Trena M. Paulus

East Tennessee State University | ETSU · Department of Family Medicine

Encountering and responding to patient resistance can be especially challenging for student healthcare providers. Navigating who ultimately holds the authority to know and understand a health concern, make recommendations for a course of action, and accept or resist these recommendations are all part of how epistemic authority is negotiated in medi...

In this article, we think with the ongoing conversations on “embracing digital worlds” through juxtaposing the methodological practices enabled by “digital worlds” with the writings of science fiction. Specifically, we leverage the criticality of a Chinese sci-fi text, Folding Beijing, to shed light on issues of equity and justice in qualitative in...

This article offers an overview of a special issue that focuses on the reciprocal relationship between the digital tools and spaces that we use and the methodologies and methods that we take up in designing and carrying out a qualitative research study. In this editorial, we situate the special issue in the methodological literature around technolo...

Background: Suicide risk assessments require a complex set of skills around a sensitive matter which can be difficult for providers. Aim: Research investigating communication techniques and the language choices used to assess for suicide ideation is limited. Methods: We analyzed 121 video-recorded and transcribed final exams from a communication sk...

Introduction: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are a major contributor to obesity among young children 0 to 5 years of age. In addition, parental beverage intake influences children's beverage intake. Objective: This study explores Black parents' perceptions about and barriers to limiting SSBs among young children. Methods: Twenty-seven Black paren...

While software packages such as NVivo are typically considered useful for qualitative data analysis, in actuality they are powerful and flexible enough to serve as the central component of a robust digital research workflow. Various features of these packages can be used across the entire research process from reviewing the literature to writing up...

Sharing and reusing data can help researchers answer new questions and approach data from different analytical perspectives. The extant literature on data sharing has focused almost exclusively on qualitative data specifically, such as interviews and focus groups. Observational and video data capturing family interactions are a common data collecti...

The relationship between qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) and the development of new methods remains underexplored. While scholars argue that software tactics are used only to implement analytic strategies, some strategies are made possible only with new software developments. Aligned with the Five-Level QDA method, we aim to address the g...

BackgroundHIV is a condition that requires lifelong treatment. Treatment options currently consist of oral antiretroviral therapies (ART) taken once or twice daily. Long-acting injectable HIV treatments are currently in development to be administered monthly or every other month. Preferences for route of administration could influence treatment adh...

Background Current HIV treatment options consist of daily oral antiretroviral therapies (ART). A long-acting injectable HIV treatment is in development for monthly or every other month administration. Patient preferences for ART are important to understand and can impact retention in care, adherence and outcomes. The purpose of this study was to ob...

Few studies have investigated epistemic positioning in online postgraduate courses. Such courses in US contexts rely heavily on asynchronous online discussion forums. This study investigates how postgraduate students’ patterned use of personal experience tellings functioned in the construction of their epistemic positioning (as ‘expert’ or ‘novice’...

In this conceptual paper, we propose that insights from conversation analysis (CA) may provide a useful approach for scholars interested in online learning by focusing first on how learners themselves orient to performing social actions online. We further propose that gaining a better understanding of what conversational moves are actually doing in...

Few studies have explored approaches to teaching qualitative data analysis software (QDAS). As more researchers rely on self-teaching, more research into best practices for developing QDAS expertise is warranted. In this paper, we report our experience using the Five-Level QDA® method to guide the design of an introductory ATLAS.ti workshop. By foc...

This paper reports findings from a 2-year study of online coursework in a graduate certificate program in qualitative research methods in the USA. Thirty-four interviews with students enrolled in coursework offered over a 2-year period were analyzed to explore their perceptions of engagement with the course content and one another. Findings are rel...

This article introduces the special issue of The Qualitative Report, which brings together five papers exploring the scope, depth, history and future of Qualitative Data Analysis software (QDAS), originally presented at a conference in Rotterdam in 2016. The selected papers provide insights into the history of the QDAS community and future developm...

The authors conduct an exposé on the deterministic denunciations of Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS) and how citation errors keep these criticisms alive. They use a zombie metaphor to describe more than two decades of battling these seemingly mindless assessments of QDAS that keep coming –despite their decay – and simply will not die. Focu...

