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Jez :: Blog :: quantifying participation / involvement

February 19, 2009

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Jez

quantifying participation / involvement

This is a fundamental question. Why attempt to quantify the subjective?

I am tempted to respond with "Why not?" but I will take it a bit further. Let's take this notion of "involvement" that is discussed in the paper. Is it possible to ask whether some of you (on *this* course) are more "involved" than others? I'm not asking *why* that might be, but just *whether* in the first instance it is the case. If it is *possible* to answer that question in the affirmative, then it is *possible* to imagine that we might quantify the construct "involvement". It might be a very crude scale - "high vs low" perhaps. But that would be a measurement none the less. And we might be able to do better.

And remember that the title carries the "health warning" that we are talking about "self-report".

But this is a fundamental issue. What is the purpose and value in quantification?

Hamish
It is *possible* to imagine that we might quantify the construct "involvement".

It is indeed possible - and worrying. Any approach to quantification might get us as participants thinking, "Am I being fairly accounted for?" For example:

(a) We could count contributions or presence on the site. But given the bandwidth problems recorded elsewhere, this *number* might have more to say about that than our engagement. (Or it might have more to say about geography or ability to pay for bandwidth.)

(b) We could create a scale for self-report. But given that we're being assessed on the course, the resulting *number* might be more representative of how we thought we "ought" to report ourselves, rather than actual engagement.

Are there any numbers that wouldn't be subject to such concerns in a case like that?

  

 
Author: Hamish Macleod Date: 10 February 2009 11:42
>> Are there any numbers that wouldn't be subject to such concerns in a case like that?

As would any "qualitative" approach. :-)

Hamish
  
Author: Christine Sinclair Date: 10 February 2009 14:38
True - I'd personally be very wary of trying to quantify or qualify anyone else's "involvement" at all.
  
Author: Hamish Macleod Date: 12 February 2009 14:40
>> I'd personally be very wary of trying to quantify or qualify anyone else's "involvement" at all.

Why?

Are you speaking as a teacher or as a researcher?

Hamish

Posted by Jez

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