Eresearch in Education: An Overview and Selected Resources: April 2011

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AARE/ARDEN ERESEARCH TASK GROUP
eResearch in education
Overview and selected resources

AARE/ARDEN eResearch task group report 2010‐2011

17 April 2011

AARE/ARDEN eResearch task group report prepared for Australian Association for Research in
Education, Australian Research Directors of Education Network
Preface
This work arises from the joint AARE/ACDE National Education Research Futures Summit in February
20101. Following the initial discussion and significant interest in eResearch potential in educational
research, AARE/ARDEN decided to explore this topic further and agreed to convene eResearch Task
Group. The main task for the group was to produce an initial collection of resources for AARE
website that could serve as an introduction and an initial overview of this emerging research field for
AARE community. This document is an outcome of this initial work. The Task Group aimed to review
the state of the art of eResearch and point out to its potential and challenges in educational
research. It explored eResearch domain from several perspectives: a broader eResearch policy
context, emerging technological affordances and their potential in research, emerging new issues,
and knowledge practices in educational research. The group aimed to review existing frontier
eResearch projects in education, explore relevant advances and discussions in other domains and
identify possible directions and niches for future development.
This annotated list of online links, projects and other references is not intended to be an evaluation
of listed resources that is complete. Rather, it is produced with the intention to show the scope of
this emerging research field, raise researchers’ awareness, stimulate further exploration of this topic
and practical applications of eResearch.
Overall, this initial work indicates that digital technologies influence in fundamental ways the kinds
of research questions that can be asked, the ways in which they can be answered and the kinds of
answers that can be produced; and importantly, eResearch has the potential to offer new insights
into complex educational challenges. Thus, the Task Group expects that this initial review will be
followed‐up by further AARE initiatives in this area. As the next step, the Task Group recommends
the following lines of action:
1. To initiate World’s Education Research Association International Research Network
(WERA/IRN) for eResearch.
2. To raise awareness of a broader AARE community about eResearch potential in educational
research (e.g., by inviting leaders of successful eResearch in education projects to make
keynote presentations at AARE conferences, and by organizing workshops for doctoral
students).
3. To initiate White Paper series that outline major directions for eResearch development in
educational research with specific reference to research data management, distributed
collaboration, learning analytics, service oriented architecture, and research education.

1
AARE/ACDE National Education Research Futures Summit Final report, 2010 by A. Lee, N. Johnson, R. Parkes,
G. Martin, D. Maher. Retrieved 2010‐12‐06 from http://www.aare.edu.au/AARE‐ACDE‐summit.pdf.
2

4. To develop a clearinghouse of education eResearch resources, activities and tools aimed
specifically at doctoral students and early career researchers. These resources would serve
to catalyse interest, showcase good practice and harmonize national and international
efforts.
5. To engage proactively in identifying and establishing closer links between the national
eResearch strategic and funding initiatives and educational research development initiatives
undertaken by AARE (e.g., by drafting AARE responses to national eResearch consultations
and strategic reviews).
The Group also hopes that the list below will be updated and extended by other AARE members who
will recommend new resources. Please send your suggestions to eResearch group convenor Lina
Markauskaite, Lina.Markauskaite@sydney.edu.au.
AARE/ARDEN eResearch Task Group 17 April 2011
Lina Markauskaite (convenor)
Robert Fitzgerald
Jan Herrington
Ruth Wallace
3

Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction: About this document ........................................................................................................ 4
1. What is eResearch in education? ........................................................................................................ 5
2. Digital data and new ethical questions in educational eResearch ..................................................... 9
3. Technology‐enhanced research methods ......................................................................................... 15
4. Virtual research environments, networks and research collaboration ............................................ 22
5. Digital publishing and dissemination ................................................................................................ 27
6. Australian eResearch context ........................................................................................................... 32
7. Other eResearch initiatives, topics and issues .................................................................................. 35
ARDEN eResearch task group ............................................................................................................... 38

Introduction: About this document
This resource introduces educational researchers to information and communication technology‐
enhanced research practices that are often known under the umbrella term ‘eResearch’. The
document provides an initial overview of eResearch and presents a collection of annotated online
resources that introduce and illustrate various aspects of eResearch application in educational
research. It is written for three main audiences: 1) educational researchers, who may want to know
more about eResearch potential and initiate collaborative eResearch projects; 2) research students,
who may want to explore new ICT‐enhanced research possibilities and to use new research
approaches in their projects; 3) research managers, who create infrastructures and services for
enhancing and supporting educational research.
This resource is structured into seven sections. The first section provides a background. It introduces
eResearch notions, key international initiatives and possible applications of eResearch in education
and educational research. The next four sections review four major areas of eResearch: 1) digital
data; 2) ICT‐enhanced research methods; 3) networked research; and 4) digital publishing and
dissemination. The sixth section introduces some main Australian initiatives and organisations in the
area of eResearch, which could be important for those who want to initiate collaborative projects or
seek eResearch support. The last section provides an overview of various other topics and issues
relevant to eResearch in education. Each section presents a collection of annotated web links to
relevant documents, projects, tools and other online resources and a brief selected bibliography of
relevant publications.
4

1. What is eResearch in education?
About
Research practices in many disciplines have been experiencing significant changes that are closely
coupled with the adoption of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT). Various
initiatives towards the adoption of these research practices across disciplines are often known under
several broad umbrella terms, such as ‘eResearch’, in Australia, ‘Cyberinfrastructure’ in the US, ‘the
Grid’ and ‘eInfrastructure’ in European Union, ‘eScience’, ‘eSocial Science’ and ‘eHumanities’ in the
UK. Most eResearch practices are enabled by the combination of three different technological
possibilities: 1) sharing of computational power; 2) distributed access to large databases; and 3)
access to virtual environments for collaborative research work. The core assumption is that access to
pooled computational resources, integrated data and joint human expertise will enable researchers
to ask new research questions, to use new inquiry methods, and to do research collaboratively in
new ways.2
Over the last decade governments of many counties have developed national eResearch visions and
made significant investments in creating new research infrastructures and services for such
advanced ICT‐enhanced research, including: 1) general ICT infrastructures and services that could be
used across disciplinary domains (e.g., communication networks, data repositories and virtual
research environments) and 2) discipline‐specific research applications and interaction tools (e.g.,
astronomy databases, social policy modelling tools, virtual environments for medical research).
Pioneering eResearch initiatives have emerged in exact and natural science domains, such as
bioinformatics computational biology and astronomy.3 However, over the last decade, eResearch
has been taken up in a range of disciplines and fields in humanities and social sciences.4
eResearch in education is a relatively new research area. Differing from eResearch in natural
sciences that emerged primarily from large‐scale national investments, most educational eResearch
applications have emerged from relatively small research projects attempting to apply ICT for
specific research issues. Present applications of eResearch in educational research include many
facets, including: 1) increasing access to some educational datasets (e.g., TIMSS); 2) technology‐
enhanced research methods and tools (e.g., educational data mining, learning analytics,
collaborative video analysis and more traditional ICT tools for qualitative and statistical data
analysis); and 3) collaboratories and virtual research environments for educational research. The
contours of this research field are just emerging. Some educational research funding bodies and
other ventures have created initial visionary documents outlining different aspects of eResearch

2
Wouters, P. (2005). The virtual knowledge studio for the humanities and social sciences. Paper presented at
the First international conference on e‐social science. 22‐24 June 2005, Manchester, UK.
3
Hey, T., Tansley, S., & Tolle, K. (Eds.). (2009). The fourth paradigm: Data‐intensive scientific discovery.
Remond: Microsoft Research.
4
E.g., see for review: Special issue on e‐social science. Social Science Computer Review, 2009, 27(4).
5

future in, and for, education in various countries. Most of this initial work has focused on creating
eResearch infrastructure for educational research and how eResearch could be harnessed to support
eLearning. Some documents annotated below aim to illustrate present scope and future visions of
eResearch in education.
Online readings and framing documents
Borgman, C. L., Abelson, H., Dirks, L., Johnson, R., Koedinger, K. R., Linn, M. C., et al. (2008). Fostering
learning in the networked world: The Cyberlearning opportunity and challenge. A 21st century
agenda for the National Science Foundation. Arlington: NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning. Retrieved
2010‐08‐06 from http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08204/nsf08204.pdf
Summary: This NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning report outlines some key research directions to
establish successful ways of using digital technologies, networked computing and communications in
learning and educational research. The report argues that education today faces two types of “data
deluge”. The first deluge of scientific data requires to introduce eResearch methods in school
curriculum. The second deluge of learning data provides opportunities to use data and computation
intensive collaborative research methods for researching human cognition and learning. Overall, this
is one of key visionary papers that provides a strong case for eResearch in educational research. It
argues that education and educational research require a coherent, supportive Cyberinfrastructure
that allows the harnessing of both data deluges.
***
CRA. (2005). Cyberinfrastructure for education and learning for the future: A vision and research
agenda. Washington, DC: Computing Research Association. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
www.cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/rissues/cyberinfrastructure.pdf
Summary: This NSF report by the Computing Research Association and the International Society of
the Learning Sciences with support from the National Science Foundation primarily outlines a vision
for digital learning environments of the future. While the main focus is on eLearning, in essence this
vision links eLearning with eResearch. As the report states, “We envision a Cyberinfrastructure that
provides: 1) unprecedented access to educational resources, mentors, experts, and online
educational activities and virtual environments; 2) timely, accurate assessment of student learning;
and 3) a platform for large‐scale research on education and the sciences of learning” (p.1). One part
of the report specifically focuses on how longitudinal qualitative and quantitative data about
students learning experiences could be collected in so called “Lifelong Learning Chronicles” that
could be used by students, teachers parents and other stakeholders to make informed decisions as
well how this rich data trace could be used for educational research: “Cyberinfrastructure will make
it possible to collect and analyse data continually from millions of educational activities nationwide
over a period of years, enabling new advances in the sciences of learning and providing systematic
ways of measuring progress at all levels” (p. 1).
***
6

