E-role play for inquiry into transnational education

Abstract

This paper was inspired by the need to evaluate and make recommendations regarding the future directions of Swinburne University’s Transnational Education program. This paper postulates that a qualitative approach to data collection and analysis, using online role play, would produce more meaningful and productive results.

The cultural awakening brought about by this process of assuming and acting out roles based on life in Australia may encourage more students to give further consideration to the possibility of completing their degrees in Australia.

The authors propose to use an established and reliable approach to qualitative data analysis. Crotty’s (1996) 5 step phenomenology is a suitable methodology, favoured by the authors for this particular research. Other phenomenological methodologies (Husserl (1977/1925), and Vallack (2005), are not appropriate in this case. Whereas Crotty’s theoretical framework is informed by constructivism, and allows the researchers to work external to the inquiry, the latter two methodologies demand a degree of subjectivity, which is not feasible for this research.