Stake, 2005).
Observation and measurement are the core components of descriptive research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005). Descriptive research is the study of the experience without making any modifications to the data. This type of research is not used to determine cause and effect type of relationships, but is used to examine an experience (Leedy & Ormrod, 2005). Population and Sampling
The population under investigation was fulltime instructors at Carrotall
Community College who completed transitions from on-ground to online instruction. The target population was less than half of the 275 fulltime instructors at Carrotall Community College, as only instructors who transitioned to online instruction were included. Therefore, the population consisted of approximately 135 fulltime instructors at Carrotall. Adjunct faculty members are not allowed to teach online courses at
Carrotall and were not included in this study.
A quantitative survey would not offer the depth of information that can be provided by a qualitative descriptive case study. Responses provided in a quantitative study would only provide responses to predetermined questions and would not allow the participants to elaborate sufficiently. Face-to-face interviews allow for a more in-depth
collection of information that might otherwise be missed in a quantitative study (Yin, 2003b).
According to Guest, Bunce, and Johnson (2006), in the data set examined in their study, data saturation occurred within the first 12 interviews, while meta-themes were seen as early as the first six interviews. Morse (1994) recommended that studies
designed to determine the core of an experience include approximately six participants. Creswell (2003) discussed successful qualitative studies with 20 participants, stressing that the depth of the interview was the most important aspect.
Twenty-two teachers involved in the distance-learning program at Carrotall were interviewed in-depth to determine their perceptions of the transition from traditional on- ground courses to online courses, which is 16% of the population at Carrotall who have completed the transitions. Demographic information was recorded as part of the survey. The sample size consists of more than just the number of participants, as in-depth
interviews and follow-up questions can provide more information with fewer participants than simply asking questions of many interviewees. The depth of each interview in a qualitative study serves to provide sufficient incidents, data events, and experiences in studies with as few as six participants (Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Sandelowski, 1994). Sample Criteria
Of the 275 instructors at Carrotall Community College, 135 teach in both the traditional on-ground and online classroom formats and met the criteria of moving from on-ground to online teaching. Of these 135 instructors teaching in the online format, 22 participants were included in the sample, chosen as a representative sample, using convenient sampling and snowball sampling strategies until data saturation was reached
(Hoepfl, 1997). The instructors were chosen based on recommendations from other instructors who were willing to participate in the study, and these potential participants were contacted via email. Data saturation across the six major themes was seen within the first 12 interviews, as the majority of the instructors interviewed identified claims,
concerns, and issues in these areas by that time. Instrumentation
Interviews with open-ended questions were conducted in each interviewee’s office on the appropriate campus of Carrotall Community College. The interviewer accommodated the time and date specified by the instructor for each interview, which lasted as long as it took each interviewee to answer all the questions without being rushed. The interviewer ensured that each interviewee had the opportunity to respond to each question completely, while being cognizant of the interviewee’s time. The
interviews lasted anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. Data Collection
Collection of Data
Data was collected using direct interviews of the participants. Open-ended questions allowed participants to provide information that the interviewer may not have considered. The snowball approach, also known as chain referral, was used during the research process to ensure that sufficient data were collected for analysis. In the
snowball approach, interviewees referred other possible interviewees who were contacted for interviews. This method of purposeful sampling was used to ensure that a sufficient number of interviewees could be enlisted for the study (Hoepfl, 1997).
A pilot study was completed to ensure that questions focused on the specific theories and did not address other issues or topics (Yin, 2003a). The pilot study consisted of one interview that served to test the questions and methodology to see what might need to be changed. This single interview used in the pilot study was appropriate, as the interviewee had transitioned to online instruction four years earlier, and he was
considered to be a part of the initial group, so he had knowledge of all aspects of the transition process. Also, “the purpose of pilot studies, if used in qualitative inquiry, is to refine data collection strategies rather than to formulate an analytic scheme or develop theory” (Morse, Barrett, Mayan, Olson, & Spiers, 2002, p. 20). The single interview was used to refine the questions used and eliminate any redundancies. This assisted in
developing and clarifying a line of questions that was the most relevant (Yin, 2003b). Interviews were conducted in private offices of participants on each of the college’s four campuses. The instructors’ offices were used for the interviews, and the researcher went to each instructor’s office for each interview. All emails and information sent electronically remained in electronic format within the researcher’s residence. All documents were considered confidential information and were stored in the researcher’s residence in a locked safe, inaccessible to others.