Anderson, T., & Kanuka, H. (2003). E‐research: Methods, strategies and issues. Boston: Pearson
Education Inc. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://www.e‐research.ca/about.htm
Summary: While eResearch is sometimes perceived as a set of distinctive research approaches that
fundamentally rely on advanced‐ICT, sometimes, what is called eResearch could be associated with
the use of conventional internet technologies and personal computers for research purposes
(overall, the boundary between ‘advanced’ and ‘conventional’ with progress of technologies become
increasingly blurred). This book represents the latter perspective. It is written as a guide for social
researchers on how the Internet and other technologies could be used in different research stages:
from doing literature reviews to gathering qualitative and quantitative data, to analysing and
disseminating results. The introduction to this ‘textbook style’ book provides a valuable discussion
about the notion, scope, key characteristics and issues of eResearch in social research (this chapter
is available online).
***
The International e‐Framework. The UK: JISC Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/eframework.aspx
Summary: The e‐Framework is an initiative by the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
and Australia's Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), New
Zealand Ministry of Education (NZ MoE) and The Netherlands SURF Foundation It primarily focuses
on shared technological infrastructure and services that could support both learning and research.
While this project has a technological focus, it is quite interesting from the educational research
point of view as it aims to present a common technical basis for educational and research
infrastructures. Such infrastructure is one of the essential preconditions for the development of new
learning environments and inquiry tools for “data‐informed” improvement of online teaching and
learning, known under several broad umbrella terms, such as “learning analytics”, “academic
analytics”, “knowledge analytics”.
Selected eResearch in education projects
TRLP‐TEL Technology enhanced research strand. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.tlrp.org/tel/ter
Summary: The Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) is the latest phase of the Teaching and Learning
Research Programme (TRLP) is a £12m initiative funded by the ESRC and EPSRC, the UK. There are
eight major projects running between 2007 and 2012. The Technology Enhanced Research (TER)
strand specifically focuses on technology‐enhanced research methodologies and the roles that
technology can play in research innovation. This project has just started. This website currently
includes a report on a survey of technology‐enhanced research in TEL projects and an outline for the
design of a resource ‘Answer Garden’ to support technology‐enhanced e‐learning research.
7

Selected bibliography
Digital technologies in educational research
Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J. E. (2009). Learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age:
Web 2.0 and classroom research: What path should we take now? Educational Researcher,
38(4), 246−259. ‐‐ A lead paper in a special issue which discusses how social technologies
influence education and educational research.
Voithofer, R. (2005). Designing new media education research: The materiality of data,
representation, and dissemination. Educational Researcher, 34(9), 3‐14. ‐‐ A conceptual
paper that draws on the notion of digital materiality and discusses how digital inscription
technologies shape the ways in which educational research is carried out, communicated
and disseminated.
Markauskaite, L. (in press/2010). Digital media, technologies and scholarship: Some shapes of
eResearch in educational inquiry. Australian Educational Researcher. ‐‐ An overview of the
main advanced technology‐enhanced research affordances for educational research and
implications of eResearch for educational scholarship and research practices.
What is eResearch?
O’Brien, L. (2005). E‐research: An imperative for strengthening institutional partnerships. Educause
Review, 40(6), 64–77. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0563.pdf ‐‐ A simple introduction to what
eResearch is and how it influences university’s “research fabric”.
8

2. Digital data and new ethical questions in educational eResearch
About
One of the most significant drivers for eResearch in education is so called ‘data deluge’ ‐ the growth
of digital educational data. These data include administrative records about students and their
performance, information about programs and courses, and other elements of educational system
and digital traces of online learning, such as students and teacher contributions to online discussions
and their interactions with each other, and with digital resources. As the NSF report puts it, “…as
more human communication takes place in the networked world for education, commerce, and
social activity, an extensive digital trace is being created, a deluge of behavioural data. These data
are extremely valuable for modelling human activity and for tailoring responses to the individual —
whether for learning or for commerce” 5.
The nature of educational data is rather complex, and the issues pertaining to their use and
dissemination are challenging. On the one hand, a lot of educational records that are collected and
stored in a digital format could be an important data source for educational decision‐making and
further knowledge discovery in educational research. On the other hand, most of educational data
are collected and stored without considering that it could be integrated and (re)used for other
purposes that are different from the initial intensions and immediate use, thus are stored in a
variety of formats and lack of information about their provenance. Further, typical analytical tools
and methods are not designed to deal with such large amounts of diverse data, thus interrogation of
such data is complex and time consuming. There have been a number of projects aiming to create
initial integrated educational datasets for research, decision‐making, and public access. Resources
annotated below illustrate some of directions and issues in this area, including: 1) the need for
integrated longitudinal data in education and educational research; 2) the use of large‐scale datasets
for educational research, decision‐making and public access to educational information; 3) the use
of data about student learning process and progress in teacher decision‐making.
This brief review indicates that many countries have already created (and are further developing)
quite large social and educational data archives. Current datasets mainly come from various
censuses and large international, national and state official records and surveys. Similarly,
researchers in the area of educational technology create new data archives or eLearning data.
Nevertheless, depositing data into archives and using data from archives for research are not
common practices in educational research.
Public access to data also raises a range of new ethical concerns. As NSF report puts it, “While these
vast amounts of data allow scholars to ask new questions in new ways, and teachers to assess
learning in new ways, they also pose a wide range of concerns for management, preservation,

5
Borgman, C. L., Abelson, H., Dirks, L., Johnson, R., Koedinger, K. R., Linn, M. C., et al. (2008). Fostering learning
in the networked world: The Cyberlearning opportunity and challenge. A 21st century agenda for the National
Science Foundation. Report of the NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning. June 24, 2008. (p24)
9

access, intellectual property, and privacy”6. The tension between transparency and public access to
official educational records, such as national testing results, and social value of interpretations and
decisions that such access might provide for has become well evident in the Australian educational
context. There is an increasing recognition that questions associated with research ethics have
become not only more complex, but also more dynamic and context specific; and researchers should
take more responsibility for making judgements on how data are managed, represented and shared
than ever before.
Online readings
PMSEIC. (2006). From data to wisdom: Pathways to successful data management for Australian
science. Report to PMSEIC. December 2006. Australia: Working Group on Data for Science. Retrieved
2011‐02‐22 from http://www.dest.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/D15793B2‐FEB9‐41EE‐B7E8‐
C6DB2E84E8C9/15103/From_Data_to_Wisdom_Pathways_data_man_forAust_scie.pdf
Summary: A review prepared by an independent Working Group for the Prime Minister’s Science,
Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC). The paper sets the scene and provides and an
overview of increasing amounts of data and growing importance of data in research practices. It
explores a broad range of data related challenges and data management practices, including: the
nature of data access, storage, linkage, authentication, sustainability and protection. One of the key
themes cutting across recommendations is advice to enable open access to publicly‐funded research
data, and to ensure interoperability and reuse.
***
Hansen, K., Vignoles, A. (2007) The use of large scale data‐sets in educational research. London:
TLRP. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://www.bera.ac.uk/the‐use‐of‐large‐scale‐data‐sets‐in‐
educational‐research
Summary: This paper, based on the experience of analysing large‐scale educational datasets in the
UK, explores possibilities and difficulties. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations
about how large scale data sets might be more effectively used in education research, such as:
better guidance on the contents of administrative data sets; a more transparent and better‐
publicised access system; linking datasets via unique identification number for each individual,
ethical concerns, and researcher training (See also Vorhaus, J. (2009) Large‐scale data sets: A
resource for testing hypotheses in education, 77. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/VorhausRB77final.pdf)
***
ACDE. (2009). Data repository for teacher education scoping study. Australia: The Australian Council
of Deans of Education. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://www.acde.edu.au/datarepository.html

6
Ibid. (p24)
10

Summary: An ACDE project that explores data management and integration issues in the context of
research of teacher education and provides an excellent illustration of data integration issues in
educational research (and the potential of eResearch). As the report says “The ACDE believes that
the quality of teacher education, and thus the future development of the teaching profession, can
be enhanced by an effective national data repository for teacher education.” This scoping study
investigates the feasibility and outlines key specifications of a national data repository relevant to
research and decision‐making in teacher education.
***
Prosser, J., Clark, A., & Wiles, R. (2008). Visual Research Ethics at the Crossroads. Working Paper No
10, November 2008. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/realities/publications/workingpapers
Summary: This review provides detailed discussion of ethical questions in visual research that, with
technological advances in digital imaging has become increasingly more common in educational
research. The authors argue that visual research methods challenge more traditional ethical
practices associated with informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, and dissemination. They
argue that “research ethics are contested, dynamic and contextual and as such, are best approached
through detailed understanding of the concrete, everyday situations in which they are applied.”
***
Fitzgerald, A. & Pappalardo, K. (2007). Building the infrastructure for data access and reuse in
collaborative research: An analysis of the legal context. Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law
Project. Retrieved 2010‐12‐06 from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/8865
Summary: This Report is a part of the DEST funded Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law and Legal
Framework for e‐Research projects. This is a report that examines the possibilities to build a legal
framework and management infrastructure for open access and reuse of research data in the
Australian eResearch context. It describes current regulatory frameworks and existing practices
adopted in different data sharing projects, including in social science and social policy databases. It
reviews key legal aspects, such as confidentiality and copyright, as well as reviews data sharing
frameworks in several countries. While this study is not specific to educational research, it examines
some relevant broader themes and questions that concern educational research.
Educational data repositories and projects
Kaleidoscope: Centralized Research Data Repository. Retrieved 2010‐10‐02 from http://www.noe‐
kaleidoscope.org/group/datarep
Summary: This EU Network investigates how to combine different kinds of educational research data
(mainly in the area of technology enhanced learning) into a single repository. This data could come
from different contexts, represent different pedagogical perspectives and different levels of
granularity, such as: laboratory results and classroom learning results; data about inquiry‐based
11

