COMMENTARY & FURTHER STUDIES
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a commentary around the identification of themes. The chapter also discusses the limitations of the study and the final section identifies opportunities for further studies.
7.1 Research Approach
Analysis of data had a dual purpose. First the practical side of the iterative process required the data to be analysed within an iteration in real time, that is, within the actual time period of the iteration. This was necessary because results from one iteration needed to be fed into the redesigns of the learning activities and subsequently, the activities needed to be retested in the follow on iteration. The second purpose of analysis relates directly to the research question. For this aspect, I employed a thematic framework to support the examination of the cases pertaining to each iteration. This involved the transcription of screen interactions, oral reports and interviews. Once I had transcribed all the relevant data, I then examined the transcripts in detail in the search for codes and themes. When codes and themes had been identified from the data within an individual iteration, the codes and themes from that iteration were then re-examined in light of the codes and themes identified in the data drawn from the next iteration. In this way, the analytic process remained iterative. Moreover, although the research was predominantly inductive, the process of examining a code or theme in light of the findings from another iteration also called upon a deductive logic. Once the codes and themes generated from the four iterations and the final test had been identified, I then developed concept maps to ascertain the fit between the definitive label of a theme and the data (see Appendix A, B, C, D ).
The significance of a theme is not inevitably reliant on quantity, but rather on the importance the theme has in relation to the research objectives. Thus, the number of instances of a response is not indicative of its significance (Braun & Clarke, 2006). For example, the data that stands out for me in relation to the identification of the theme reminiscence is the communication by a learner that the content of one of the activities reminded her of a past time: “it reminds of a time I was in Italy”. This theme was initially a subtheme of another theme which I later discarded (see Appendix E). However, the process of going back and forward over the data in the concept maps, led me to heightened awareness of the importance of this theme in relation to the elderly and e-learning environments. This awareness ushered me to explore literature in relation to reminiscence, and the combination of the empirical findings and the research through literature led to the definitive identification of reminiscence as an overarching theme.
In relation to the concept maps and their assistance in further refining themes, there were quite a number of other instances where I had identified an initial theme, only to discard it at a later time. Another example of such a theme can be viewed in Appendix F. The themes in question were not discarded because they were irrelevant, but rather because closer fits with the overall picture that was evolving from the findings were identified at later times through the process of going back and forward across the dataset. The data from the discarded labels were subsumed under other labels. On the whole, the concept maps assisted me in identifying the factors that need to be considered when designing e-learning environments to engage elderly learners. Although, the process of analysis was time consuming, I found the experience fascinating. Thematic analysis allows the researcher to play a very active role in the identification or themes, however, to be truly effective it needs to be carried out very systematically (see Aronson, 1994; Boyatis, 1996; Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Through my analysis of the dataset, three overarching themes were identified. These themes are: capacity, sense of control and reminiscence. These three themes were examined in the context of an elderly persons’ psychosocial status, sensory and cognitive capacities as well as in the context of their intellectual, emotional and psychological needs within an e-learning environment. Within the contexts of the three overarching themes, I identified subthemes. Through my interpretation of the dataset and published studies, I perceived these subthemes to embody the factors which need to be considered when designing e-learning environments to engage elderly learners. In the present study, data employed to support an identified factor in the context of one of the three overarching themes may also have been employed as evidential support, in regard to specific points, within one of the other overarching themes. For example, the data in relation one of the learner’s efforts to drag a word into a slot under an image was significant to the identification of a number of factors.
Thematic analysis proved particularly compatible with the participatory iterative process which provided the practical configuration from which data was drawn. As referred to earlier, themes identified from the data extracted from one iteration were able to be carried into the analysis of the findings from the next iteration. This system also permitted secondary sources to be explored in context of the themes identified and, thereby, add support and further insights to the analysis. Ultimately, the framework which underpinned analysis of the dataset provided me with a systematic and effective mechanism by which I was able to identify the factors that need to be considered when designing e-learning environments to engage elderly learners.
7.2 Limitations
Thematic Analysis
There are three major obstacles or threats to using thematic analysis effectively in research. They are the researcher’s (a) projection, (b) sampling, and (c) mood and style (Boyatzis, 1998). People have a tendency to defend their egos by engaging in projection (Freud, 1966; Valliant, 1992). Although it enables us to interact with one another, it can interfere with effective analysis. Through projection we attribute our personal feelings attitudes, values, and emotions on the person or people we are focussing on at a given time. Thematic analysis analysis, more than most types of analysis, provides an invitation to projection. If the researcher comes to the research with strong ideological views and theories, the stronger the probability that she or he will succumb to the temptation to project his or her feelings onto the person or people who the raw data relates to (Boyatzis, 1998). My prior knowledge of the subconscious nature of projection ushered me to stand back from the data and endeavour to make balanced evaluations.
