Ontario Council
for University
Lifelong Learning
OCULL
> Support for Research
> Current Research

> Support for Research
spacer

OCULL administers a small research fund that supports projects which build knowledge of our constituency and enhance the quality of university lifelong learning.

 

Ontario Council for University Lifelong Learning (OCULL) Research Grants

These grants are designed to support research projects whose outcome is going to be of direct relevance to the topic and practice of university lifelong learning, in any or all of its guises.

Grants are typically in the $1,000 - $1,500 range. They can be higher if the OCULL Executive deems a given project to be worthy of such support. In reviewing applications, the committee will give first priority to applicants from OCULL member institutions.

 

Research Grant applications must include:

  1. a comprehensive statement of objectives and anticipated outcomes;
  2. a literature review;
  3. a description of research design and methodology;
  4. reasons why the project is of relevance to university lifelong learning;
  5. a budget;
  6. a project timeline (typically, research projects will be completed within one year); and,
  7. a description of how the research findings will be disseminated.

Selection criteria are as follows:

  1. relevance and timeliness of research to Ontario university lifelong learning;
  2. clarity of proposal;
  3. soundness of research design and methodology ;
  4. other financial or in-kind support for the project, or letters of support; and,
  5. a well articulated process for disseminating findings.

Deadline for 2012 Grants: September 28 , 2012

Successful applicants will be notified by October 19 , 2012

 

Policy for payment of research grants:

  1. Payment of research grants will normally be made in three equal instalments: first payment on notification and acceptance of the research grant award; second payment on receipt of a research progress report, typically 6 – 8 months into the research project; and, third and final payment on completion of the research and receipt by OCULL of a research summary report and financial statement, typically at the end of one year. Requests for alternate distribution of funds should be made at the time of application.
  2. If the research project is not completed within two years of receipt of the OCULL research grant, OCULL retains the right to cancel any remaining payments.
  3. Recipients of OCULL research grants will make their findings available to the OCULL membership, either by a research summary to be posted on the website, or a brief presentation at the annual OCULL retreat.

Applications should be sent via email as a Word document to:

Leslie Malcolm

Continuing Education & Distributed Learning
Lakehead University
Tel. 807.343-8210
Fax. 8008
email lmalcolm@lakeheadu.ca

top

> Current Research
spacer

  1. OCULL Distance Education/Online Learning Survey
    The objective of this research was to develop a 'state of the province' understanding of policies and practices related to distance education in Ontario universities. The survey Questionnaire and Results of this project can be viewed here by clicking on the links below. This was the first research project that OCULL had independently undertaken.
  2. A Comparison of Professor Time Commitments for Online and Classroom Teaching
  3. Visual Media in Online Courses: is it worth the cost?
  4. Understanding the Decisions of Adult Lifelong Learners to Suspend Distance Education Studies

 

A Comparison of Professor Time Commitments for Online and Classroom Teaching

Christine Hamelin and Eric Tremblay / The Royal Military College of Canada

 

Objectives and Outcomes

The main objective of this study is to provide concrete data that will be helpful in assessing the roles and responsibilities of professors who teach at a distance. Knowing the time commitments of DL teaching and, furthermore, knowing if there are different time commitments for science and humanities courses, will allow administrators to plan their distance education programs more efficiently.

In order to achieve its main objective, the study will compare the time commitments of professors teaching residential courses, paper-based correspondence courses, and web-based distance courses. The comparison will rest on a sampling of courses that are offered in more than one mode of delivery at the Royal Military College of Canada. RMC is an appropriate place to conduct this study because in several cases, the same course with the same assessment scheme is offered in different ways—sometimes by the same professor.

 

Visual Media in Online Courses: is it worth the cost?

Eric Tremblay / The Royal Military College of Canada

 
Objective

To determine if a significantly different proportion of experienced online learners have a predominantly visual learning style compared to classroom learners.

 

Research design and methodology

Two samples of adult learners at RMC will be randomly selected: experienced online learners (study group) and traditional classroom learners (control group). The selection criteria for participants in the study group are successful completion of at least one university-level distance education course that was delivered entirely online, and subsequent registration in one or more important is it to serve the visual learning style in online courses with expensive multi-media? This study will help us understand if there is a disproportionately high number of visual learners in online courses. If so, the investment in costly multi-media development may be warranted.

 

 

Understanding the Decisions of Adult Lifelong Learners to Suspend Distance Education Studies

Co-Investigators: Glenna Knutson, RN, MSN, EdD (c), Associate Professor, Lakehead University

Karen Poole, RN, MEd, MA (Nursing), Assistant Professor, Lakehead University

Shane Strickland, RN, MSN, Lecturer, Lakehead University

 

Research Objectives:

  1. Why have currently enrolled students in the Post-RN program stopped pursuing their continuing distance education?
  2. What are the major influencing factors that help Post-RN students to make the decision to either continue or stop their continuing Baccalaureate distance education?
  3. What supports need to be implemented to help the students return to their continuing distance education?

The results of this study will be shared with the distance education and nursing communities by at least two means. The researchers will look for a nursing education conference to present the findings (an example of a preferred conference would be Embracing the Future: Educating Tomorrow's Nurses , sponsored by the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario). In addition, an article will be written for publication in a nursing education journal such as Journal of Nursing Education .

top
strip