Teaching in online spaces requires new roles and competencies. Presented as autoethnographic narratives, three faculty members describe their journeys into online graduate instruction in qualitative research methods. Areas of growth included effective course design and planning and strategies for building community. Challenges included keeping up w...

While research into crowdfunding in general has been steadily increasing, few studies have looked at how requests are formulated on personal fundraising sites. Through a narrative analysis of 105 medical campaigns on GoFundMe (GFM), we examine the way people appeal to the lived experiences and moral assumptions of members of their own social networ...

In this introduction to the special issue on digital tools for qualitative research, we focus on the intersection of new technologies and methods of inquiry, particularly as this pertains to educating the next generation of scholars. Selected papers from the 2015 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry special strand on digital tools for qual...

PurposeDespite benefits of antiretroviral therapies (ART), people with HIV infection have increased risk of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and low bone mineral density. Some ARTs increase risk of these events. The purpose of this study was to examine patients’ perspectives of these risks and estimate health state utilities associated with...

Research outputs across the academic disciplines are almost exclusively published electronically. Organizing and managing these digital resources for purposes of review, and with the technical savvy to do so, are now essential skills for graduate study and life in academia. Paradoxically, digital and web-based technologies provide greater ease and...

Today, most service organizations offer their clients a range of communication modes, including text-based chat which affords including hyperlinks to relevant sources of information. No studies have yet explored how hyperlinks are used in these interactions. Conversation analysis provides a set of concepts that can be used to explore the actions fo...

While researchers have used conversation analysis (CA) methods to understand online talk since the 1990s, to date there has been no systematic review of these studies to better understand this methodological development. This article presents a comprehensive literature review of 89 peer-reviewed journal articles reporting findings of empirical stud...

Development in digital tools in qualitative research over the past 20 years has been driven by the development of qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) and the Internet. This article highlights three critical issues for the future digital tools: (a) ethics and the challenges, (b) archiving of qualitative data, and (c) the preparation of qualita...

Although Twitter and other social media sites have grown in popularity with educators, we still do not know what is happening within this online space or how it supports teachers. The purpose of this case study of #Edchat, a group of educators who meet weekly on Twitter, was to investigate informal professional development through the lens of commu...

We still know relatively little about how researchers use qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) such as ATLAS.ti and NVivo. We conducted a discourse analysis of 763 empirical articles published from 1994 to 2013 that explored the language used by researchers when reporting QDAS use. We found that most researchers provided few details of their Q...

This design case will introduce how collective design intentions shared by a group of three program faculty for an online Instructional Technology (IT) Master’s program at the University of Tennessee (UT) were collaboratively identified and further acted upon within the context of the first course in the program. The course that is the focus of thi...

Qualitative data analysis software (QDAS) programs are well-established research tools, but little is known about how researchers use them. This article reports the results of a content analysis of 763 empirical articles, published in the Scopus database between 1994 and 2013, which explored how researchers use the ATLAS.ti™ and NVivo™ QDAS program...

Informal learning spaces, such as summer reading programs, have the potential to both motivate children and provide opportunities for preservice teachers to try out new practices. However, there is little research on the talk that occurs in these informal learning spaces, particularly those intended to function as third spaces. Audio recordings of...

While research on teaching qualitative methods in education has increased, few studies explore teaching qualitative data analysis software within graduate-level methods courses. During 2013, we required students in several such courses to use ATLAS.ti™ as a project management tool for their assignments. By supporting students’ early experiences wit...

In an effort to better understand how the Internet can provide support to bereaved individuals, this discourse analysis study examined the responses to 107 initial posts in an online grief support group to understand how newcomers' bids for group membership were taken up by current group members. Discursive features identified included validation a...

The use of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) has not been without controversy, with a pervasive sense of skepticism and resistance towards its adoption by many scholars. Language-based researchers in particular, such as conversation and discourse analysts, have been slow to embrace such tools for their work. In this pape...