Sampling
The data not only relies on the researcher’s analytic skills and perceptive abilities, but also on the communication skills of the respondents. As with all other types of qualitative analysis, the quality of output from the data is reliant on the quality of input from the respondents (see Boyatis, 1998). In relation to the present study, the participants were mainly chosen from a number of volunteers. Perhaps if the average age had been higher, this would have led to more emphatic findings.
Mood and Style
The mood and style of the researcher can impact on the conclusions drawn. Qualitative research draws on the subjective judgements of the observer in reaching conclusions. Therefore, different observers might draw different conclusions (O’Grady, 2001). A multiple perspectives approach that employed the interpretations and perceptions of a variety of professionals would be ideal when carrying out this type of research. (see Braun & Clarke, 2006). However, due to the fact that this research was carried out in partial fulfilment of a master’s degree, the analysis was restricted to just one person. To counteract this to some extent, the learners’ oral reports and interviews, which were employed in the study, encouraged the participants’ to verbalize their perceptions. In this way, the learners’ perceptions formed part of my interpretation of the dataset.
Observer Effect
Another important threat relates to what is known as the ‘observer effect’ (see Thompson, 2009). People may have a tendency to alter their behaviour when they know they are being observed. A method to avoid the observer effect is to use unobtrusive procedures (Webb et al 2006) whereby the participants are unaware they are being observed. However, given the nature of this present research this was not deemed an ethical method. The interviewing techniques employed contributed to an understanding of the part the ‘observer effect’ played in influencing the participants’ behaviours when interacting within the activities. The following responses from learners reveal the presence of this effect:“Well, of course I was aware of your presence, but I don’t think it was distracting. Just, ... I felt a little self-conscious when I made a mistake, but it didn’t bother me that you were there - it’s just I’m not used to doing this sort of thing”.And:“I was a bit embarrassed when with the dragging; it kept ‘flying away’.In addition:“... I felt, at times, a little self- conscious when I made a mistake or didn’t know which direction to take.”Further, a learner turned to me for confirmation while interacting with an activity. The following observation highlights the awareness a learner had of my presence as researcher. He turned to me for confirmation of the words he needed to drag:
“which word are they talking about these two?”
Reactive Responses
When a learner was asked which activity he liked the least, the learner replied:“Probably the ‘Guess the Word’. There’s nothing wrong with it - it’s just you asked me, so I picked that one. Not really sure why exactly.”The above reaction indicates that the learner may have felt pressurised into choosing an activity he ‘liked the least’.
7.3. Future studies
Capacity of E-learning Environments
Further studies might explore the capacity or potential of e-learning environments to maximise the experience of elderly learners. Large scale studies or a series of small studies could build on the findings of this study and investigate ways of catering for the factors connected to the capacity of the elderly learner. Further studies could also explore ways in which e-learning environments could be designed to maximise the elderly e-learner’s sense of control.
Reminiscence
In relation to further studies, I would like to place particular emphasis on reminiscence. This study illustrates the importance the activity of reminiscing has for an elderly person. In light of this, I think it is worth paying special attention to the factors relating to reminiscence. Researchers could investigate how designs might ignite the activity of reminiscence in elderly e-learners. In this regard, further studies could also investigate the collaborative capacity of the Internet.
Investigations could also be undertaken in relation to how reminiscence might augment learning outcome. To follow, I refer again to research already detailed in the main body of the thematic report. Nevertheless, I am detailing it once more because I believe the insights it reports may have particular importance in relation to learning and reminiscing: Research carried out by Godden & Baddeley (1975) referred to in O’Grady, (2001), indicates that the context wherein a learner gains new knowledge acts as a cue to retrieval of that knowledge at a subsequent time. Retrieving knowledge in the same context wherein the knowledge was first acquired appears to be more effective. Divers who learned vocabulary both underwater and on the beach acquired the vocabulary just as effectively in both places, but retrieval was illustrated to be more effective in the place were the words had been initially acquired. Further, Bower, (1981) referred to in O’Grady, (2001) highlights that an emotional state may also be considered a context. In consideration of Bower’s (1981) claims that emotional states are contexts and Godden & Baddeley’s (1975) claims on word retrieval, this would imply that when a learner is in a state of reminiscence, the time, place and emotion to which she or he has been transported can heighten recall of vocabulary that was used by the learner in the past context. On this premise, designers could investigate ways of fusing the past and the present as a way of exploiting the contextual aspects of episodes of reminiscence and in this way, endeavour to augment learning outcome in the present.Zoom ToolsOverall, the communications from learners who participated in this study indicate the importance text legibility has for the elderly learner when interacting within an e-learning environment. The elderly learners in this study did not avail of the zoom facility nor did refer to it in any way. This may be indicative a general tendency among elderly computer users not to avail of those type of tools. Therefore, an investigation into use of zoom facilities by elderly users might be undertaken to investigate whether such a tendency is pervasive among this population. Should such a tendency be confirmed, further studies could be undertaken to explore how this tendency might be offset.
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