{"id":448,"date":"2020-11-10T22:30:14","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T06:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0130\/?p=448"},"modified":"2020-11-13T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-14T04:39:09","slug":"my-research-journey-finally-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0130\/my-research-journey-finally-began\/","title":{"rendered":"My Research Journey Finally Began!"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

When\u00a0LRNT 622<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0course commenced, we started by participating in a\u00a0Padlet<\/strong><\/a> activity describing our research topic(s) and explaining our interest. As someone unemployed, having an organization to tie\u00a0my research is not a privilege I have currently. However, I encouraged myself to have a growth mindset by appreciating the opportunity of choosing any topic in any field that I see interesting, and I may potentially grow in, without the direct or indirect influence of employers.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am a corporate Learning and Development professional, mainly in the hospitality industry; however, throughout my\u00a0MALAT<\/strong><\/a> journey, I have developed an interest in the Higher Education (HE) field, specifically in universities, which is why I narrowed my research to this field. In addition to a Bachelor’s degree in Applied English from the\u00a0University <\/strong><\/a>of Jordan<\/strong><\/a>, I have an International Business (IB) diploma from the\u00a0University of Cambridge<\/strong><\/a>. The IB diploma introduced me to organizational behaviour, organizational development, and organizational change and communication. The MALAT, on the other hand, has been equipping me with new skills and knowledge about digital learning environments. So in the Padlet activity, I have chosen to look at organizational readiness for online\/ blended learning as a general research topic. I justified this decision with the ability to combine my learning experiences in both; the MALAT and the IB diploma, also due to the increase in organizations (universities) pivoting to online\/ blended learning in a fast transition from f2f in reaction to COVID-19 (and other reasons). I had to ask myself, how can we know what factors contribute to increasing organizational readiness for online\/blended learning in universities?<\/span><\/p>\n

Organizational readiness is a broad topic that involves plenty of stakeholders and subcategories. During my search for resources related to my research topic, I came across a podcast<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Dr. Tony Bates<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0speaking about\u00a0The<\/strong><\/a> future of online learning and higher education post-Covid 19<\/strong><\/a>. Dr. Toni spoke about the several stakeholders involved in the future of online learning in HE, such as students, faculty, policymakers, and governments. His interview made me think about the lens I will choose to look at my research topic form, i.e. my audience. After deep thinking about my passion, I trusted my gut feeling, looking at my research topic from the faculty members’ lens!<\/span><\/p>\n

As a student in an online learning program, I understand how autonomous students should be to (I don’t want to say succeed because I still haven’t) survive and not drop out. In my opinion, I believe faculty members play a significant role in encouraging and motivating students to fulfil their learning objectives. So I started wondering how teaching methods should be shifted from f2f to online to keep students engaged? How to prepare faculty for such a shift? Eventually,\u00a0 I decided to narrow down my research topic to The necessary support needed for university faculty members in North America during the increased kick in online\/blended learning<\/em>. (as one aspect of organizational readiness). Below are my initial<\/em> thoughts about my research questions (currently, my cohort members are discussing research questions and giving feedback to each other; these questions are still preliminary. I haven’t decided on the main research question yet):<\/span><\/p>\n