learning and one‐on‐one tutoring; cognitive level and social level of learning. Currently the website
outlines a preliminary design for a shared research data repository.
***
PSLC DataShop ‐ a data repository and analysis service of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center.
Retrieved 2010‐10‐02 from http://www.learnlab.org/technologies/datashop
Summary: DataShop is an integrated open data repository of tools for visualisation and analysis of
data deriving from interactions with online course materials and intelligent tutoring systems. This
service is maintained by the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. DataShop uses specific Tutor
Message data format. According to the information, currently there are over 200 datasets that
include 42 million student actions. The service is free and some datasets are publicly available.
***
OpenFace repository of Openproof project. Retrieved 2010‐10‐02 from
http://ggww.stanford.edu/NGUS/Openproof
Summary: As a part of OpenProof project concerned with the use of software for learning logic,
Stanford Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) is planning to develop OpenFace
data repository and web‐based interface for data filtering, sharing and reuse of students’ interaction
with software data. Currently this data corpus contains millions of student records, and student
difficulties in learning logic are analysed using data mining techniques.
***
Australian Social Science Data Archive. Retrieved 2010‐10‐02 from http://assda.anu.edu.au
Summary: The Social Science Data Archive is a consortium of Australian universities based at the
ANU. It holds computer‐readable data of social, political and economic data, including education
with an aim to make them available for further analysis. Similar social data repositories and archives,
in which one could find educational data are maintained by the Council of European Social Science
Data Archives (CESSDA, http://www.nsd.uib.no/Cessda), the UK data archive (http://www.data‐
archive.ac.uk) and various institutions in other countries. A list of various social science data archives
could be found on Sociosite (http://www.sociosite.net/databases.php) that is based at the
University of Amsterdam.
***
IEA Study Data Repository. Retrieved 2010‐10‐02 from
http://www.iea.nl/iea_studies_datasets.html#c984
Summary: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement publishes data
from most of completed international studies, such as CivED, PIRLS, RL II, SITES, TIMSS and TIMSS
Advanced. It releases datasets and documentation as well as provides data analysis tools that allow
the combination and interrogation of data.
12

***
International Archive of Educational Data (IAED). Retrieved 2010‐10‐02 from
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/IAED
Summary: An international educational data archive of an inter‐university Consortium for Political
and Social Research at the University of Michigan. It is a typical educational data archive. The
website states that “Archive acquires, processes, documents, and disseminates data collected by
national, state or provincial, local, and private organizations, pertaining to all levels of education in
countries for which data can be made available <...> The data stored in this Archive are intended to
support a wide variety of comparative and longitudinal research through the preservation and
sharing of data resources.” Data include typical records about education, such as funding, personnel,
teaching resources, facilities, drop‐out rates, test scores. Data files, documentation, and reports
related mainly to the education in the United States are downloadable from the website.
***
MySchool, ACARA. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from http://www.myschool.edu.au
Summary: My School is an official Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
(ACARA) information service. The website provides public access to a searchable database of some
statistical information about the Australian schools. It allows comparison of performance,
administrative and contextual data, including school location characteristics and student national
testing scores. Public and scholarly debate that has arisen after the launch of MySchool website in
Australia is just one illustration of new ethical concerns.
Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational
Researcher, 26(6), 4−10. ‐‐ In this seminal paper Eisner discusses some potential strengths
and weaknesses of alternative forms of data representation in educational inquiry process
and dissemination primarily focusing on visual forms of data representation, such as video.
He specifically highlights some promises of digital technologies in representing data and
research findings in new ways, “It is not beyond our practical capabilities to provide material
that combines text and image, image and music, music and measurement. The computer
may make possible what our pictureless journals find impossible to provide” (p.9).
Schneider, B. (2004). Building a scientific community: The need for replication. Teachers College
Record, 106(7), 1471‐1483. ‐‐ This article argues for the importance of replication and data
sharing in educational research. Relying on standards set in other disciplines, such as
sociology, the article discusses how professional associations can help to create norms and
incentives for data sharing and data archiving.
Crawford, V. M., Schlager, M., Penuel, W. R., & Toyama, Y. (2008). Supporting the art of teaching in a
data‐rich, high performance learning environment. In E. B. Mandinach & M. Honey (Eds.),
Linking data and learning (pp. 109‐129). New York: Teachers College Press. ‐‐ While many
13

papers in this book focus on data‐driven decision making (DDDM) based on standardized
test data, this paper argues that teachers instructional decision‐making requires technical
and social supports for collecting, interpreting and integrating back into the instructional
routines data seamlessly in real time, that is, how eResearch tools could be used to support
teacher classroom decisions directly while the learning is still under way?
Schwartz, A., Pappas, C., & Sandlow, L. J. Data repositories for medical education research: Issues
and recommendations. Academic Medicine, 85(5), 837‐843
810.1097/ACM.1090b1013e3181d74562. ‐‐ This paper discuses issues related to creation of
a global digital repository for medical education research. The paper reviews digital
repositories in medicine, social sciences, and education and present some examples. It
discusses potential benefits of such data repositories for education.
Melis, E., McLaren, B., & Solomon, S. (2008). Towards accessing disparate educational data in a
single, unified manner. In Dillenbourg, P. & Specht, M. (Eds.), Times of convergence.
Technologies across learning contexts (Vol. 5192, pp. 280‐283): Springer Berlin / Heidelberg.
‐‐ This paper describes some initial ideas adopted in the above described Kaleidoscope
Centralized Research Data Repository project.
Carusi, A., & Jirotka, M. (2009). From data archive to ethical labyrinth. Qualitative Research, 9(3),
285‐298. ‐‐ This paper specifically focuses on ethical questions at institutional, disciplinary
and personal level that social science researchers face depositing data in digital archives.
Carlson, S., & Anderson, B. (2007). What are data? The many kinds of data and their implications for
data re‐use. Journal of Computer‐mediated Communication, 12(2), article 15. Retrieved
2010‐10‐12 from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083‐6101.2007.00342.x/full
‐‐ This paper examines the implications of some common social research methodological
practices for the eResearch objective of widespread data re‐use.
Parry, O., & Mauthner, N. S. (2004). Whose data are they anyway? Sociology, 38(1), 139‐152. ‐‐ The
paper suggests that new calls to archive, access and (re‐)analyse qualitative data raise a set
of ethical issues ‐ confidentiality, anonymity and informed consent ‐ and also discusses
methodological implications. It is the first paper in the longer chain of responses that have
been published in Sociology about ethical challenges and overall optimism surrounding
qualitative data sharing and reuse.
Battles, H.T. (2010). Exploring ethical and methodological issues in internet‐based research with
adolescents. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 9(1), 27‐39. Retrieved 2011‐02‐21
from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/IJQM/article/viewFile/5017/6480 ‐‐ The
paper explores ethical issues related to internet‐based qualitative research with adolescents
and at the same time provides a broader review of the literature on internet research ethics
and surrounding issues relevant to educational online research.
14

3. Technologyenhanced research methods
About
Digital technologies have entered into social inquiry practices in at least three distinct ways. First, ICT
has provided a set of new tools to support and extend traditional inquiry approaches, including
quantitative and qualitative techniques. For example, such tools as online surveys (e.g., Survey
Monkey, Zoomerang), software packages for statistical analysis (e.g., SPSS, SAS, AMOS) and tools for
qualitative data analysis (e.g., NVivo, Nudist, StudioCode) have been used rather broadly across all
social sciences, including education. More recently, this toolkit has been extended with other
remote data collection techniques, such as online interviewing and focus groups, and increasingly
more sophisticated tools for data analysis, such as video analysis software or complex multilevel
statistical modelling tools. Easily accessible video recording devices and tools for analysis made
visual methods and observational research techniques more cost‐effective and accessible for
researchers. Some of these video analysis tools have been designed to support remote analysis,
enabling collaborative and participatory data analysis approaches that involve groups of researchers,
teachers and even students.
Second, social research approaches have been extended to virtual, where they are distributed across
physical and social settings and mediated by technologies. Some traditional social research
techniques used to co‐present investigations, such as ethnography and interaction analysis, have
been significantly extended and adapted for studying social and learning phenomena in virtual
spaces giving rise to a set of online research approaches, such as virtual ethnography or computer‐
mediated communication analysis.
Third, a set of new computational and data‐driven analytical methods, which would not be possible
without computer speed and computer‐assisted visualisation, have been created for conducting new
types of scholarly investigation. In the latter category one could find a range of approaches. For
example, multi‐agent and other modelling techniques are used to predict and plan social policies.
Social network theories and software tools are used visualise interactions and study ties and
patterns in formal and informal learning communities and student groups. So called “data mining,”
which combines methods of database management, statistics and artificial intelligence, is used to
extract student profiles and learning patterns from large institutional datasets as well as online
learning logs. Recent interest in so called “academic analytics”, “learning analytics” and other data‐
driven approaches that could support teacher and institutional decision‐making indicates the
potential of new research approaches and techniques in education. The main challenge, however, is
that a number of new research approaches and techniques have been emerging on the margins of
the mainstream educational research (typically at the intersections of computer science, cognitive
science and education and not infrequently as technical proof‐to‐concept engineering projects).
Such approaches are still relatively unknown to the broader education research community,
including research students. Selected resources and bibliography below aim to illustrate the range of
ICT‐enhanced research approaches and the range of possibilities for their use in educational inquiry.
15

