Jordanne and I chatted back and forth online on the 10th and I wrote her again today to set up a meeting time but forgot we were passing each other on our vacation time away. I just got back from Kentucky and she won't be back until next week. I will be continuing to read through my Lit review documents and trying to figure out if I'm on the right track, at least from the point of view of collecting the right information I need.
I met quickly with Jordanne this afternoon to go over my plans for my theoretical framework. I've been sorting through the Dependent Variables, Independent Variables and Indicators. Here is how I'm planning on presenting them tonight in class.
Theories Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory (Learning Cycle) Independent Variables Simulation-based Training Dependent Variables Customer Service Skills (listening, communication, positive language, patience, product knowledge, good body language, stress management, time management, negotiation) Indicators Year over year annual performance reviews, monthly phone coaching results, one on one coaching, customer complaint/compliments call accuracy, processing speed of customer calls – handling time) Jordanne just sent me an awesome document that might be useful for me in my Lit Review and thesis. I'm going to make time to take a look at it over the next day or two. Thanks!
http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/elearning-for-soft-skills/ Jordanna was a great help again tonight, as always. We focused on my direction for my thesis and how I can start looking for items in my lit review. I may need to broaden my scope out a little bit and take a look at simulation-based training for things like soft skills instead of specifically customer service as a concept. I may need to change and broaden my metrics as well, perhaps realizing the secondary research may not provide enough details on the metrics I initially thought I would be using. I'm going to focus on some business related journals, HR databases that I have access to through my CHRP membership and some training and development journals for additional literature options.
Alright, I've sent off the first draft of my thesis proposal to Jordanne, now to await the feedback. I'm feeling pretty good about it but I have a bit of a concern that my topic is now too specific and I'm going to have to broaden it out.
My chat with Elizabeth and Roland this evening truly offered some new insights to what my focused research question is turning in to and what aspects I still need to consider. My new initial question was "Does simulation-based training improve front-line employee
customer service skill development within the Financial Services sector?". After our conversation, it is looking more like "What are the effects of simulation-based training on front-line employee customer service skill development in the Financial Services sector?". it doesn't seem like a huge change when you first read it but it really is. The overall impact to my research and my ability to really locate and delve into sufficient information should end up being a positive one. We discussed the fact that I'm not just looking at improvements in their skill sets, we are really looking at all sides of the coin. I need to remember to stay open minded to possibilities to negative impacts or even negligible ones where there aren't sufficient enough changes either way to state that they are positive or negative. We discussed metrics, how they will tie into my theoretical framework and what I would consider to be an improvement. It was suggested that I need to look for multiple metrics and not just being tied down to one. The measured indicators could be dependent variables for the effects of simulation-based training. My suggestions at this initial stage are to measure year over year annual performance reviews, monthly phone coaching reviews or live coaching sessions, customer complaints or compliments. I'm so excited to have Jordanne as my thesis mentor throughout my final year at UOIT. Her knowledge, patience and experience have already proven to be an amazing support and sounding board for me.
We had our first official meeting tonight and I have learned so much already. I really feel like I have a focus towards my research question and we discussed quite a few areas and next steps and I've jotted them down so I remember them as I move through this process.
My initial attempt at a research question is: "Do virtual interactive scenarios for customer service training directly improve customer satisfaction within a financial institution?" Jordanne suggested that I may need to play with the term 'virtual interactive scenarios" as it may not be described as that in the research materials. She did say that she totally understands what I mean by it, but that doesn't mean there isn't a fantastic article or book that would fit my criteria but is phrased differently and I would miss it during a search if I didn't expand my search criteria. Some possible suggestions were: case based scenarios, role play, interactive scenarios. Next Steps: My next steps are to determine my theoretical framework. I'm going to check into some past class notes to see what we have worked on in the past as I'm pretty sure something we have already covered most likely works best as the lens for my framework. We discussed Dewey and Kolb's Experiential Learning or even Constructivism. Could these scenarios be PBL based? I was provided a link to some examples of MA thesis': https://ir.library.dc-uoit.ca/simple-search?query=%09Education+and+Digital+Technologies&submit=Go I need to define my key terms but I don't really know what those are or will be until I get a bit further along in the process. Perhaps once I finalize my research question I will know more definitively what the terms are. Right now, I'm considering interactive scenarios and theoretical specific framework. There are no minimum or maximums for these key terms, I simply need to make sure that I don't miss any in my proposal, whether there are 3 or 8. I also need to include a few current articles in the introduction as references. OK, bring it on!!! |
AuthorANDREA BINNINGTON Archives
April 2015
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