Acquiring and Scheduling Study Participants
Interviewees were recruited for the study using the snowball method. The first few interviews were with instructors who were known to the interviewer, and at the end of each interview the interviewee was asked if he or she knew other instructors who taught online for the school. The interviewees were scheduled via email, and the interviewer performed each interview in the interviewee’s office. Initially, phone
interviews were considered, but in the actual study, all interviews were completed in person.
Each interview was conducted solely by the interviewer and recorded using a digital recorder. Some recordings were transcribed by the interviewer, but most of the transcriptions were performed by an outside transcription service found online. An attempt was made to transcribe the interviews using speech-to-text software with limited results. The transcribed text files were emailed to the interviewees for review, and they emailed the transcripts back, with some minor corrections that were made to the wording of the interviews to clear up some previously inaudible responses.
Conducting the Interviews
The interviewees were asked directly about concerns and issues, but other questions were asked concerning the claims. The question, “Do you have any claims about the transition to online instruction?” was not asked directly, and other questions were used to determine if the interviewees had any claims, to avoid any possible confusion (Guba & Lincoln, 1989). The following questions were asked of each of the participants during each interview. Each question is labeled with the section it was meant to address in the study.
Table 1
Questions Asked of Interviewees
Type of Question Question Asked
Demographic In what department do you teach?
Demographic What classes do you teach?
Demographic How many years have you been teaching?
Demographic How long have you taught classes online?
Claims What is the biggest difference you have
seen between teaching traditional classes and teaching online classes?
Leadership How was the transition to online
leaders?
Leadership Clarifying Did the school’s leaders insist that you teach online?
Leadership Clarifying Did you want to teach online when the opportunity was presented to you?
Training Was there any training?
Training Clarifying Please describe the training that you received.
Training Clarifying How effective do you think the training was in preparing you for online
instruction?
Training Clarifying What would you add to the training? Training Clarifying What were the most important things that
you learned in the training?
Training Clarifying Can you think of anything important that was left out of the training?
Training Clarifying Can you think of anything that you would have included in the training?
Training Clarifying Is there anything you wish you had learned in the training that would have prepared you better for online instruction?
Claims What have you learned about online
instruction that you feel would be useful to share with others in future training
courses?
Clarifying What advice would you give others who
will be teaching online?
Claims Are there materials that you use in both
online and traditional classrooms?
Claims Are there teaching methods that you use in
both online and traditional classrooms?
Challenges Were there any particular challenges that
you encountered when moving from a traditional classroom to an online classroom?
Concerns Do you have any specific concerns about
the transition from traditional classrooms to online classrooms?
Issues Can you think of any issues that have
arisen relating to the transition from traditional to online classes?
Recommendations What recommendations would you make
to another instructor regarding the transition from traditional on ground classes to online classes?
experience teaching online that would be beneficial to others who are transitioning now?
Recommendations Are there any changes you would
recommend to the process of transitioning from traditional to online instruction? Recommendations Clarifying Are there any changes you would make to
the processes used in teaching the online classes?
Recommendations What, if anything, would you change if you could?
Claims Clarifying Is there anything you wish someone had told you when you were first transitioning to teaching online?
Challenges Can you think of any other challenges that
you faced in transitioning from a traditional classroom to an online classroom or
anything else that you think should be changed?
Claims Is there anything else you would like to
add?
Pilot Study Results
A pilot study was conducted to assess the validity of the interview questions that were developed for this study and to ensure that the interview process provided sufficient details on the transition process that each instructor experienced. The pilot study
consisted of a single interview, conducted with the first interviewee, and it centered on determining whether or not the interview questions would apply in determining the claims, issues, and concerns, of the interviewees. The interviewee responded to each question asked, but it became apparent that some questions were redundant. Those questions did not provide a richer response, and were eliminated from the list of
questions asked during the study. Following review of the pilot study, those superfluous questions were eliminated.
