Rasha Goumaa, University of Liverpool Management School

Project Title

Developing Critical Reflection in the Online Management Classroom.

Names of Principal Applicant and Co-Applicants (please also include the names of the institutions and email addresses)
Lisa Anderson, University of Liverpool Management School

Rasha Goumaa, University of Liverpool Management School

Introduction

The original aims of the project have been met in that we have identified the skills and strategies needed and used by online teachers to encourage critical reflection.

Although the project has now been completed in the terms set out in the original bid, the data has revealed unanticipated outcomes that warrant further analysis.

Report of Activities

A thorough review of the literature was conducted and interview questions derived from it. Ethical approval was gained and 20 interviews were conducted; access to respondents was more difficult than anticipated due to problems with and the fact that many of them live in different time zones to the UK. We had also planned to interview a number of faculty members at a conference in July 2014 but this was cancelled at short notice and we consequently had to adopt a different strategy, including carrying out a number of interviews by Skype or by telephone. This has resulted in slower progress in carrying out the interviews meant that the final number was 20 rather than the 25 originally envisaged. This did not affect the quality of the data.

This work was presented as a development paper at BAM 2014 in Belfast where we gained helpful feedback and suggestions as to how we might draw on different literatures as a means of strengthening the potential theoretical contribution of the research. Interview questions were revised after this feedback and our subsequent reflection to encompass a wider view of ‘being critical’ rather than focusing on critical reflection.

Planned Activities for the Future

We plan to carry out further analyses of the data in order to closely examine the unexpected themes that have emerged. Submission of a journal paper is planned for the end of 2015. We are proposing that our findings inform the induction processes for new staff and we will also be organising a webinar for online faculty to share our findings.

Were the Research Aims and Objectives met?

Yes

Limitations or challenges encountered

Progress was initially slow due to the cancellation of the July conference and this impeded our access to interviewees. We also encountered some issues in finding respondents who would agree to be interviewed due to work pressure and time zone issues. However, this meant that progress was slowed down rather than prevented and we achieved the objectives of the project.

Analysis of Methods

We examined an online MBA programme in a UK, AACSB accredited management school. The programme has been running since 2001 and is one of the largest with 1600 enrolled students. 20 semi-structured interviews were carried out with experienced instructors teaching on one of 4 core modules. The sample was selected

to ensure a range of subject-discipline backgrounds and experience of faculty. Interviews were conducted face-to-face, on Skype, Adobe Connect or by telephone. Interviews were transcribed and then coded and organized into themes informed by the literature review and some that emerged from the data. Template analysis (King, 2004) was used to organize the data.

Analysis of Results

Findings

1.  Understandings of Being Critical

We expected to find that there would be some kind of consensus amongst faculty members of the definition of criticality and critical reflection, especially as the programme documentation explicitly sets this out. However, this was not the case; there were several varieties of the meaning of criticality, some at least partially informed by the literature. None of our interviewees offered a definition that used the language of an overtly CMS perspective.

Many of the respondents characterised critical thinking as the critique of theory, mainly from the perspective of whether it could successfully be applied to improve practice:

‘If I ask you to critically analyse the ideas of Porter in relation to corporate strategy I would expect you to be able to read Porter’s article and come back to me and relate the concept to your own organisation’

Others emphasised the need to acknowledge a plurality of competing views and to take a questioning approach.

2. Student Voice

This theme was strong in many of the interviews and, apart from informing us about the perceived nature of criticality, it makes for an interesting use of language to describe an environment where no one actually hears another voice but only reads what they have to say in their classroom posts. It illustrates how students’ personalities are revealed in the classroom discussions and how identities emerge over the eight week period that they spend in a module. It also suggests that some instructors are encouraging students to be authentic in the classroom (Mazutis and Slawinski , 2008) and echoes Ferreday et_ al’s (2006) research which uses Bakhtin’s (1986) work to show how dialogue leads to the construction of identity in the online learning environment.

