{"id":826,"date":"2018-03-28T09:36:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T16:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/?p=826"},"modified":"2024-04-02T14:31:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T21:31:51","slug":"white-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/white-papers\/","title":{"rendered":"When it comes to making research actionable, Oregon State Ecampus is leading the charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cardboard<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Heather Doherty<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0
\n<\/em><\/a>March 28, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

Oregon State University Ecampus knows that as leaders in the field of higher education, there is a responsibility that comes with it: stay on top of the research. And what better way to do so than by being the ones to conduct the research?<\/p>\n

Faculty in the OSU Ecampus Research Fellows Program<\/a> are engaged in producing original research on teaching and learning with the aim of advancing the field of online education as it relates to access and instructional excellence.<\/p>\n

Fellows are tasked with developing a topic, delving into the research, synthesizing it, and then sharing their findings with higher education communities to reach a larger audience.<\/p>\n

In an effort to inform readers about a variety of topics related to online education research design and methodology, the inaugural 2016-17 research fellows recently released a series of white papers<\/a> with topics ranging from assessing students\u2019 latent skills in an online course to evaluating the impact of engaged philosophy in the online classroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnline learning is the future of higher education, but a lot of questions still surround its effectiveness<\/a>,\u201d says Ecampus Research Unit Director Katie Linder. \u201cWith our Ecampus Research Fellows Program, we provide the outlet for faculty members at Oregon State to dive into research about online and hybrid learning and find answers to those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

“<\/span>That\u2019s the goal of this program. To offer a space to conduct research that is meaningful and impactful to the field of online education.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One project, conducted by OSU Ecampus anthropology instructor and academic advisor Brenda Kellar and OSU Ecampus anthropology instructor Mary Nolan, explores the concept of creating community among all types of learners in the online environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project was sparked by conversations with students who said they wished for more community,\u201d Mary says. \u201cThat made my antennae go off because I had read about this Ecampus fellowship program and I started thinking about how we might look at this issue of community and connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the researchers say it can be a challenging task to grasp the concept of community that resonates with all students, their white paper examines how community relates to a variety of social science disciplines and online education in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two faculty members saw a problem and wanted to explore it more in depth, and they used the fellows program to do so,\u201d Katie says. \u201cThat\u2019s the goal of this program. To offer a space to conduct research that is meaningful and impactful to the field of online education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Thompson, and assistant professor in the OSU College of Education, analyzed data about a Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, titled \u201cSupporting English Language Learners Under New Standards\u201d in her fellows project.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether with my colleagues, we decided to seize this opportunity to conduct research we had been wanting to do to find out what participants got out of the course and also what structures school districts put in place to support teachers taking the course,\u201d Karen says.<\/p>\n

In its third year, the 2018-19 Ecampus Research Fellows Program features six projects, including one project that has an Oregon State Ecampus instructional designer as a part of the study team.<\/p>\n

Including an instructional designer in this project is in direct response to a recent study<\/a> conducted by the Oregon State Ecampus Research Unit that highlighted the importance of instructional designers engaging in research about online education.<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/a> about this year\u2019s cohort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/span> 3<\/span> minute read<\/span><\/span>Oregon State University Ecampus knows that as leaders in the field of higher education, there is a responsibility that comes with it: stay on top of the research. And what better way to do so than by being the ones to conduct the research?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[673],"tags":[180,26,431,25,24,163],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-education","tag-distance-education","tag-ecampus-research-fellows-program","tag-online-education","tag-online-learning","tag-oregon-state-ecampus-research-unit"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Fellows-2.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BNSE-dk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1939,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/learning-analytics-research-study\/","url_meta":{"origin":826,"position":0},"title":"Perspectives, perceptions and privacy: Voices in higher education learner data","author":"Tyler Hansen","date":"February 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Interdisciplinary research team organized by Oregon State Ecampus explores learning analytics from a systems perspective Institutions of higher education are perpetually collecting data about their students and faculty. How that data is collected and analyzed varies widely, but one thing is certain according to industry experts at EDUCAUSE: The use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Oregon State Ecampus liberal studies alumna Janine Romero stands on a balcony speaking to her husband, Lee. Janine is one of several Ecampus alumni who shared about the process of building a network and communication skills while earning an Oregon State degree online.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-Analytics-Report-Janine-Romero-1200x628-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-Analytics-Report-Janine-Romero-1200x628-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-Analytics-Report-Janine-Romero-1200x628-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-Analytics-Report-Janine-Romero-1200x628-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-Analytics-Report-Janine-Romero-1200x628-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2498,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/ecampus-2023-online-education-scholarly-publications\/","url_meta":{"origin":826,"position":1},"title":"Want to know what some of the top minds in online education are thinking about?","author":"Elena Moffet","date":"March 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The team at Ecampus offered up eight scholarly articles and trade publications in 2023. Check out this round-up of their work and dive deeper into topics like quality assurance in online education, inclusive learning design, digital accessibility, and much more.","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Macro image of magazines open on a table.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/News-Ecampus-scholarly-publications-800x450-1.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/News-Ecampus-scholarly-publications-800x450-1.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/News-Ecampus-scholarly-publications-800x450-1.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/News-Ecampus-scholarly-publications-800x450-1.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2886,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/online-education-research-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":826,"position":2},"title":"Journal publications illustrate Oregon State\u2019s leadership in online education research","author":"Oregon State University","date":"October 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"For 10 years, the Oregon State University Ecampus Research Unit has made a significant impact on the field of online teaching and learning. It is one of the nation\u2019s only research units connected to an online education division, which helps to illustrate OSU's commitment to continually improving the student and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"A person uses a laptop while writing with a pen in a notepad.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/note-taking-laptop.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/note-taking-laptop.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/note-taking-laptop.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/note-taking-laptop.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/osu-ecampus-named-nations-best-online-education-program-value\/","url_meta":{"origin":826,"position":3},"title":"OSU Ecampus named nation\u2019s best value in online education","author":"Tyler Hansen","date":"September 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon State University\u2019s distance education program has been named the nation\u2019s best online college in terms of value by ValueColleges.com, an organization that provides in-depth analysis and rankings on affordability and quality in higher education.","rel":"","context":"In "Archives"","block_context":{"text":"Archives","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/archives\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Valley Library at Oregon State University at dusk.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/valley-library.jpg?fit=638%2C410&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/valley-library.jpg?fit=638%2C410&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/valley-library.jpg?fit=638%2C410&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2263,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/equity-and-bias-in-online-learner-data\/","url_meta":{"origin":826,"position":4},"title":"Oregon State publishes new study about equity and bias in online learner data","author":"Zach Elliott Kronser","date":"April 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Learning analytics is a fast-growing field that tracks how students interact with their online courses, and it has the potential to improve the online learning experience for many university students. But the collection and analysis of student data also invites ethical issues. A team of interdisciplinary researchers, led by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"woman's hands typing on a laptop","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-analytics-800x450-230405.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-analytics-800x450-230405.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-analytics-800x450-230405.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/P05001-ECRU-Learning-analytics-800x450-230405.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1760,"url":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/new-center-for-online-engineering-students\/","url_meta":{"origin":826,"position":5},"title":"New center to advance online engineering education at Oregon State","author":"Keith Hautala","date":"May 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon State University College of Engineering and Ecampus have announced a plan to launch a new center on campus for exploring innovation in online engineering education.","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/category\/all\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ecampus computer science student, Mark Moore, works happily from his laptop.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Mark-Moore-744x478.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Mark-Moore-744x478.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Mark-Moore-744x478.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/assets\/Mark-Moore-744x478.jpg?fit=744%2C478&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecampus.oregonstate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}