Online readings
Baker, R. S. J. D., & Yacef, K. (2009). The state of educational data mining in 2009: A review and
future visions. JEDM ‐ Journal of Educational Data Mining, 1(1), 3‐17. Retrieved 2010‐08‐05 from
http://www.educationaldatamining.org/JEDM/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64
&Itemid=55
Summary: Educational Data Mining – is a new research field that emerged at the intersection of
education, data management, computer sciences and some other related disciplines. It mainly
involves a process of sifting through large amounts of various kinds of educational and learning data.
The main aim is to detect student profiles and patterns of their behaviour and help to offer more
individualised and “intelligent” assistance and feedback. These data could include (and combine)
various kinds of data, such as institutional records about students and their performance,
information about the courses, or ‐ in case of online learning ‐ digital traces of student learning in an
online environment. This paper provides a review of EDM field and main applications.
***
Brown, A. (2007) Social networks. London: TLRP. Retrieved 2010‐08‐05 from
http://www.bera.ac.uk/social‐networks
Summary: This resource provides a brief introduction to social network analysis in education. Social
Network Analysis is an approach that conceptualises social reality in terms of networks of social
relationships and investigates these social links between individuals, groups or organizations. This
technique has become particularly more common with the development of software tools for
visualising social networks. In educational research, social network analysis is applied in a range of
contexts and for diverse purposes. For example, social network analysis is used for analysing
professional development networks, formal and informal learning networks and in various kinds of
institutional research. Social network analysis is also used for analysing student group learning in
online spaces and is one of analytical techniques used in learning analytics (see below).
***
Derry, S.J. (Ed.) (2007) Guidelines for video research in education: Recommendations from an expert
panel. July 2007. Data Research and Development Center, IL. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from
http://drdc.uchicago.edu/what/video‐research‐guidelines.pdf
Summary: Increasingly more educational studies use video as a way of capturing data and as an
important data source for the investigation of learning processes. Video particularly has become
widespread with availability of affordable video recording devices and software tools for analysis of
video records. These guidelines, developed by the leading experts in this field of video analysis
provide a brief review of developments in this broad research field and an introduction to key
aspects of video analysis. A separate users’ guide for the report can be found at
http://drdc.uchicago.edu/what/video‐research.html (Retrieved 2011‐02‐22). An updated shorter
version of these guidelines has been published in 2010 in the Journal of the Learning Sciences (see
reference below).
16

***
Elias, T. (2011) Learning Analytics: Definitions, Processes and Potential. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from
http://learninganalytics.net/LearningAnalyticsDefinitionsProcessesPotential.pdf
Summary: Learning analytics is quite a recent development in educational research that focuses on
analysis of student learning processes (vs. products) using a range of analytical techniques (including
data mining, social network analysis), but particularly focuses on the analysis of digital learning
traces captured in online learning management systems and on how these data could be used to
improve student learning. This paper provides a comprehensive introduction and review of this field
and its potential.
***
Campbell, J. P., & Oblinger, D. G. (2007). Academic analytics. Educause White Paper. Retrieved 2011‐
02‐25 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/PUB6101.pdf .
Summary: Academic analytics is a part of a “learning analytics” movement that specifically focuses
in institutional datasets. “Academic analytics marries that data with statistical techniques and
predictive modeling to help faculty and advisors determine which students may face academic
difficulty, allowing interventions to help them succeed.”
***
Fu,X., Janeczek, C., Kimball, J., Spetka, K. (2010) Evaluation of the Impact of Engineering Education
Research Grants Using Software Tools: A Foundation. (BSc project), Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
December 16, 2010. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E‐project/Available/E‐
project‐121610‐123054/unrestricted/NSF_Team_B10.pdf
Summary: This project aimed to provide the NSF with a software suite which assists in evaluating the
impact of engineering education research grants. Among other things, this project reviews and
compares some software tools that could be used in such evaluations for data analysis and
visualisation, such as software for social network analysis and word count generators.
Online resources and examples
Learning and Knowledge Analytics. Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at
Athabasca University, Canada. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from http://www.learninganalytics.net
Summary: This site provides a gateway to various resources on learning and knowledge analytics. It
is created as an access point for an open distance course organised in conjunction with Learning and
Knowledge Analytics 2011 Conference at Athabasca University, Canada and contains a full archive of
course materials and a range of resources related to various aspects Learning analytics, including
discussions about the scope of this field, “big data”, software tools.
***
17

Exploring online training methods. ReStore. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from
http://www.restore.ac.uk/orm/site/home.htm
Summary: This site provides a simple introduction and learning materials about basic online research
techniques that could be used in social studies, such as online questionnaires and online interviews.
It also provides a brief introduction to “Online methodological futures” such as analysis of social
networks, use of Web2.0 in social research. This resource was developed under ESRC‐funded
projects.
***
Educational Data Mining. International Working Group on Educational Data Mining. Retrieved 2010‐
11‐05 from http://www.educationaldatamining.org
Summary: EDM is a new, but relatively well established international research community. It has its
journal and organises annual conferences. EDM community’s website provides a gateway to EDM
journal, conference proceedings, events and other resources and developments in this field.
***
Three‐City Study. John Hopkins University. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from
http://web.jhu.edu/threecitystudy
Summary: Three‐City Study, a large scale longitudinal study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio that
investigates well‐being of low‐income children and families in the post‐welfare reform era. It
comprises three interrelated components: longitudinal surveys, embedded developmental studies,
and contextual, comparative ethnographic studies. One of the distinct features of this large study is
that most of data, documentation and reports of the projects from various surveys and
developmental studies are publicly available on the project website.
eResearch tools
SNAPP: Social Networks Adapting Pedagogical Practice. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from
http://research.uow.edu.au/learningnetworks/seeing/snapp
Summary: SNAPP is a student online discussion analysis tool that, using social network analysis
methods, extracts and visualizes the student interactions in discussion forum posts and replies. It
allows teachers in to identify patterns of student interactions at any stage of course and accordingly
make further teaching decisions. SNAPP is compatible with the some well known commercial and
open source learning management systems, such as Blackboard and Moodle. Project led by the
University of Wollongong.
***
Gephi. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from http://gephi.org
Gephi is an open‐source and free interactive visualization software platform for exploring different
kinds of networks and systems, including social network analysis and link analysis. Some examples of
18

how Gephi has been used in various kinds of social research (such as alumni network analysis) is
available in Gephi research webpage http://wiki.gephi.org/index.php/Gephi_Research (Retrieved
2011‐02‐22) Some sample databases are available at Gephi datasets webpage
http://wiki.gephi.org/index.php/Datasets#Infrastructure_networks (Retrieved 2011‐02‐22).
***
WebDIVER, Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from http://diver.stanford.edu
Summary: A web‐based tool for collaborative video analysis. It can be used for distributed access to
video materials, search, and annotation. Developed mainly for educational data analysis purposes.
As DIVER website says, “A main principle of DIVER's design is to enhance the user's ability to
maintain peripheral awareness of context via its overview window while simultaneously focusing on
details using the virtual camera rectangle.” Project led by Stanford Center for Innovations in
Learning (SCIL).
***
Transana. Retrieved 2011‐02‐22 from http://www.transana.org
Summary: Transana is an open source (inexpensive) and well documented software tool for
advanced digital video and audio analysis and management. It allows researchers to create and
organize large video collections and clips, search for keywords, engage in data mining and
hypothesis testing across collections, and so on. Transana has been developed for, and is used
widely in, education research. Project led by the Center for Education Research, University of
Wisconsin‐Madison.
General overviews of technology enhanced research methods
Markauskaite, L. (2011). Digital knowledge and digital research: What does eResearch offer
education and social policy? In L. Markauskaite, P. Freebody & J. Irwin (Eds.), Linking
scholarship, policy and practice: Methodological choices and research designs for
educational and social change. Springer. ‐‐ A review of eResearch methods for educational
and social policy research.
Hine, C. (Ed.). (2005). Virtual methods: Issues in social research on the internet. Oxford: Berg. ‐‐ A
discussion of methodological issues in social online research
Markham, A. N., & Baym, N. K. (Eds.). (2009). Internet inquiry: Conversations about method. Los
Angeles: Sage. ‐‐ A discussion of some of the issues associated with conducting qualitative
research via the internet.
Cox, R. (2007). Technology‐enhanced research: Educational ICT systems as research instruments.
London: TLRP. Online at http://www.tlrp.org/capacity/rm/wt/cox (Retrieved 2011‐02‐22) –
An introduction how software tools could be used in ICT‐enhanced learning research.
19

