RESEARCH RATIONALE PERRIN

Background and Context

Today, learning is a more flexible endeavor than ever before. Students are able to learn
virtually anywhere, at any time with the help of technology. While the idea of distance learning
is new, its prevalence has greatly increased with the help of the Internet. Courses offered online
have increased opportunities for a wider variety of students to further their education, and have
given those more traditional students an additional element of flexibility in their learning
experiences.
As online courses have become more common, two styles of delivery have emerged.
One, the more well-known approach, adheres to a more traditional course structure - that is,
students are enrolled in a class with other students that runs on the same quarterly schedule as the
educational institution that sponsors it. Students are given fixed assignment due dates, may
collaborate with other enrolled students to complete coursework, and may interact with their
classmates and the instructor via online discussion boards. This style of distance learning is often
referred to simply as an online course, or in some circles a cohort-based online course. The
second delivery method is a more flexible option, which allows students to complete coursework
at their own pace, and is often aptly referred to as a self-paced course (Russell, Kleiman,
Carey, & Douglas, 2009). In a self-paced course, students are allotted a certain amount of time in
which to complete their coursework, but they are free to create their own timelines and due dates
within that window. This course is often a more one-on-one interaction with an instructor, with a
student completing assignments and/or exams, submitting them to their instructor for grading,
and the instructor subsequently returning the graded assignments/exams and providing any
helpful feedback to the student.

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Research Question
Due to the nature of online courses, students often experience varying degrees of
academic success when completing them. However, I think that self-paced courses provide for a
set of unique challenges that offer many different and interesting avenues for research. This leads
me to my research question:
What perceived barriers exist that prevent undergraduate students from successfully
completing a Western Washington University self-paced online math course?
This research question could help to provide a better understanding of these barriers, which
could be beneficial for both the instructors who are designing and offering these courses, and
also for the staff who support the students enrolled in these courses. Addressing the barriers
identified in this study could inform best practices for facilitating student success which would
ultimately lead to more successful completions of these courses.
Human Subjects Research
According to DHHS, a human subject is defined as a living individual about whom a
research investigator (whether a professional or student) obtains data through intervention or
interaction with the individual or from individually identifiable information (ASH, n.d.). This
research question would require obtaining qualitative data from students through individual
interview interactions, and as such this data would be retrieved from human subjects, as it is
defined here. Additionally, it falls under the domain of research as opposed to evaluation or
assessment because it is situated ...without regard to the information needs of people or
organizations (Wilson, p. 2). This research question seeks to gain qualitative information simply
for the sake of deepening understanding regarding barriers to course completion without an

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agenda related to assessing program effectiveness or for the purposes of program improvement,
which places it outside of the realm of assessment or evaluation.
Research Methodology
I believe this research question would be best addressed through a qualitative case study
methodology. I think a qualitative approach would best serve this research study because it
would allow the researcher to probe deeply into the research setting to obtain in-depth
understandings about the way things are, why they are that way, and how the participants in the
context perceived them, and, :...undertake sustained in-depth, in-context research that allows
them to uncover subtle, less overt, personal understandings (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2009, p.
12) A case study methodology is appropriate to address the research question because the
question is sufficiently focused within a bounded system, namely a singular self-paced online
math course at the undergraduate level offered by Western Washington University. Additionally,
A case study research method is appropriate when the researcher wants to answer a descriptive
question...or an explanatory question (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2009, p. 427). To me, this
research question falls into the descriptive case study category because it seeks to address the
question What happened? (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2009, p. 427) In this case the what the
research question seeks to answer is related to the perceived internal or external factors
influencing the completion of a WWU self-paced online math course. This case study research
can be described as heuristic, which refers to the fact that case studies illuminate the readers
understanding of the phenomenon under study, beyond the readers original knowledge (Gay,
Mills, & Airasian, 2009, p. 427). My hope is that this study would deepen the researchers
understanding of the barriers to completion that students perceive in order to potentially address
them.

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Potential Findings & Their Uses

I have personal experience in dealing with students who take these courses, which allows
me to proceed with some informed speculation regarding the findings of this study. I anticipate
that this study would articulate several concerns that students perceive as barriers to completion,
namely: lack of time, accessibility (of material, instructor, etc.), and their own perceived ability.
In my experience, students cite lack of time to complete their self-paced courses as one of the
most common reasons they do not complete their course. Without the structure and
accountability associated with fixed deadlines and a shorter time frame, students tend to let their
self-paced course fall by the wayside as they tend to those courses in their schedule that have
more stringent requirements and deadlines. I believe that the issue is not truly lack of time, as
students would likely describe, but more an issue of poor time management and self-direction.
Another barrier I would expect students to mention is related to various aspects of
accessibility. The self-paced courses at WWU utilize the course management system Canvas,
which can prove to be challenging for some students. Without appropriate technological skills, I
have often heard students express that their course materials arent accessible. Additionally, due
to the nature of distance courses, instructors are not always readily accessible for
correspondence, and as such are not able to provide the level of assistance many students are
used to.
Finally, I would anticipate students would cite their ability, or rather lack of ability, as
another barrier to completing a self-paced online math course. One reason I would choose to
examine a self-paced math course in particular, for the purposes of this research study, is because

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I think that math is one subject that many students are not confident in. This lack of confidence
could, I would speculate, directly translate as a barrier to completion.
These findings might be useful because they could help instructors and support staff aid
students in overcoming the barriers they perceive. Gaining qualitative, in-depth insight into
students real perceptions of the barriers they face could be key in that support process. Also,
having an awareness of these barriers could inform the course design process to allow for
mitigation of these issues.
Methodological/Conceptual Issues
This proposed research addresses several methodological or conceptual issues outlined in
our course readings on qualitative research. The first issue it addresses relates to the aim and
purpose of qualitative research, which is outlined by Hammersley (2002) as being ...to try to
understand peoples behaviour as necessarily making sense within the context in which it occurs.
Indeed, it is emphasised that all behaviour only makes sense in context (p. 89). This research
study is firmly situated within a very specific and narrow context (a WWU self-paced online
math class), which lends itself nicely to a rich and in-depth qualitative study. The inquiry this
study makes regarding barriers to completion is best accomplished with a qualitative
methodology because it allows for the capture of narrative data that is subjective in nature.
Additionally this study addresses the point made by Hammersley, that in the research
process ...each part is to be understood and judged in terms of its contribution to the operation
of the whole (p. 86). This research study would provide a key contribution to the whole picture
of student success in self-paced online courses.
Finally, this research study would address a final point made by Hammersley (2002),
stated as, Instead qualitative researchers have usually emphasised the diversity within national

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societies, as well as the constructed characters of boundaries between them (p. 87). This
qualitative study would honor and emphasize the diversity between student narratives on
perceived barriers to completion.

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7
References

ASH. (n.d.). Code of Federal Regulations. Retrieved November 1, 2015, from

http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html#46.102
Gay, L.; Mills, G.; and Airasian, P. (2008). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and
applications, 9th edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hammersley, M. (2002). Educational research, policymaking and practice. London, GBR: Sage
Publications
Russell, M., Kleiman, G., Carey, R., & Douglas, J. (2009). Comparing Self-Paced and Cohort-Based
Online Courses for Teachers. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 41(4), 443466.
Wilson, A. (n.d.). Differentiating between research, assessment, and program evaluation. Emory
University.