An interpretation of key stakeholders' experiences using educational online technologies in blended tertiary environments: a phenomenological study

Abstract

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Although educational online technologies (EOTs) have transformed the delivery of learning in higher education, significant challenges have impeded their effectiveness, preventing widespread implementation. The prevalence of these challenges suggests that tertiary education institutes (TEIs) have experienced a gap in understandings about the reality of key stakeholders’ EOT needs. While it is critical that TEIs adapt to meet these needs, doing this effectively requires that they have current, in-depth knowledge of their stakeholders’ EOT challenges and experiences, at a level that enables the delivery of informed, relevant, and meaningful support. Using a phenomenological approach, this research aimed to build understandings of key stakeholders’ EOT experiences to determine their current EOT needs and challenges, and provide a basis from which to recommend methods for effective EOT support. It was completed in two stages. Firstly, the preliminary research aimed to establish a robust foundation of current knowledge. It verified and updated key issues in the literature through a qualitative analysis of data from 13 blended learning experts in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Secondly, the phenomenological research aimed to make an interpretation of key stakeholders’ EOT experiences. It examined and classified the experiences of 10 students and 10 teachers from New Zealand and Australia, and interpreted their phenomenological meanings through an abstraction, articulation and synthesis of local and global themes. These interpretations, which included descriptions of stakeholders’ EOT challenges, helped to inform a set of recommendations for effective EOT use with different key entities, and assist TEIs to address EOT challenges and meet stakeholders’ needs. The research also proposed the development of a digital tool that could conceptualise phenomenological data and further help TEIs make practical application of stakeholders’ EOT experiences. This research developed and unified two extensive systems of data, aggregating a collection of highly contextualised phenomenological interpretations with a spectrum of expertly-verified literature, to form an elaborate and multi-dimensional structure of knowledge. Its output was richly narrated across a dual modularised set of publications, which illuminated and synergised a wide array of contemporaneous EOT issues with compelling firsthand insights into the phenomena of EOT use.