Very few researchers have considered peer-initiated online communities as sites where informal learning takes place. The goal in this chapter is to expand and enrich the conceptualization of informal learning by positioning it as a group meaning-making process rather than an individual cognitive product. The authors begin the chapter by providing a...

This paper introduces the work of the MOOD (Microanalysis Of Online Data) network, an interdisciplinary association of academic researchers exploring ways of conducting close qualitative analyses of online interaction. Despite the fact that much online interaction meets the criteria for ‘conversation’, conversation analysis (CA) has only recently b...

The increasingly common practice of engaging consulting firms to assist states with educational policy agendas requires an analysis of the role these consultants play in what is positioned as a democratic decision-making process. In this study, we examine the discourse of a state-level advisory committee formed to develop a new teacher evaluation p...

Research into peer conversations in online grief support groups remains scarce. The authors used discourse analysis to examine 107 initial posts to one such group to examine how newcomers constructed their initial posts to display their eligibility for membership. The authors identified three discursive features: formulating unusual stories of loss...

While some scholars have emphasized the culturally contingent nature of disabilities, far less research has attended to the situated and discursive contexts within which those with disabilities and their communities make relevant their own understandings and representations of disability. Drawing from a larger ethnographic study, in this article we...

Since informal learning occurs outside of formal learning environments, describing informal learning and how it takes place can be a challenge for researchers. Past studies have typically oriented to informal learning as an individual, reflective process that can best be understood through the learners’ retrospective accounts about their experience...

Graduate students often receive their first training in qualitative methods during an introductory course. The textbook that is chosen often sets the tone for how qualitative research is understood. We conducted a discourse analysis of the ways in which 11 introductory qualitative methods texts took up the relationship between technology and qualit...

We report findings from a discourse analysis study situated within a discursive psychology framework that examined how undergraduate nutrition science students took up a computer-mediated communication task in which they were asked to write about what they learned after attending a lecture. Students made learning displays by orienting to the lectur...

Within the field of instructional technology, scholars have long worked to define the scope and purpose of research and its role in informing practice. Increasingly, researchers outside of the instructional technology field are conducting studies to examine their use of technology in educational contexts. Few studies have been done on how researche...

Relatively little research has aimed to understand autism from an emic perspective. The majority of studies examining the organization of the talk of individuals with autism presume that autism organizes discourse rather than examine ways in which talk itself constructs the notion of autism. This study explored the meanings of autism performed in a...

A great deal of research has examined computer-mediated communication discussions in educational environments for evidence of learning. These studies have often been disappointing, with analysts not finding the kinds of ‘quality’ talk that they had hoped for. In this study we draw upon elements of discursive psychology as we oriented to what was ha...

The aim of this study was to increase understanding of how college students perceive dietary supplements, including their experiences with and attitudes about these substances. This study used a qualitative case study design and content analysis of web log (blog) posts completed as an assignment in an undergraduate nutrition course. Students were a...

Lessons learned from a faculty development program that preceded the move of a traditional PhD program in nursing to a blended learning model using online and face-to-face strategies are discussed. The majority of lessons and strategies presented are universal to any faculty development program. The lessons are organized into seven topics: Situatio...

Blogs have the potential to increase reflection, sense of community and collaboration in undergraduate classrooms. Studies of their effectiveness are still limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of blogs in a large lecture class would enhance students' perceived learning. Students in an undergraduate nutrition course...

With social networking sites playing an increasingly important role in today's society, educators are exploring how they can be used as a teaching and learning tool. This article reports the findings of a qualitative case study about the integration of Ning into a blended course. The study draws on the perspectives of the students, the instructor a...

While collaboration is common in qualitative inquiry, few studies examine the collaborative process in detail. In our study, we adopt an interpretive, reflexive stance to explore our process as a collaborative qualitative research team. We analyzed transcripts of eight research meetings for aspects and assumptions underlying our collaboration. Thre...

We describe two iterations of the design, development, implementation and evaluation of small online activity and reflection blogging groups into a large undergraduate lecture course in nutrition. Our goal was to promote student learning and conceptual change through reflection and interaction in blog conversations. We found the blog conversations...

