Open Educational Resources for Teaching Qualitative Research Methods
Introduction
Ph.D. students in the College of William & Mary’s School of Education are required to take a two-semester qualitative research methods course sequence that guides them in designing, doing, and sharing results from a full-scale nonpositivistic research study, the focus for which each student or pair of students working together choose. Students enrolled in these two required courses spend approximately $200 on average on texts.
Challenges
Unfortunately, even though I have reviewed an average of 8 – 10 new qualitative methods texts each year since 1993 (when I first began teaching qualitative methods courses at the University of Texas-Austin), I have not yet found a text that addresses all topics that experience has taught me need to be addressed in either of the courses in the sequence. I supplement the text heavily – so much so that I have often wondered whether I should replace texts with readings collections only. This has not been possible, given current commercial copyright restrictions.
Actions
After summer 2016 work locating and previewing open-access books, articles, and video collections that address nonpositivistic research design and methods, I became convinced that selective use of these freely available resources would serve students at least as well (if not better) than use of the commercially available resources that have been assigned in these courses to date. The first group of Ph.D. students to use open educational resources (OERs) and library materials were enrolled in the courses in fall 2016 and spring 2017. In the course evaluation at the end of fall 2016, I asked the students whether they would prefer to continue to use OERs and library materials for class readings during the spring 2017 semester or whether they would prefer to use commercial texts. 85% stated either no preference (15%) or a preference (70%) to continue to use freely accessible resources.
The readings used during the fall 2016 semester are linked below.
Ph.D. students in the College of William & Mary’s School of Education are required to take a two-semester qualitative research methods course sequence that guides them in designing, doing, and sharing results from a full-scale nonpositivistic research study, the focus for which each student or pair of students working together choose. Students enrolled in these two required courses spend approximately $200 on average on texts.
Challenges
Unfortunately, even though I have reviewed an average of 8 – 10 new qualitative methods texts each year since 1993 (when I first began teaching qualitative methods courses at the University of Texas-Austin), I have not yet found a text that addresses all topics that experience has taught me need to be addressed in either of the courses in the sequence. I supplement the text heavily – so much so that I have often wondered whether I should replace texts with readings collections only. This has not been possible, given current commercial copyright restrictions.
Actions
After summer 2016 work locating and previewing open-access books, articles, and video collections that address nonpositivistic research design and methods, I became convinced that selective use of these freely available resources would serve students at least as well (if not better) than use of the commercially available resources that have been assigned in these courses to date. The first group of Ph.D. students to use open educational resources (OERs) and library materials were enrolled in the courses in fall 2016 and spring 2017. In the course evaluation at the end of fall 2016, I asked the students whether they would prefer to continue to use OERs and library materials for class readings during the spring 2017 semester or whether they would prefer to use commercial texts. 85% stated either no preference (15%) or a preference (70%) to continue to use freely accessible resources.
The readings used during the fall 2016 semester are linked below.
OERs: Qualitative Research Methods
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Online Library Resources: Qualitative Research Methods
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