Virtual ethnography
Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. London: Sage. ‐‐ This book provides detail general introduction
to a virtual ethnography as a methodological approach.
White, M. L. (2009). Ethnography 2.0: Writing with digital video. Ethnography and Education, 4(3),
389 ‐ 414. ‐ This paper provides an example of virtual ethnography in educational research.
Charnet, C., & Veyrier, C.‐A. (2008). Virtual ethnography methodology for researching networked
learning. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Networked Learning (pp.32‐
37). Halkidiki, Greece: ICNL ‐‐ This paper illustrates how virtual ethnography has been used
for studying online learning.
Video analysis in education
Derry, S. J., Pea, R. D., Barron, B., Engle, R. A., Erickson, F., Goldman, R., et al. (2010). Conducting
video research in the learning sciences: Guidance on selection, analysis, technology, and
ethics. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19(1), 3‐53. ‐‐ This is an updated and abbreviated
version of the Video analysis guidelines listed above. It includes an appendix with a list of
software tools for video analysis specifically developed or commonly used for educational
research, such as Transana, WebDriver.
Pea, R., Lindgren, R., & Rosen, J. (2008). Cognitive technologies for establishing, sharing and
comparing perspectives on video over computer networks. Social Science Information, 47(3),
353‐370. ‐‐ This paper describes a video analysis platform (DIVER) that was specifically
designed to support collaboration in analysing video data.
Armstrong, V., & Curranb, S. (2006). Developing a collaborative model of research using digital
video. Computers and Education, 46(3), 336−347. ‐‐ An example illustrating how video was
used for enhancing participants involvement in data analysis process.
Givvin, K. B., Hiebert, J., Jacobs, J. K., Hollingsworth, H., & Gallimore, R. (2005). Are there national
patterns of teaching? Evidence from the TIMSS 1999 video study. Comparative Education
Review, 49(3), 311−343. ‐‐ An example illustrating how video observations were used in a
large international comparative study.
Educational data and text mining
Zhao, C.‐M., & Luan, J. (2006). Data mining: Going beyond traditional statistics. New Directions for
Institutional Research, 131, 7‐16. ‐‐ An introduction to educational data mining for analysing
intuitional data.
Romero, A. C., & Ventura, S. (2007). Educational data mining: A survey from 1995 to 2005. Expert
Systems with Applications, 33, 135−146. ‐‐ A review of key directions and developments in
educational data mining.
20

Ananiadou, S., Rea, B., Okazaki, N., Procter, R., & Thomas, J. (2009). Supporting systematic reviews
using text mining. Social Science Computer Review, 27(4), 509‐523. ‐‐ This paper describes
how text mining solutions could enhance the production of systematic literature reviews.
Lin, F.‐R., Hsieh, L.‐S., & Chuang, F.‐T. (2009). Discovering genres of online discussion threads via text
mining. Computers & Education, 52(2), 481‐495. ‐‐ This paper shows how text mining and
automated genre analysis in online learning discussions.
Zhao, C.‐M., & Luan, J. (2006). Data mining: Going beyond traditional statistics. New Directions for
Institutional Research, 131, 7‐16. ‐‐ An introduction to educational data mining for analysing
intuitional data.
Social network analysis and web and knowledge analytics
Rogers, P. C., McEwen, M. R., & Pond, S. J. (2010). The use of web analytics in the design and
evaluation of distance education. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging technologies in distance
education (pp. 231‐247). Edmonton: AU Press, Athabasca University. ‐‐ This chapter focuses
on online dimension of learning analytics ‐‐ how to use online learning behaviour tracking
possibilities to improve decision‐making and students’ learning.
de Laat, M., Lally, V., Lipponen, L., & Simons, R.‐J. (2007). Investigating patterns of interaction in
networked learning and computer‐supported collaborative learning: A role for social
network analysis. International Journal of Computer‐Supported Collaborative Learning, 2(1),
87−103. – This paper explores how social network analysis can be used in combination with
other methods when studying networked learning.
Hawe, P., & Ghali, L. (2008). Use of social network analysis to map the social relationships of staff
and teachers at school. Health education research, 23(1), 62‐69. – An example of how social
network analysis was used for exploring social relationships in health promotion research in
a high school.
Dawson, S. P. (2008). A study of the relationship between student social networks and sense of
community. Educational Technology and Society, 11(3), 224‐238. – An example of how
SNAPP software has been applied in a study of online learning in higher education.
21

4. Virtual research environments, networks and research
collaboration
About
Collaboration and shared work on joint research projects distributed across settings, time, data,
information sources and expertises are the core enablers of new research discoveries and an
overarching aspect of eResearch. A Virtual Research Environment (VRE) is an integrated
infrastructure that brings together all other eResearch affordances, such as computational
resources, remote instruments, data, and tools for communication. As JISC website states, “The
purpose of a Virtual Research Environment is to help researchers from all disciplines to work
collaboratively by managing the increasingly complex range of tasks involved in carrying out
research on both small and large scales. <..> The term VRE is now best thought of as shorthand for
the tools and technologies needed by researchers to do their research, interact with other
researchers (who may come from different disciplines, institutions or countries) and to make use of
resources and technical infrastructures available both locally and nationally.”7 The term VRE is an
umbrella term that includes a range of other terms used to refer similar distributed and integrated
virtual spaces and practices, such as “collaboratories”, “virtual organisations”, “virtual laboratories”
and “virtual research communities”. VREs can be used for the entire cycle of knowledge production
or for different stages of research project, such as planning, analysis, final writing of papers and
publishing. They can also support different kinds of collaborative activities, such as data sharing,
access to tools for data collection or data analysis, collaborative data analysis, project management,
synchronous and asynchronous communication. Significant initial attention has been on creating
general infrastructures and services for research collaboration that could be used across a range of
disciplines, such as security tools, tools for remote synchronous research meetings. However, detail
configuration of a VREs typically depend on specific context in which technological affordances are
used, such as discipline, established research practices, the nature of research project and even
specific research goal. Thus, a number of VREs have been created for specific disciplinary research
(e.g., health, astronomy) or specific research purposes (e.g., for performing arts research in
Australia;8 and for Canadian writing research9).
Several VREs have been also created and used in educational research. Most of these pioneering
projects have mainly focused on creating shared spaces for exchanging data and information
resources and enabling virtual communication. There have been several collaborative video analysis
projects that primarily focused on joint data annotation and analysis, but overall shared analytical
tools, joint data analysis and collaborative tackling of specific research challenges (beyond sharing

7
Joint Information Systems Committee. Virtual research environment programme. Retrieved 2012‐02‐21 from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/vre.aspx.
8
See AusStage project. Retrieved 2012‐02‐21 from http://www.ausstage.edu.au.
9
See CWRC project. Retrieved 2012‐02‐21 from http://www.cwrc.ca.
22

resources) have been rarely the core part of knowledge production in educational research. Overall,
in education, as in some other disciplines, VREs have been perceived as important enablers of
collaborative research of more complex educational issues that require integrating data resources
and joint research effort. They particularly have been perceived as important enablers of more
democratic forms of innovation and research, such as participatory inquiry and joint user‐doer
innovation10. However, much of the initial efforts have been allocated for creating technology‐
enhanced collaborative research tools, while the uptake of these tools and collaborative practices
has been relatively slow. As Carusi and Reimer’s review of VRE landscape concludes, “VREs need to
be conceptualised as community building projects rather than technology projects”11. In short, VREs
are not only collections of resources and tools, but also intellectual and cultural spaces. Thus, they
should to be created with, and sustained by, communities who use them, rather than developed for
them by others. Some VRE projects in education and some and examples from other disciplines are
summarised below.
Online readings
Fraser, M. (2005). Virtual research environments: Overview and activity. Ariadne, 44. Retrieved
2011‐02‐21 from http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue44/fraser
Summary: This article provides a brief and simple introduction to virtual research environments,
their role in the research life cycle, and VRE possibilities to support various aspects of research
practice. It also discusses the role of institutional arrangements and states, “A VRE will not be able to
facilitate much research if is not integrated with existing research infrastructure and policies”. The
paper also provides a review of three VRE projects, including two specific VRE projects for Biology
and Humanities.
***
Procter. R (2006) IT for Education Research: using new technology to enhance a complex research
programme. TRLP research briefing, 16. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.tlrp.org/dspace/retrieve/1237/procterrb%28proof2%29.pdf
Summary: The Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) has been of the largest
programmes of educational research in the UK that incorporated more than 50 different projects. A
special IT infrastructure has been created to enhance TRLP research, development and user
engagement. The infrastructure combined some existing technologies with newly developed
elements designed specifically for the programme and projects’ needs. In addition to a digital
repository for project publications and dissemination tools for publicising events and findings, TLRP
infrastructure also included Virtual Research Environments for researchers’ collaborative work that

10
See Bentley, T., & Gillinson, S. (2007). A D&R system for education. UK: Innovation unit.
11
Carusi, A., & Reimer, T. (2010). Virtual research environment: Collaborative landscape study. The UK: JISC,
(p5).
23

provided them with shared storage and collaboration tools. This briefing provides an overview of
TRLP IT infrastructure and discussed major implications.
***
Carusi, A., & Reimer, T. (2010). Virtual research environment: Collaborative landscape study. The UK:
JISC. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/vrelandscapereport.pdf
Summary: The VRE Landscape Study was undertaken as a part of the JISC VRE initiative that
examines VRE‐related programmes and projects in several countries. The report provides a detailed
review of international developments in the area of virtual research communities and VRE in various
disciplines. It states that “There has been a great deal of activity over the past few years in terms of
prototype and demonstration systems moving into the mainstream of research practice. Notable
trends are emerging as researchers increasingly apply collaborative systems to everyday research
tasks.” The report concludes that VREs have the potential to benefit research in all disciplines at all
stages of research, but the most important challenge is VREs sustainability. They recommend that
“VRE initiators and developers need to plan in advance for engaging the broader research
community which will sustain the VRE in the medium‐ and long‐term.” (p.5)
***
empirica (2010) eResearch2020. Retrieved 2011‐02‐06 from http://www.eresearch2020.eu
Summary: A joint EU study that looks at the creation of virtual research communities and the role of
e‐infrastructure. It provides a review of organizational structures and mechanisms of global virtual
research communities and examples of virtual research communities in, and across, various
disciplines (two of them from humanities and social sciences). Among key concerns discussed are
various policy and institutional issues. The report provides a list of policy and technical
recommendations.
Virtual research environments and projects
A Virtual Research Environment for Education. TRLP and BERA. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://groups.tlrp.org/access/content/public/gateway_text2‐1.html
Summary: A Virtual Research Environment developed as a part of ESRC Teaching and Learning
Research Programme (TRLP) provides an IT infrastructure designed to support research
collaboration of educational researchers within TRLP program and used by British Educational
Research Association (BERA) for research collaboration purposes. It provides researchers with secure
shared online collaboration and communication tools and storage. VRE was developed and is hosted
at the Centre for Applied Research into Educational Technologies (CARET), at the University of
Cambridge. Users could get a VRE account and join some open BERA groups on this site
http://www.bera.ac.uk/social‐networks .
***
24

