Second Life/Writing Motivation focus group

 

Logistics:

Date/Time: 12/4/07 (Tues)        11 am: Plan II; 2 groups; Linda and Tomoko (till 11:50)

                                                                                                2pm: Plan I; 3 groups; Joel, Linda and Tomoko

Place: Linda will see if we can find additional rooms.

Recording: tape recorders (not digital recorders), Joel has one tape recorder, Linda will provide two recorders.  Joel has unused tapes.

Transcription: we will request student worker for this.

 

Focus:

Focus on the questions that help us understand the gap between the survey responses (generally negative) and the content of the student essays (generally positive).

 

Survey results:

q         A majority of students disagreed that:

o            The SL Role Model discussion helped them get excited about project 2 (49%)

o            The SL Role Model discussion helped them get motivated to do project 2 (40%)

o            Their motivation to write in this class increased because of using Second Life (52%)

q         Compared to Plan I students, Plan II students were less focused and less nervous about writing project 2. Also, they were more comfortable using Second Life and felt more that the SL activity was relevant to the class.

 

Project 2 content:

q         Most students reported that writing became easier with the Role Model activity.  Some reported that they became more motivated to write with the activity.

q         Some also suggested that technical difficulties and learning curve for SL hindered their learning process substantially.

q         Also, some suggested that the ways in which activity was done (encouraged to write as much as possible, they may not have had moderators) was not very facilitative of learning.

 

Focus group discussion protocol:

1)         Form groups (try to have similar number of female and male, it would be difficult to balance other student characteristics, so we wonŐt worry about itÉ)

2)         Move to the discussion space.

3)         Make circle

4)         Thank participants for helping us collect the data

5)         Mention the purpose of the focus group: to understand how the SL activity affected the motivation to write

6)         Introduce yourself

7)         Tell them about recording the discussion

8)         Tell them that Dr. Bump and other people outside of the research group will not be informed of who participated in the discussion and anything they express in this discussion.  Dr. Bump may see the summary and some quotes. But none of the data will be associated with any names.

9)         Ask questions, probe as necessary (if there is not enough time, skip the question 8; the most important questions are questions 7 and 9.  So add probing questions as necessary.).

10)     Thank participants again for their participation.

 

Discussion Questions

  1. How many of you had a lot of technical difficulties? How many of you had a little technical difficulties? (Ask students to raise their hands and count the number of students who raised their hands)
  2. How many of you had a very steep learning curve with SL? How many of you had not so steep but somewhat steep learning curve with SL?  (Ask students to raise their hands and count the number of students who raised their hands)
  3. How did the technical difficulties affect your attitudes about writing the project 2? How did the steep learning curve affect your attitudes about writing the project 2?

Please answer this question thinking without taking the technical difficulties and learning curve for Second Life.

  1. Did the Role Model activity motivate you to write the project 2?
  2. How did the Role Model activity motivate you to write the project 2?
  3. Why did the Role Model activity not motivate you to write the project 2?

 

  1. Between the discussions on the role models prior to working on the Project 1 and the Role Model activity prior to the project 2, which activity was more effective to motivate you to write? Why?

 

  1. Given the difficulties you had with Second Life, do you still think the role model activity is effective?

 

  1. In the survey responses, we found that a majority of you disagreed that SL Role Model discussion motivated you to write. We read some of your project 2 papers and we saw a completely different picture--many of you said SL Role Model activity was effective. Is this your experience? Please help us understand this gap. Could you tell me why there is such a discrepancy?

 

  1. How can SL be used in order to motivate students to write?