Browsing by Author "Nelson, Dorothea"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Designing for Student Engagement in an Online Doctoral Research Method Course
    (University of Calgary, 2016-05) Simmons, Marlon; Parchoma, Gale; Jacobsen, Michele; Nelson, Dorothea; Bhola, Shaily; Werklund School of Education
    This paper is a report on preliminary findings of a scholarship of teaching and learning inquiry into a redesign of an online doctoral research course to include purposefully designed cycles of less formal auditory synchronous discussions with more formal text-based asynchronous discussions. The research design includes thematic analyses of archived auditory and text-based student engagements with learning resources, and with peers and the instructor, as well as student feedback via focus groups and individual interviews. The research design, data collection and data analysis procedures are explained and preliminary findings discussed. Recommendations for practice are shared.
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    Researching the Design of a Culturally Sensitive Library Science Course
    (University of Calgary, 2015-06) Nelson, Dorothea; Werklund School of Education
    This paper critically explores the importance of culture, its relevance to, and the importance of its inclusion in course design particularly within the Caribbean context. The paper further argues for the design of a culturally sensitive library science course that provides a bridge to undergraduate studies for paraprofessional library staff within the English speaking Eastern Caribbean. Given the Caribbean’s geographic dispersion, its shared historical experience of colonialism, slavery and the cultural hegemony of developed countries, a focus on the preservation of culture is required and an online course is appropriate.
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    Researching the Design of a Culturally Sensitive Library Science Course
    (2020-02) Nelson, Dorothea; Field, James C.; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Simmons, Marlon
    The overriding objective of this study was to conduct an exploratory participatory action research (Dudgeon, Scrine, Cox, & Walker, 2017; MacDonald, 2012; Reason & Bradbury, 2008) within a Third Space (Bhabha, 2009; Pitts & Brooks, 2017), to probe the viability of collaboratively developing the curriculum of a culturally sensitive library science course for un-credentialed library staff. This research is critical to the development of libraries and library staff in the English-speaking Eastern Caribbean, as most library staff in this sub-region have received no formal training, and many lack the qualifications required to pursue the undergraduate degree in library sciences. As a result, there is no opportunity for upward mobility in the workplace and no chance for increased remuneration. Data were collected using in-depth open-ended individual interviews, focus group discussions, personal reflective journals, and documents (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013; Creswell, 2012; Hiemstra, 2001, p. 19; Moore, 2015; Morgan, 1996; Schwartz-Shea, 2014). Analysis of the data revealed participants’ perceptions of the impact of their participation in the research and the benefits of the research, their perceived barriers to training, their commitments and investments in the process, their perceptions of the criticality of training, the values that emerged during the research and that impacted the design, the considerations for the course being designed, the criticality of participatory action research methodology to support this type of research, and the importance of allowing space for stakeholders to engage dialogically in course design and for the meeting of the global and the local, those at the margins and the centre.