Virtual research environment programme. The UK: JISC. Retrieved 2011‐02‐20 from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/vre.aspx
Summary: Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) programme that has been funding various
VRE development projects and initiatives in the UK since 2004. The programme has supported a
number of VRE initiatives for development of VREs within and across different disciplines, including
VREs for cancer research, humanities, business, archaeology and education (see TRLP project above).
The JISC website provides an overview and of all funded projects and some commissioned reports
(some of them are annotated above).
***
Video Collaboration Service. Australia: ARCS. Retrieved 2011‐02‐20 from
http://www.arcs.org.au/index.php/services/video‐collaboration
Summary: The Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS) provides free access to real time
video collaboration facilities for researchers in Australia. ARCS tools provide secure facilities for
remote “face‐to face” video meetings, presentation, collaborative visualisation, information sharing,
transfer of files and other activities common in joint meetings. ARCS offers several versions of
service: Desktop Video Collaboration (called EVO) that is designed for users of personal computers
who need secure and more advanced collaboration tools than Skype; and Group Video Collaboration
Service (access grid) that is designed for distributed group meetings and requires more advanced
audio/video capabilities.
Fowler, Z. L., Baird, A., Davies, S. M. B., Procter, R., Baron, S., & Salisbury, J. (2010). Building research
capacity in education: Evidence from recent initiatives in England, Scotland and Wales.
International Journal for Researcher Development, 1(2), 173‐ 189. Retrieved 2011‐02‐20
from http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/224926 (manuscript) ‐‐ This paper
discusses a broader issue of research capacity building in education and positions in this
context the potential role of VREs.
Wusteman, J. (2008). Editorial: Virtual research environments: What is the librarian's role? Journal of
Librarianship and Information Science, 40(2), 67‐70. ‐‐ An editorial that discusses libraries’
role in development and us of VREs in universities. “If VREs are to achieve their potential in
supporting researchers, librarians need to ensure that they are involved at this early stage of
their evolution so that they can influence their development.”
Laterza, V., Carmichael, P., & Procter, R. (2007). The doubtful guest? A virtual research environment
for education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 16(3), 249‐267. ‐‐ This paper describes
how a VRE has been implemented by three projects in the above mentioned TLRP
programme. It shows and discusses several contrasting patterns of adoption of the same
VRE in three different research contexts.
25

Smeyers, P., & Depaepe, M. (2007). Educational research: Networks and technologies. The
Netherlands: Springer. ‐‐ This book starts from the argument that “There have always been
networks in the context of educational research as well as particular technologies.” The
chapters in this collection take philosophical and historical perspectives, and discuss
how‘networks’ and ‘technologies’ could be characterised in contemporary educational
research.
Wilson, A., Rimpilainen, S., Skinner, D., Cassidy, C., Christie, D., Coutts, N., et al. (2007). Using a
virtual research environment to support new models of collaborative and participative
research in Scottish education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 16(3), 289‐304. ‐‐ This
paper discussed the use of the VRE in developing "communities of enquiry" Scottish
education and research project. It argues that “VREs are developing as new environments in
which participants engage and generate new forms of knowledge.”
26

5. Digital publishing and dissemination
About
The application of information and communication technologies for disseminating and locating
relevant scholarly findings has become a standard part of research routines. For example, majority
of traditional (printed) journals have become accessible in digital format via integrated databases.
Increasingly more scholarly books are also available in a digital form and accessible online. Search
engines and tools to locate cited references, who cites a paper and other “semantically” related
publications have made a discovery of relevant sources technically easy and quick. Overall, semantic
technologies, that underpin such online systems, have made a huge difference in how one could go
about finding relevant sources and how much knowledge one could locate and bring into a new
project (even one might feel that this has created “information overload” rather than enhanced
research quality). Increasingly, more research findings become disseminated in a range of other
ways ‐ such as project and institutional websites, blogs wikis and social network sites ‐ and in a
variety of media ‐ such as video clips and multimedia.
Most of discussions about the potential of eResearch to enhance research dissemination further
have focused on a range of aspects that primarily aim to improve quality and accessibility of
research outputs. Such topics include open access, integration of supporting evidence with results,
open peer review, social publishing, and access to “gray literature”. For example, increasingly more
scientific journals provide possibilities to publish not only a paper, but also supplementary materials
‐ such as data, technical specifications, and multi‐media supplements ‐ and by this make research
procedures and findings more transparent. Some publishers make reviewers’ reports and other
related correspondence on a paper public; and, after a paper has been accepted and published,
readers have possibilities to provide further commentaries and reviews. Some scientific journals
have been also trailing ‘social publishing’ tools and practices. For example, some journal websites
provide possibilities to supplement scientific publications with a brief video for general public and
interact with the authors via posting comments on a journal website.
Some of these general possibilities have been applied for disseminating educational research. For
example, most of the above mentioned “social publishing” possibilities are available in Teachers’
College Record online publication system. However, such practices are not yet common. Further,
some issues in educational dissemination are more complex than in other domains. For example,
curating and integrating reports, discussion papers, dissertations, unpublished works and other
kinds of so called “gray literature”, which has not been published in mainstream outlets, but is a
valuable source of knowledge for education have become a complex task in such diverse and
dynamic field as education. While ERIC (Educational Resources information Centre) and other similar
gateways have a long experience providing access to unpublished works, such services now face new
issues of how to preserve and annotate more ephemeral sources, such as websites, wikis and blogs.
In fact, the application of technology to communicating educational information has become a
complex and specialised field. Some information scientists have been even proposing to create a
27

new sub‐discipline of “education informatics” that would systematically address new information
challenges in education.12
Online readings: educational research dissemination and open access
Willinsky, J. (in press) New openness in educational research. In C. Russell et al. (Eds.) Sage
Companion to Educational Research. London: Sage. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from
http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/Sage%20Companion.pdf (a pre‐print).
Summary: The paper provides an overview of traditional limitations of conventional scholarly
publishing and introduces to open publishing. It unpacks why researchers should make their
research publications open and why they should publish data. As the paper puts it “Print journals
tend to limit the space available for each article, and as a result the data on which the research is
based and which represented a considerable investment for the researcher (and funder) was often
kept from the public record. <...> The ability for researchers and readers to consult the data, sources
and instruments can serve to strengthen a study’s claims and increase its contribution to other
studies, through replication and re‐analysis, as well as lead to better alignment of measures across
related studies and a greater efficiency of data gathering and use.”
***
Gough, N. (2007). Research quality, digital dissemination and peer review. Australian Association for
Research in Education News, 60(3), 4‐5. Retrieved 2011‐02‐20 from
http://www.aare.edu.au/news/newsplus/news60.pdf
This short article provides an excellent introduction to some recent changes in peer review and
scholarly publishing models associated with the emergence of open access journals and interactive
Web 2.0 publishing opportunities.
***
Collins, J., & Weiner, S. (2010). Proposal for the creation of a sub discipline: Education informatics.
Teachers College Record, 112(10), 2523‐2536. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from
http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/4569474/Collins%20Weiner%20TCR%202010.pdf?seq
uence=1
Summary: This article calls for the creation of a new field at the intersection of information systems
and education entitled “education informatics”. The paper uses this term to refer to “the application
of technology to discovering and communicating education information”. The article provides a
review of some critical changes in information landscape and points out to some gaps in existing
information resource management and their use for education and educational research. This
initiative is, in essence, a response to educational librarians’ concerns about the increasing volume
of (under‐used) digital information and their attempt to embrace advanced technologies in their
field. (See also other papers in the special issue of Teachers College Record, 2010, 112(10)).

