ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

4. Research Methodology

The Experiment

Over four weeks in the next semester (24 May – 2 Sep 2005), a survey followed by an electronic brainstorming exercise will be conducted among 100 students in Ngee Ann Polytechnic and if resources allow, 400 others in the other four polytechnics as well. Representative sampling shall be taken across gender, ethnic groups, nationalities, disciplines of study and years of study (details in Data Analysis section).

Participating students will be assigned randomly to online groups, each with not more than 10. There shall be approximately 10 groups online (if this experiment is conducted only in NP) or 50 groups online (if across all five campuses). Facilitators will be nominated one per group, from half the groups only.

The brainstorming topic will be, “What can polytechnic students do now to ensure a satisfying life and career later?” Group and individual prizes will be awarded to students who contributed to the seven top-rated ideas, as logged on the Wiki.

To encourage the generation of many, varied and unusual options, individual ideation (on separate Wiki pages) shall precede and follow group brainstorming (on group pages and threaded comments which can be rated). Facilitators shall be given relevant training on how to plan sessions, provide warm up in the technique of electronic brainstorming, ask stimulating questions, guide idea generation, and reinforce the four basic guidelines developed by Osborn (1967):

• Criticism is ruled out. Adverse judgment of ideas must be withheld until later.
• Freewheeling is welcomed. The wilder the idea, the better.
• Quantity is wanted. This is to increase the likelihood of useful ideas.
• Combination and improvement are sought. Besides contributing ideas of their own, participants should suggest how the ideas of others can be turned into better ideas; or how two or more ideas can be joined into still another idea.

Data Collection

The pre-brainstorming survey (modified from a similar one in UTAUT) will gauge the participants’ Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Attitude Toward Using Technology, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, Self-Efficacy, Anxiety and Behavioral Intention To Use the System. A 5-point Likert scale will be used for each construct, with an open-ended option for further elaboration. Participants shall also be asked to rank the above constructs in order of importance or impact on their behavior.

Actual behavior shall be measured through content analysis of the logs of content changes in the Wiki. Indicators may include quantity, quality, originality, enthusiasm, fluency, value, satisfaction, flexibility, usefulness, practicality, and so on.

Data Analysis

Analyses shall be done independently across the following dimensions:

• Presence or absence of facilitators
• Gender: male versus female.
• Ethnic groups: Chinese, Malay, Indians, Others
• Nationality: Singaporean vs. non-Singaporeans
• Level of study: First, Second, Third
• Disciplines of study: Business & Accountancy, Infocomm Technology, Engineering, Life Sciences, Film & Media Studies, Others
• Five campus (if applicable): Ngee Ann Polytechnic vs. the others

If there’re any significant differences, further analyses will need to be done to uncover the patterns and/or reasons behind them.

5. Implications for Education

The UTAUT sums up three “big ideas in social psychology” (Myers, 2005, pp.6). As such, the UTAUT may be generalized beyond technology to the acceptance and manifestation of desired behaviors (such as collaborative brainstorming) as well.

If the research results verify the validity of UTAUT among polytechnic students in Singapore, this theory will become a very useful tool for predicting acceptance of new systems or behaviors. It will also become a motivational tool for enabling greater acceptance through appropriate interventions on the key determinants and moderators in a given context. In addition, if there are significant differences across gender, ethnic groups, nationalities, disciplines of study and/or levels of study, the data generated could be useful references for academic staff. Where applicable, they can then adopt appropriate interventions to help certain students in their classes adapt more effectively to new systems or desired behaviors.

Finally, if electronic brainstorming could be implemented successfully, the Wiki could become a very potent tool for generating ideas among polytechnic students and for gaining better understanding of their thinking and behavior. The potential benefits on teaching and learning in polytechnics are immense: more learner-centered strategies and tactics could be fine-tuned and adopted.