In my research-based dissertation project for my PGCert HE & FHEA fellowship, I conducted an observation-based, grounded theory analysis of the Camberwell College of Arts (UAL) conducted as a blended, studio-based program MA program. I worked as an Associate lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts (UAL) on the Camberwell College of Arts (UAL) teaching on the Fine Art Digital MA and as a supervisor for students on the wider MA programmes final dissertations.  I choose the context for my research as such a long-running and at the time unique programme offered invaluable insights into online teaching and practice. 

The study takes an inductive approach to investigate the social actions that occur between a lecturer, guest speaker and two collocated groups of students (online and physically present) in a Masters’s level seminar using free, web-based technologies. To gather and reflect on empirical evidence of the social actions that occur in this context, the study uses; naturalistic observations, semi-structured interviews and methods of analysis associated with Grounded Theory.

The report starts by setting out the context of the study. It continues with a discussion of some of the principles underlying the methodological approach and methods of inquiry taken in the study. The process used to analyse the gathered empirical evidence is then explained with an overview of the coding process. In the discussion section, an overview of two of the three categories that arose from the analysis of the empirical data (managing the system and a collocated space) is presented and considered in relation to pertinent academic literature.

Read my dissertation

Final Grounded Coding Map