12
See Special issue on education informatics. Teachers College Record, 2010, 112(10).
28

***
UCB Library (2010) LIBR 200: Smart Publishing in Education: Rights, Impact, Social Justice. University
of Berkeley Library. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/alacarte/course‐
guide/109‐LIBR200?tab=570
Summary: This website provides a brief introduction for educational researchers to open access. It
defines open access as free availability and unrestricted use of literature on the public internet
“permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of
these articles,<…>, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from
gaining access to the internet itself.” The website primarily focuses on social justice and open access,
but also provides brief reviews of authors’ rights, funding and selected bibliography.
New forms of publishing and dissemination: Examples and frontier projects
SciVee: Making science visible. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://www.scivee.tv
Summary: A well known digital publishing initiative that utilises digital media to “translate” complex
scientific papers to general audiences.
***
Teachers’ College Record. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://www.tcrecord.org
Summary: An educational journal that uses a range of “social publishing” possibilities, such as video
introductions, commentaries and online discussions. The journal, however, is not open access.
***
Enhanced publications. SURF Foundation. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from
http://www.surffoundation.nl/en/themas/openonderzoek/verrijktepublicaties/Pages/default.aspx
Summary: Enhanced publications is a set of SURF Foundation sponsored projects (the Netherlands)
for supporting publishing more than just a final traditional scholarly paper , but also datasets,
illustrations, audio files, and other related materials. As the website states, “More accessible
research output presented in combination with these other elements means better understanding,
greater quality, and more possibilities for science and scholarship.” Currently projects span across
five disciplines: economics, linguistics, musicology, communication sciences, geosciences. The
website provides links to two reports of The DRIVER II project, that was financed by the EC, with
derail review of state of the art and models for enhanced publishing: Enhanced Publications: Linking
Publications and Research Data in Digital Repositories and Emerging Standards for Enhanced
Publications and Repository Technology.
***
eSciDoc. Max Planck Society and FIZ Karlsruhe. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from
https://www.escidoc.org/JSPWiki/en/Overview
29

Summary: A joint project of the Max Planck Society and FIZ Karlsruhe (Germany) that aims to build
an platform for multi‐disciplinary e‐research and primarily focuses on creating “interconnected
knowledge space.” As the website states “In the future, researchers from all over the world will
cooperate, collaborate, and communicate throughout the whole process of knowledge generation
by means of e‐research environments. Typical scenarios include storing, manipulating, enriching,
disseminating, and publishing not only of the final results of the research process, but of all
intermediate steps as well, such as pre‐research documents, primary and experimental data, pre‐
prints, and learning materials.” The project aims to support scientific collaboration more generally,
but the main focus is on supporting the integration of various sources and publishing.
***
Narrative Science. Retrieved 2011‐02‐02 from http://narrativescience.com
Summary: An interesting (visionary) commercial project that aims to create software for generating
narrative from data. As their website states “Narrative Science transforms data into high‐quality
editorial content. Our technology application generates news stories, industry reports, headlines and
more — at scale and without human authoring or editing. Narratives can be created from almost any
data set, be it numbers or text, structured or unstructured.”
Carr, J. A., Collins, J. W., O'Brien, N. P., Weiner, S., & Wright, C. S. (2010). Introduction to the
Teachers College Record special issue on education informatics. Teachers College Record,
112(10), 1‐2. ‐‐ An introduction to a special Teacher’s College record on education
informatics. The issue also contains papers on education informatics and related themes,
such as open access, legal issues and policy implications.
Furlough, M. (2010). Open access, education research, and discovery. Teachers College Record,
112(10), 2623‐2648. ‐‐ An overview of open access opportunities and challenges in
educational research. Synthesises recent studies of researchers’ attitudes toward open
access and examine the extent to which influential education research journals permit it.
Coonin, B., and Younce, L. M.(2010). Publishing in open access education journals: The authors'
perspectives, Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 29 (2), 118‐132. – This paper reports a
study that examines why authors of educational papers choose to publish in open access
journals and how publishing practices within the discipline impact authors’ willingness to
choose open access.
Poschl, U. (2004). Interactive journal concept for improved scientific publishing and quality
assurance. Learned Publishing, 17, 105‐113. ‐‐The paper outlines the concept of interactive
scientific journal, and demonstrates how it has been applied in an open access journal
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. This concept includes multi‐stage publication processes
with interactive peer review and public discussion.
30

Seringhaus, M., & Gerstein, M. (2007). Publishing perishing? Towards tomorrow's information
architecture. BMC Bioinformatics, 8(1), 17. ‐‐ The paper reviews the changing roles of
scholarly journals and databases, and presents a vision of “the optimal information
architecture for the biosciences”. The key claim, that modern publishing systems also need a
new technical architecture “making articles fully computer‐readable with intelligent markup
and Structured Digital Abstracts”.
Manville, S. & Smith, K. (2008) Scholarly Communications in the Education Discipline. A Report
Commissioned by JSTOR. Created March 14, 2008. Ithaka Strategic Services. Retrieved 2011‐
02‐02 from
http://www.ithaka.org/publications/pdfs/JSTOR%20Education%20Study%20Report%20Publi
c%20final1031.pdf ‐‐ A report commissioned by JSTOR that explores how educational
research is conducted and disseminated, and the relative importance of various resources.
The report identifies the growth of externally funded research as one of the drivers for
electronic dissemination, and the decreasing divide between research and practice as an
incentive to make research dissemination more oriented to practitioners and policy makers.
31

6. Australian eResearch context
About
A number of eResearch programs have been initiated over the recent five years in Australia. In 2005,
The Federal Government launched an eResearch Coordinating Committee that in 2007 released An
Australian eResearch Strategy and Implementation Framework. This strategy resulted in a number of
programs outlined in the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Roadmap
(and its subsequent update in 2008). Currently the Federal Government is supporting the two main
sets of investments (managed now by the Department of Innovation Industry Science and Research):
1. The Platforms for Collaboration (PfC), a component of the NCRIS ($82 million, 2007‐2011)
2. eResearch component of the Education Investment Fund (EIF) Super Science initiative ($312
million, 2009‐2013)
Key programs and activities of the Australian eResearch Infrastructure are summarised on The
Platforms for Collaboration website.13 They cover major eResearch aspects, including provision of
platforms for research collaboration, data management, computing facilities and data analysis tools.
These national infrastructures and services are delivered in partnerships with state‐based eResearch
initiatives, such as Intersect in NSW and VeRsi in Victoria.
The majority of eResearch investments have been made into development of generic infrastructures
and services that could be used across disciplines and research infrastructures in natural sciences.
More recently, some more attention has been allocated to enhancement of discipline‐specific
services and tools, including in humanities and social sciences. Examples of eResearch projects in
HASS include Integration and Annotation Services for Australian Literature Communities and
Collaborative Visualisation tools for Creative eResearch 14 (none of projects has been in the area of
educational research). Recently announced eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR)
and Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) programs, that are a part of Super Science initiative,
also aim to support both multi‐purpose and more problem and discipline‐specific eResearch tools
and virtual laboratories. The resources reviewed below include key framing documents and websites
of eResearch initiatives where researchers could find more information about recent eResearch
initiatives, developments and funding opportunities.

13
eResearch Infrastructure, Platforms for Collaboration. Retrieved 2010‐10‐06 from
https://www.pfc.org.au/bin/view/Main/WebHome
14
ASeSS – ASSDA Services for e‐Social Science; Aus‐e‐Lit ‐ Collaborative Integration and Annotation Services for
Australian Literature Communities; Aus‐e‐Stage – Collective Intelligence and Collaborative Visualisation for
Creative eResearch. For project descriptions and full list see ARCS website:
http://www.arcs.org.au/index.php/services/research‐community‐projects/266‐research‐community‐custom‐
projects‐redone (Retrieved 2011‐02‐24).
32

National framing documents and initiatives
DEST. (2006). An Australian e‐research strategy and implementation framework: Final report of the
e‐research coordinating committee. Commonwealth of Australia: Australian Government,
Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://ncris.innovation.gov.au/Documents/eRCCReport.pdf
Summary: This document outlines a national eResearch vision and strategic directions for the next
five years. Among key focus areas relevant for educational research are the development of
infrastructure that supports large‐scale integrated research, eResearch skills and capacity building in
various disciplines, and cultural change that enables collaborative e‐research. This document
provides a good basic introduction to eResearch.
***
NCRIS Committee. (2008). Review of the national collaborative research infrastructure strategy’s
roadmap. Commonwealth of Australia: DEEWR. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://ncris.innovation.gov.au/Documents/2008_Roadmap.pdf
Summary: This strategic roadmap followed by the investment plan outlines national eResearch
investment priorities. After the Roadmap’s review in 2008 humanities, arts and social sciences have
been identified as one of six eResearch priority areas. One of important focuses of eResearch in
social sciences relevant to educational research is the need to connect existing data resources and
establish a system for collecting longitudinal data and tracking major social and behavioural trends.
While the needs of educational research are far beyond the simple integration of existing datasets,
as the first step, such data infrastructure is essential. Note: During 2011, Strategic Roadmap for
Australian Research Infrastructure will be reviewed. The 2011 Strategic Roadmap for Australian
Research Infrastructure Discussion Paper has been released for comment in March 2011. Retrieved
2011‐04‐07 from
http://www.innovation.gov.au/SCIENCE/RESEARCHINFRASTRUCTURE/Pages/default.aspx. For more
information, recent developments and background documents of the national collaborative research
infrastructure, see NCRIS website: http://ncris.innovation.gov.au/Pages/SRARI.aspx .
***
eResearch Infrastructure, Platforms for Collaboration. Retrieved 2010‐10‐06 from
https://www.pfc.org.au/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Summary: This website contains the main information about the eResearch infrastructure programs
funded under Platforms for Collaboration initiative and more recent SuperScience initiative. It
includes an overview of the main components and activities funded from PfC and Super Science
projects and links to relevant program websites, such as Australian National Data Service (ANDS,
http://www.ands.org.au); Australian Research Collaboration Service (ARCS, http://www.arcs.org.au)
and The National eResearch Architecture Taskforce (NeAT, http://www.pfc.org.au).
***
33

