Margaret Debenham
B.A. Hons. (First Class), The Open University, 1990
Ph.D., Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, 2001
Doctoral Thesis
Debenham, M. 2001. Computer Mediated Communication and Disability
Support: Addressing Barriers to Study for Undergraduate Distance
Learners with Long-term Health Problems. Doctoral thesis.
Milton Keynes: The Open University
(Abstract available here in .pdf format)
This work was supervised by Dr. Pat Fung and Dr. Denise Whitelock at the Institute
of Educational Technology and Ms Judy Emms, Faculty of Maths and Computing, The
Open University.
Selected chapters of the final draft before submission are accessible as Adobe
Acrobat .pdf files via the links below for the purposes of personal private research
only. The text of these chapters is identical to that of the submitted thesis;
however, please note that the file conversion process has resulted in minor
instances of 'line slip' between pages when compared with the examination and
library copies.
13 March 2011.
Unfortunately in the past few days it has come to my attention that the sample chapters of my thesis (listed below) that have been available as downloadable PDF files have been copied onto a free e-book site for download via that route without my permission. I have therefore decided, with regret, that I have no alternative but to withdraw this facility and the links previously available below have been removed. Henceforth colleagues wishing to request copies of the Table of Contents, Chapters 1, 3, 7, 8 and References should e-mail me directly via the ‘contact’ link on this site.
Title pageTable of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: An Exploration of the Literature in Related Fields: Disability, CMC and Educational Counselling.
Chapter 3: Methodology
Chapter 4: The Exploratory Study
Chapter 5: Intervention Study 1
Chapter 6: Intervention Study 2
Chapter 7: Personal Interviews
Chapter 8: Discussion and Conclusions
References
Appendices
Copyright © Margaret Debenham 2001 - 2011. All rights reserved.
Epistolary Interviews - a novel research method
A novel research method was developed and piloted during the final phase of this
research. This is a form of interactive personal interview by asynchronous
e-mail, which is introduced in this thesis and termed epistolary interview.
The interview structure was adapted for text-based communication from the type
of semi-structured conversational format described by Wilson (1996) as a suitable
research tool for in depth exploration of interviewee experience in a face-to-face
situation. Five interviews were conducted by this method. Each took place over
a period of about two weeks - though no strict time limit was imposed. No more
than two interviews were underway at the same time.
In summary, advantages of this method include the following:
- It enables time to be taken for a considered response on the part of both interviewer and interviewee.
- It can provide a convenient method to undertake in-depth interviews with those living at long distances from a researcher.
- It enables the researcher to compile a transcript quickly and accurately. Since the interview is text based, there is no worry about inaudibility or misheard words, as may occur when transcribing from audiotape.
- It is non-time dependent. For this reason the method held a particular advantage in this project when interviewing students with long-term health problems. It addressed the possibility of cancellation through fluctuations in the medical condition when arranging interviews in real time (either face-to-face or by telephone) in advance.
For further information about this method in the thesis, see Chapter 1 p 11; Chapter 3.5.4 pp 107 - 111 and Chapter 8 pp 350 - 351. Chapter 7 pp 281 - 319 reports on the Personal Interview Study in depth, including both face-to-face and epistolary interviews.
References
Debenham, M. 2007. Epistolary Interviews On-line: A Novel Addition to the
Researcher's Palette. York: TechDis.
www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/resources/detail/learnersmatter/Epistolary_Interviews_On-line
Wilson, M. 1996. Asking Questions: in Data Collection and Analysis,
ed. R. Sapsford, V. Jupp, pp 94 - 120. London: Sage.
in case of queries.