3. Workload differences between online and face-to-face learning

All but one of the faculty members interviewed had experience of teaching in both a face-to-face classroom and in an online environment. Many of them observed that students had to work comparatively harder in this particular online classroom because in this MBA, there is a requirement for participation on at least 3 days of the week over an eight week period. Attrition rates are traditionally high in online programmes (Lee and Choi, 2011), but the rate of 30% in the first two weeks of this programme appears exceptional. Engaging students in critical reflection requires a strong commitment to learning and for many of them, it appears to present a workload that makes it impossible to succeed. This time commitment problem has also been apparently an issue in the recent launch of MOOCs. Khalil and Ebner (2014) also report that student motivation and feelings of isolation also contribute to high dropout rates. A class of 16-18 students can generate in the region of 200 posts per day; students are expected to read and respond to a number of them.

One of the widely accepted benefits of online learning in an asynchronous mode is that learners have the opportunity to reflect in some depth on others’ postings, leading to engaged and fruitful learning debates. Meyer (2003), Johnson (2006), and Wang and Woo (2007) argue that threaded discussions promote students' reflections, and that students spend time reading others' posts, preparing a response and then checking back on others' responses on the discussion forum. Our findings appear to offer a contradictory view to this.

4. Individual differences

The impact of individual differences on students’ apparent motivation, cultural background and work experience impacts on how critical they can be in their reflection. There is already a literature dealing with individual differences in learning and cognitive style (see, for example, Sadler-Smith, 2001) and although these factors are likely to be just as important in the online classroom, our respondents’ views largely related to workload concerns and individual reasons for taking the MBA.

There is an acceptance that students can be awarded the MBA whilst operating instrumentally throughout the programme.

Cultural norms also impact on classroom behaviour towards women and there were also instances of respondents reporting a reluctance on students’ part to criticise each other and the teacher because of cultural norms (Mingers, 2000)

5. Role of the instructor

Online teachers are known as ‘instructors’ in this MBA and most of our respondents felt this to be a misnomer:

There was a marked difference between the strategies used by experienced and newer faculty members in managing online discussions. There was a much more deliberate and describable attempt by less experienced tutors to start and scaffold discussions, guided by Salmon’s (2003) model of online facilitation. Others, who have been teaching online longer, talk of their approach in broader terms and one spoke of using a Socratic approach.

Instructors devise strategies for teaching that they either tacitly or explicitly deploy. Whilst students are expected to engage in conversations with a selection of others in the class, tutors have to read every post and grade student exchanges as well as a range of formal written submissions. Bolliger and Wassilik (2009) cite workload as the greatest barrier to the adoption of online education in higher education and this comes as little surprise given that, once committed to an eight week module, these instructors are expected to be visible in the classroom most days , with weekends being the busiest times for student interaction. This pattern does not fit neatly with full-time faculty whose main teaching role is based online. However, it is an option for those seeking to build some kind of portfolio career, those in semi-retirement (one of our respondents told us that he regularly takes cruise holidays whilst teaching online) and ‘moonlighters’ – full-time faculty from campus-based universities who teach online to an extra income. Further research into the motivations of instructors could be useful in understanding their varied teaching approaches.

6. Commercial Pressures

No business school is immune from commercial pressures and particularly the need to generate income through teaching. However, there are felt strongly by faculty in this environment where attrition rates and class sizes are closely measured and monitored in terms of the impact on profitability. This profit motive leads to a strong culture of managerialism and a need to control costs and performance. Academic freedom is compromised by the demands placed on faculty to be visibly present in the classroom and to provide feedback in a timely and helpful manner. Considerable expertise and effort are required for relatively low pay and little job security.

There are also a number of controls on the classroom environment. In particular a set curriculum, fixed learning objectives and course content that does not change from one class delivery to the next along with prescribed questions for discussion, all of which restrict creativity.

