For the mid-term essay I selected two writing prompts to explore. The first prompt was Prompt #2 -Qualitative Approaches, which was about part-time, adult learners in online doctoral classes. The second prompt was Prompt #3 -Enhancing Trustworthiness, which was about ensuring quality in qualitative research.
Prompt #2 - Qualitative Approaches To study part-time, adult learners in online doctoral programs, a case study research design was selected. Creswell (2013) stated that a case study involves a case explored within a bounded system using multiple sources of in-depth data collection over time. This case involved part-time, adult learners in online doctoral programs. “The study of the case, however defined, tends to involve in-depth and often longitudinal examination with data gathered through participant
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This case involved five adult, part-time online doctoral students living in a small rural town, located in upper Michigan. The participants included three women and two men. The 8-week online courses met every other Saturday morning using an online meeting platform. The five students lived in the same town and met in-person during the Saturday morning sessions. All assignments, discussions and readings were done individually and online. There were three methods of data collection used in this study. They were interviews, document collection and participant observation. The first method was data collection. The researcher reviewed the course materials including the course syllabus, the online meeting platform that was used for communication and the assignments for the 8-week course. The second method was interviews. The researcher interviewed the five part-time adult doctoral students. The questions asked were about the difficulty of the work-load, time management, opinions on online education, balancing adult responsibilities and being a student and lastly their future plans after receiving the doctoral