At the Center for Literacy Studies we have been repeatedly asking the question, “How can we improve participant networking on the discussion boards in our online courses?” or “How do we get our teachers to ‘talk’ more online?”
To this end, we submitted a proposal for a Project RITE Grant at the beginning of October, 2008. We heard back from the committee at the end of October, interested in the proposal, but requesting revisions. We then submitted a revised proposal by November 10th, and receive notice of funding on December 1, 2009. As our original proposal included a timeline beginning in November, we feel a bit like we started out a month behind on research tasks! But writing the grant (my first ever) and then revising it, was a very educational exercise in and of itself.
I did a lot of research in online coummunity building techniques as part of the grant writing process itself. We also had to clarify/make a research-based connection between increased “conversation” in our online courses and increased learning in our online courses. The process also did a lot to assist us in narrowing our reseracha nd analysis plan. We have a LOT of online course data and needed to keep ourselves focused on analyzing onlya very small portion of it!
In November we did start the collaboration process, sketch out timelines, begin the ’survey of the research’ process, and problem-solve some technical details. We are very excited and happy to be participating in Project RITE! View our Proposal Abstract!