7. Learning environment

This issue of a closely controlled pedagogy and a constant diet of assessment means that there is little time for socialising and ‘water cooler’ conversations. Some of our interviewees sought to mitigate any feelings of isolation that students might have in various ways. Another of our respondents told us that she enjoys a bit of banter and recalls one instance when:... (the group) started rewarding each other with virtual chocolates for good responses ... ‘Have a chocolate. What is your favourite type?’

She also talks about using deliberate strategies to create interest and informality early on in the class:

I think (it) is ... important online, to say ‘welcome’. Whoever is listening to this back won’t see spreading my arms out wide. That is half of the battle. Once you have got them in, it is then keeping their interest.

Impact of Research to the wider business and management academic community

Online education has grown significantly during the past two decades and this has created unprecedented opportunities for increasing numbers of learners who were previously unable to access education to gain a management qualification (Redpath, 2012). It is now an integral element of higher education provision (Arbaugh and Duray, 2002; Proserpio and Gioia, 2007).This study examines the phenomenon from the view of classroom instructors with a particular focus on engaging students in critically reflective practice. This work adds to the current literature on critical reflection by extending the scope of study to examine asynchronous, text-based conversations.

Further research opportunities the project has highlighted

Further research will examine the nature of the learning and teaching model deployed in online classrooms and, in particular, the demands place on online faculty in this environment. Specifically, we will examine how this affects learning processes and outcomes.

References and Bibliography – 2 pages maximum

Arbaugh, J. B. and Duray, R. (2002). Technological and Structural Characteristics Student Learning and Satisfaction with Web-based Courses: an Exploratory Study of two MBA Programmes. Management Learning, 33(3) 331-347.

Bakhtin, M. (1986) Speech genres and other late essays. C. Emerson and M. Holquist (V. W. McGee, Trans.) (Austin, University of Texas Press).

Bolliger, D.U., and Wasilik, O. (2009) "Factors influencing faculty satisfaction with online teaching and learning in higher education." Distance Education 30.1: 103-116.

Collinson, D., and Tourish, D. (2015) "Teaching Leadership Critically: New Directions for Leadership Pedagogy." Academy of Management Learning & Education.

Cunliffe, A. L. (2002.) Reflexive Dialogical Practice in Management Learning. Management Learning, 33(1), 35–61.

Cunliffe A. L. (2009). The Philosopher Leader: On Relationalism, Ethics and Reflexivity-a Critical Perspective to Teaching Leadership. Management Learning, 40(1). 87–101.

Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why Doesn't This Feel Empowering? Working Through the Repressive Myths of Critical Pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59 (3), 297-325.

Fenwick, T. (2005). Ethical Dilemmas of Critical Management Education within Classrooms and Beyond. Management Learning, 36 (1), 31-48.

Ferreday, D., Hodgson, V. and Jones, C. (2006). Dialogue, Language and Identity: Critical Issues for Networked Management Learning, Studies in Continuing Education, 28 (3), 223-239.

Hodgson,V. and Reynolds, M. (2005) Consensus, Difference and ‘Multiple Communities’ in Networked Learning. Studies in Higher Education, 30(1), 11-24.

Holman, D., Pavlica,D. and Thorpe, R. (1997)"Rethinking Kolb's Theory of Experiential Learning in Management Education The Contribution of Social Constructionism and Activity Theory." Management Learning 28.2: 135-148.

Johnson, G. M. (2006). Synchronous and Asynchronous Text-based CMC in Educational Contexts: A Review of Recent research. TechTrends, 50(4), 46-53.

Khalil, H. & Ebner, M. (2014). MOOCs Completion Rates and Possible Methods to Improve Retention - A Literature Review. In Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Media and Technology 2014 (pp. 1305-1313). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved February 26, 2015 from http://www.editlib.org/p/147656.

King, N. (2004). Using Template Analysis of Text, in C. Cassel and G.,Symon (eds.), Essential Guide to Qualitative Methods in Organizational Research, Sage Publication