National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR). Retrieved 2010‐10‐15 from
http://www.nectar.unimelb.edu.au
Summary: NeCTAR project funded as a part of the Super Science initiative ($47M, 2010‐2013) aims
to develop a national collaboration infrastructure. As the website states “The intention is to support
the so‐called “connected researcher” who at the desktop or the bench‐top has access to a full suite
of digitally enabled data, analytic and modelling resources, specifically relevant to their research”.
Two activities – Research Tools and Virtual Laboratories – are intended to be problem‐ or discipline‐
specific. This includes the provision of problem‐oriented Virtual Laboratories that integrate relevant
research and visualisation tools, data and computational resources for solving specific disciplinary
challenges. Consultation process about these programs started in 2010 October.
State eResearch initiatives
Most of the states have implemented state level eResearch initiatives that, in partnerships with the
national programs, deliver services and support for state universities. Most of the past initiatives
have mainly focused on the infrastructure and services for natural sciences, however, their services
are typically available for researchers in all disciplines. NSW eResearch institute Intersect has a
specific focus on social sciences. State eResearch initiatives include:
• Intersect, NSW ‐‐ http://www.intersect.org.au
• Versi, Victoria ‐‐ https://www.versi.edu.au
• eResearchSA, South Australia ‐‐ http://www.eresearchsa.edu.au
• Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF) ‐‐ http://www.qcif.edu.au
• iVEC, Western Australia ‐‐ http://www.ivec.org
• The Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced Computing (TPAC) ‐‐ http://www.tpac.org.au
34

7. Other eResearch initiatives, topics and issues
About
This section aims to provide a broader context in which the discussion about eResearch and
education is situated and points out to some other topics at the intersection of education, eResearch
and social research. It initially covers three topics related to specifically to education: a) application
of eResearch for researching eLearning; b) eResearch as a topic/domain of school curriculum. Then,
it provides a list of some selected sources that review and/or host ongoing debates about eResearch
developments and challenges in other research domains: a) eResearch in social sciences and
humanities; and b) eScience. It also points out literature on eResearch capacity building, including
doctoral education. This section provides only brief summaries and initial (not annotated) list of
references for further reading.
Researching eLearning with eResearch
One of the natural areas of eResearch application is research of ICT‐enhanced learning, where the
major part of learning activity takes place in a digital space and data trace of student learning
process could be captured in digital media. Section 3 already introduced some more common
eLearning research areas and approaches (educational data mining, learning analytics and virtual
ethnography), this section provides some further references in the literature on how eResearch
enhances, or could enhance, other kinds of research approaches and techniques such as design‐
based research and data collection techniques in the cognitive sciences.
Cox, R. (2007) Technology‐enhanced research: Educational ICT systems as research instruments.
London: TLRP. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://www.bera.ac.uk/technology‐enhanced‐
research‐educational‐ict‐systems‐as‐research‐instruments
Reimann, P., & Markauskaite, L. (2010). New learning ‐ old methods? How e‐research might change
technology‐enhanced learning research. In M. S. Khine & I. M. Saleh (Eds.), New science of
learning: Cognition, computers and collaboration in education (pp. 249‐272). New York, NY:
Springer.
Winne, P. H., Hadwin, A. F., & Gress, C. (2010). The learning kit project: Software tools for supporting
and researching regulation of collaborative learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 26 (5),
806‐814.
Peacock, S., Robertson, A., Williams, S., & Clausen, M. G. (2009). The role of learning technologists in
supporting e‐research. ALT‐J: Research in Learning Technology, 17(2), 115‐ 29.
Spector, J. M. (2008). Cognition and learning in the digital age: Promising research and practice.
Computers in Human Behavior, 24(2), 249‐262.
Romero, A. C., & Ventura, S. (Eds.). (2006). Data mining in e‐learning. Southampton: WITpress.
35

eResearch in school education
While eResearch is an emerging field of scientific inquiry, nevertheless it becomes increasingly more
important topic and a common practice in many scientific domains. Thus, it also becomes an
increasingly more important topic and approach for learning sciences in schools. The bibliography
below provides a brief review of what counts as eScience in school education and some examples of
emerging models of science education. (Note: similar ICT‐enhanced inquiry approaches based on
existing scientific resources, tools and practices are increasingly used for learning various topics in
other curriculum domains, such as history, literature and geography).
Woodgate, D., & Fraser, D. S. (2005). eScience and education 2005: A review. Bath, UK: The
University of Bath. Retrieved 2011‐01‐06 from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/eresearch/escienceinedreport.pdf ‐‐
Report produced for JISC eScience in education strand (see below).
Smith, H., Underwood, J., Fitzpatrick, G., & Luckin, R. (2009). Classroom e‐science: Exposing the work
to make it work. Educational Technology & Society, 12(3), 289‐308.
Underwood, J., Smith, H., Luckin, R., & Fitzpatrick, G. (2008). E‐science in the classroom ‐ towards
viability. Computers & Education, 50(2), 535‐546.
Gordin, D. N., & Pea, R. D. (1995). Prospects for scientific visualization as an educational technology.
The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(3), 249‐279.
JISC eScience in education strand. Retrieved 2010‐01‐06 from
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/eresearch/escienceineducation.aspx ‐‐ Three
JISC funded proof of concept eScience for schools projects.
Special journal on technologies in education and social research
Several special issues and books have been published on various aspects of eResearch in educational
inquiry and social research. Below is the bibliography of editorials of those special issues.
Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J. E. (2009). Learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age:
Web 2.0 and classroom research: What path should we take now? Educational Researcher,
38(4), 246‐259. – The lead paper in the special issue on social technologies in education and
educational research.
Carmichael, P. (2007). Introduction: Technological development, capacity building and knowledge
construction in education research. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 16(3), 235−247. ‐
a special issue comprised of papers reporting experiences from Teaching and Learning
Research and Development Programme (TRLP) and Applied Educational Research Scheme,
the UK.
Carr, J. A., Collins, J. W., O'Brien, N. P., Weiner, S., & Wright, C. S. (2010). Introduction to the
teachers college record special issue on education informatics. Teachers College Record,
112(10), 1‐2 ‐‐ A special issue exploring changes in educational inquiry practices from the
36

library’s perspective and proposing to create a new sub‐discipline concerned with the
application of technology to discovering and communicating educational information, called
“education informatics”.
Halfpenny, P., & Procter, R. (2009). Special issue on e‐social science. Social Science Computer Review,
27(4), 459‐466. ‐‐ A collection that reports a range of pilot eResearch projects in social
sciences and applied social domains, exploring general e‐Social science adoption questions.
Jankowski, N. W. (2007). Exploring e‐science: An introduction. Journal of Computer‐Mediated
Communication, 12(2), 549‐562 ‐‐ A special issue that explores a number of key topics and
challenges in eResearch, such as the nature of data, research collaboration and
communication with users.
Research capacity building
Initiatives, reports and papers related to data (re)use and eResearch capacity building.
Researchers of Tomorrow. The UK: Education for Change. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://explorationforchange.net/index.php/rot‐home.html ‐‐ A three year British Library and
/JISC study tracking the research behaviour of 'Generation Y' doctoral students.
Researcher development and skills. The UK: Research Information Network. Retrieved 2011‐02‐21
from http://www.rin.ac.uk/our‐work/researcher‐development‐and‐skills ‐‐ Studies and
resources produced by Research Information Network that focus on the information‐related
training for researchers.
AIR IPEDS resource Centre. The US: The Association of Institutional Research. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06
from http://www.airweb.org/?page=819 ‐‐ This is one of classical examples how data
repositories might support their data reuse. AIR offer free workshops for those who want to
use existing datasets and research tools for their research projects. One of the AIR activities
is the national graduate fellowship program, funded by the NCES, which provides fellowships
for graduate students who use the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
as a data source in their studies.
Reports and reviews of eResearch in various disciplines
Below is a selected bibliography of some influential reports outlining beginnings and initial directions
of eSciences, eSocial sciences and eHumanities as well as some overviews of the state of art and
future trends of eResearch in various fields.
Atkins, D. E., Droegemeier, K. K., Feldman, S. I., Garcia‐Molina, H., Klein, M. L., Messer‐Schmitt, D. G.,
et al. (2003). Revolutionizing science and engineering through Cyberinfrastructure. Report of
the National Science Foundation blue‐ribbon advisory panel on Cyberinfrastructure.
Arlington, VA: Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, National
Science Foundation.
37

ACLS. (2006). Our Cultural Commonwealth: The final report of the American Council of Learned
Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the humanities and social sciences:
American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the
Humanities and Social Sciences.
Berman, F., & Brady, H. E. (2005). Workshop on Cyberinfrastructure for the social and behavioral
sciences: Final report. National Science Foundation: SBE & CISE. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from
http://www.sdsc.edu/about/director/pubs/SBE/index.html
Blanke, T., Hedges, M., & Dunn, S. (2009). Arts and humanities e‐science ‐ current practices and
future challenges. Future Generation Computer Systems, 25(4), 474‐480.
Hey, T., Tansley, S., & Tolle, K. (Eds.). (2009). The fourth paradigm: Data‐intensive scientific discovery.
Remond: Microsoft Research. Retrieved 2010‐08‐06 from http://research.microsoft.com/en‐
us/collaboration/fourthparadigm/4th_paradigm_book_complete_lr.pdf
eResearch conferences
This section provides some links to websites of some major conferences in eResearch field relevant
to Australian educational researchers. Most conference websites have archives of proceedings.
• International Educational Data Mining conferences and workshops ‐‐
http://educationaldatamining.org/proceedings.html
• International Conference Learning Analytics & Knowledge ‐‐
https://tekri.athabascau.ca/analytics
• eSocial Science Conferences, UK ‐‐ http://www.merc.ac.uk/?q=node/719
• eResearch Australasia Conference ‐‐ http://www.eresearch.edu.au
ARDEN eResearch task group
Dr Lina Markauskaite, The University of Sydney, lina.markauskaite@sydney.edu.au
Professor Robert Fitzgerald, University of Canberra, robert.fitzgerald@canberra.edu.au
Professor Jan Herrington, University of Murdoch, j.herrington@murdoch.edu.au
Dr Ruth Wallace, Charles Darwin University, ruth.wallace@cdu.edu.au
38
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