Questions specific to any training were included in the pilot interview, but they were determined to be mostly clarifying questions, based on whether or not the
interviewee actually had any training prior to teaching online. If the interviewee responded that he or she had not had any training, then there was no purpose in asking additional questions about the training. While many people responded that they did not have any training, they were very vocal about what should be included in training to become an online instructor.
Open-ended questions were asked of all interviewees in an effort to determine their perceptions of the process of transitioning to online instruction. While some of the questions used words like “concerns” and “issues,” the interviewees provided their perceptions to the questions in a more random manner, with some considering an issue to be a concern and others considering a concern to be an issue. Therefore, the themes are based on the overall responses made by each individual rather than being restricted to responses to individual questions.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality of participants’ responses was protected throughout the research process with the use of fictitious names for the institution and participants. The
community college being studied formally approved the study under these conditions and provided an Institutional Review Board (IRB) letter stating that approval. Each
interviewee was identified solely by the interview number (I1, I2, I3, etc.) to ensure confidentiality. Original recordings, transcripts, and all emails were kept in their original electronic form on external hard drives that were disconnected from the computer and removed. Original emails were deleted from the email server after being copied to these
hard drives. The hard drives were locked in a safe in the researcher’s residence, and will remain there for a period of five years to maintain confidentiality of participants. At the end of the five-year period, all paper documents will be shredded, and all computer files will be deleted from the computer hard drives upon which they are stored. The original signed consent forms from the institution and from the individual participants are
currently locked in the safe with the hard drives to maintain confidentiality, and they will be shredded at the end of the five-year period as well.
Bias
Peer reviewer.
Because courses were taught by the researcher at the school where interviews were conducted, and the researcher could be considered to be an insider, the possibility of bias had to be considered. To minimize this risk, the assistance of a person
knowledgeable about teaching courses online in higher education reviewing the interview data compiled for this study and the results from the open-ended interviews was
requested. The individual was asked to review the interpretation of the data. The peer reviewer was an online instructor at another community college dealing with similar types of situations. She holds a master’s degree in nursing, is a licensed professional counselor in the state of Virginia, and is a certified clinical disability analyst.
The peer reviewer has many years of experience in the field of education and teaching, and she had no knowledge of any specific possible bias in the study. The peer reviewer was asked to compare the summaries of the interviews to see if she observed any types of bias in the observations made from the data. On June 13, 2009, she stated in writing that she had determined that no bias was found.
This peer review ensured bias was not an issue and contributed to the
establishment of an audit trail. The inclusion of the raw data from the interviews, as well as the coding analysis used to evaluate the data, also contributed to the audit trail. These components are used to ascertain the reliability and dependability of the study and establish an audit trail (Schwandt, 2001).
Researcher.
The researcher did not discuss the interviews of any interviewees with any of the other interviewees. No indication of other results was mentioned or indicated in any interview. The researcher approached each interview as an opportunity to discern new information about the perceptions of each instructor in his or her transitional experience, although hearing similar responses repeatedly for some of the questions did leave the researcher with certain expectations. The researcher asked the questions from the script and attempted not to influence any of the interviews. The interviewees were not prompted for any additional information not included in the original script of questions if they did not bring up a claim, concern, or issue mentioned by other interviewees.
Units of Analysis
The data was analyzed to see which words were the most prevalent and used to identify and determine patterns in responses. Software was used to analyze the
information that was gathered. Rows of word pattern data were generated, and the results were presented in this chapter.
Contextual Factors
The context of this study was a Midwest community college with multiple campuses in the same city. The instructors in the study were not located at the same
campus and did not communicate in person on a regular basis. This made it difficult for the instructors to collaborate and create a shared vision in developing an online program for the school. It also made it difficult for the Distance Learning department to present training courses for all the instructors in the same location.
Validity – Internal and External
The participants were provided with copies of transcripts from their interviews to allow them to validate the information. Email was also used to clarify any points, and information provided by participants in emails was included in transcripts. This ensured that information included in each transcript was a reflection of the thoughts and ideas of each participant.
Internal Validity
The researcher asked open-ended questions of participants in the study. Care was taken to avoid influencing participants in their responses. Interviews were conducted on