Researching eLearning in Virtual Spaces: an Ethnographic Perspective to Understanding University Student Experiences
Simone Krüger, JMU
6 December 2008
Recent years have seen an increasing concern by UK universities with e-learning, leading to a dramatic increase in pedagogic research into its impact for institutions, practitioners and students. While much of this research investigated the pedagogic implications of particular technological innovations, there still exists a considerable gap in research that focuses on the e-learning experience. With my background in anthropology and ethnomusicology, I became increasingly interested in applying ethnography as a mode of research and way of writing to understanding teaching and learning in virtual spaces. Its advantages are obvious, as it enables an emphasis on the perspectives, concepts and behaviours of the people whom the ethnographer studies and wishes to understand. Yet researchers from the ethnographic tradition are divided as to the ways in which ethnographic concepts can appropriately be applied to technologically mediated learning and interaction in virtual spaces. Such questions are the concern of the seminar discussion, during which we will examine the values and limitations of virtual ethnographic research while reflecting on insights gained during my own research into students’ e-learning experiences.
