The first section of Week 3 focused on the evaluation of knowledge claims. The analysis skills covered are relevant both to being an online educator and to living in the wider world beyond education. Like most academics, I find myself constantly bombarded with knowledge claims potentially relevant to my practice and research. Many of these claims, upon further investigation, are based on flimsy evidence and poorly shaped research studies. It’s all too easy for inaccurate and misleading information to be shared instantly to a global audience via the internet. It’s therefore ever more important to be able to assess the likely veracity of knowledge claims, including those made about educational innovation.

The study of knowledge claims is also relevant at a time when the notion of truth itself is under attack. You may know that in 2016 ‘post-truth’ was the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year. Concepts of truth and the reliability of facts are in the forefront of public debate at the moment. The ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ furore is just one example.

Journalist Matthew d’Ancona, discussing The war on truth (d’Ancona, 2017) observes that ‘many of the huge political issues of recent years have been based on the power to evoke feelings and not facts’. He suggests that while exaggeration and spin have long been a feature of politics:

What is new is… the ability of new technologies and social media to manipulate, polarise and entrench opinion.

Where trust has evaporated, conspiracy theories thrive, and the authority of the media wilts; it is the primacy of emotions and beliefs that shape the public.

It’s therefore important for educators and other academics to be able to present a robust evidence-informed argument for any knowledge claims they make, for example those arising from the evaluation of teaching and learning.

The second and third sections of Week 3, covering the research and evaluation of teaching, and the ethical considerations of researching online, may have inspired you to conduct your own research, SoTL study or evaluation. If so, you may find the openly licensed ‘Researcher Pack’ from the OER Hub useful. It includes an ethics manual for open research.

In Week 4 Martin Weller will guide you through an exploration of online identity and its importance for educators.

References

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BERA (2011) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research British Educational Research Association. Available at https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-2011.pdf (Accessed 13 December 2023).

BPS Research Board (2021) Ethics guidelines for internet-mediated research British Psychological Society. Available at https://www.bps.org.uk/guideline/ethics-guidelines-internet-mediated-research (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Buchanan, E. A. and Zimmer, M. Internet Research Ethics The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition)

Cadwalladr, C. and Graham-Harrison, E. (2018) ‘Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach’, The Guardian, 17 March. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Coughlan, T. and Perryman, L. (2015) A murky business: navigating the ethics of educational research in Facebook groups’, European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, pp. 146–169. Available at http://oro.open.ac.uk/43343/1/EURODLCoughlan_Perryman.pdf (Accessed 13 December 2023).

d’Ancona, M. (2017) ‘The war on truth’, RSA event, London, 15 June. RSA [online]. Available at https://www.thersa.org/events/2017/06/the-war-on-truth (Accessed 13 December 2023).

The European Educational Research Association (EERA). (2024). Ethical Guidelines. Available at https://eera-ecer.de/about-eera/ethical-guidelines/ Accessed 04 February 2025).

Farrow, R. (2016) ‘A framework for the ethics of open education’, Open Praxis, vol. 8, no. 2 [online]. Available at https://openpraxis.org/articles/10.5944/openpraxis.8.2.291 (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Hansard (2023) Grand Committee: Educational Technology, 23 November [online]. Available at https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-11-23/debates/0588AF21-816D-4556-9D84-93D9A2385A07/EducationalTechnology (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Hodges, C. and Ocak, C. (2023) ‘Integrating generative AI into Higher Education: considerations’, Educause Review, 30 August. Available at https://er.educause.edu/articles/2023/8/integrating-generative-ai-into-higher-education-considerations (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Mitchell-Yellin, B. (2023) ‘Why you shouldn’t use ChatGPT’, Inside Higher Ed, 12 December. Available at https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/12/12/ais-efficiency-gains-come-cost-alienation-opinion (Accessed 13 December 2023).

New York University (2017) ‘Digital games improve mental health, educational outcomes of Syrian refugee children’, ScienceDaily, 6 June. Available at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170606155740.htm (Accessed 13 December 2023).

OpenLearn (2023) Scholarship of teaching and learning in STEM [MOOC]. Available at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=109160&section=1 (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Perryman, L-A. (2020) TEL MOOC Long Term Impact Evaluation Study. Commonwealth of Learning. Available at https://oro.open.ac.uk/69260/1/TEL%20MOOC%20Impact%20Report%20Final%20Report_Jan2020.pdf (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Perryman, L-A. and Coughlan, T. (n.d.) A murky business: the ethics of conducting educational research in Facebook groups, unpublished paper, The Open University [online]. Available at http://oro.open.ac.uk/41323/3/A%20murky%20business.pdf (Accessed 13 December 2023).

ScienceDaily (2017) [online]. Available at https://www.sciencedaily.com (Accessed 13 December 2023).

The Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA). (2005) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research. Available at https://www.sera.ac.uk/publications/sera-ethical-guidelinesweb/ (Accessed 04 February 2025).

Weller, M. (2016) ‘What is the purpose of educational technology?’, The Ed Techie, 12 December [blog]. Available at https://blog.edtechie.net/edtech/what-is-the-purpose-of-educational-technology/ (Accessed 13 December 2023).

Zimmer, M. (2010) ‘But the data is already public’, on the ethics of research in Facebook, Ethics and Information Technology 12(4), pp 313-325 in Perryman, L-A. and Coughlan, T. (n.d.) A murky business: the ethics of conducting educational research in Facebook groups, unpublished paper, The Open University [online]. Available at http://oro.open.ac.uk/41323/3/A%20murky%20business.pdf (Accessed 13 December 2023).

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