DETA Research Toolkit

Book excerpt: The DETA Research Toolkit (Kit), a new iteration, is a guide to support educators in designing research and evaluations of instructional, pedagogical, and technological practices designed, developed, and produced by Dr. Tanya Joosten and the team at the National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements (DETA). Kit includes Section a General Research Model, including desired outcomes, including access, learning effectiveness, instrumentation effectiveness, and satisfaction. Within the general model discussion, a framework of inquiry is presented with questions to research inform efforts. Kit contains guides to research (e.g., qualitative, quantitative) as well as the philosophical assumptions that guides those methodologies and how to report findings. Newer methodologies and reporting approaches popular in technology development are also included (e.g., UX research and evaluation, data visualization). Kit contains research tools, resources, and research models to get to the nitty gritty of research and evaluation work. These tools and resources include research planning and the ever so popular survey instrumentation packet and data codebook. New to this version is also a section on interview schedules. Other resources that will help you navigate privacy and ethics include human subjects, inform consent, and data sharing info. The research models included provide research questions or problems of practices, methodological design, research tools and instruments, and more. Topics include instruction design, student support, coaching, preparing students for digital learning, adaptive learning, and open education resources. Importantly, the toolkit includes a research and evaluation specific to understanding learning in response to the pandemic of 2020. For more information visit detaresearch.org.