The shortage of nursing faculty and the need for MSN-prepared faculty to have access to doctoral education and remain in their teaching roles has resulted in a growing number of nurse education programs moving online. A better understanding of how best to support faculty during this transition is needed. This case study describes the experiences of...

As the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville prepared to move their graduate programs online, a nursing faculty grass-roots movement led to the implementation of a faculty development program. This instructional design portfolio describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of this program, with the goal o...

School counseling interns are on the boundary of communities of practice. This study explored how school counselors develop competence during internship experiences by analyzing an online dialogue taking place among a small group of interns. Feelings of being on the boundary intensified with unsatisfactory supervisor-intern relationships (lack of m...

There is not yet a great deal of research in formal online learning environments focusing on the seemingly “off-topic” conversations that small groups engage in as they complete learning tasks together. This study uses the theory of common ground as a framework to explore what participants are talking about when not discussing the concepts to be le...

Dietary supplement use is common among adults. However, little is known about the supplement intake among college students. The purpose of this project was to describe dietary supplement use among college students enrolled in an introductory nutrition course. Of 355 students enrolled in the course at a large southeastern university, 310 students co...

This paper explores how positioning theory can be used to understand intersubjective meaning-making in CSCL environments. We analyzed asynchronous conversations of three discussion groups in a learning environment designed to teach team process skills. Analysis of the storylines, speech acts and positions taken up by each group provided insights as...

This paper explores how discourse analysis in social psychology (DASP) can provide CSCL researchers with insights regarding how students perform knowing and learning. We investigated what counted as knowledge and learning as students in a large undergraduate lecture course shared their understandings of dietary supplements through blog conversation...

This phenomenological study explores the experiences of non-native English-speaking international students regarding language, culture and identity in the context of their graduate studies. Interviews were conducted with each of the eight participants. Interpretive analysis was used within a constructivist frame. The findings of this study are orga...

This paper explores how discourse analysis in social psychology (DASP) can provide CSCL researchers with insights regarding how students perform knowing and learning. We investigated what counted as knowledge and learning as students in a large undergraduate lecture course shared their understandings of dietary supplements through blog conversation...

Educational researchers are interested in whether what is learned in the classroom is transferred to new situations. This qualitative case study explores how computer-mediated communication, specifically web logs (blogs), can extend learning and facilitate transfer of learned concepts. Participants blogged for seven weeks about concepts related to...

Collaborative research is often refers to collaboration among the researcher and the participants. Few studies investigate the collaborative process among researchers themselves. Assumptions about the qualitative research process, particularly ways to establish rigor and transparency, are pervasive. Our experience conducting three collaborative emp...

Objective: This study compared traditional diet assessment techniques; food records and 24‐hour recalls (24 HR), with current technologies; e‐mail food records and instant messaging (IM) 24 HR. Today's freshmen grew up surrounded by technologies that enable instantaneous communications. Use of these technologies may provide similar or superior asse...

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools can be used to integrate time-intensive tasks, such as case study analyses, more easily into formal learning environments. How students talk together online in CMC environments is an area that has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This paper extends findings from a previous study by comparing two grou...

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. This article reports research from an innovative university-secondary school partnership, the Web Pen Pals Project, which pairs preservice English teachers in online chat rooms with local middle school students to talk about young adult literature. The analyses reported he...

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. Isolation and a lack of support contribute to high attrition rates among novice teachers. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is one mechanism for providing anytime, anywhere support to teachers. Previous research in this area has focused on structuring such discussions...

Although interest in narrative research is increasing, little attention has been paid to how individual stories become a group narrative. An online environment provides a rich opportunity to capture asynchronous group storytelling as it occurs in a formal class environment. This study focused on how a group story is created. Data included individua...

Which communication mode(s) do experienced distance learners choose as they collaborate on tasks, and what do they talk about in each mode? How do the participants choose modes for various aspects of a task, and which phases of knowledge construction are present? In this study, case study and computer-mediated discourse analysis procedures are used...

There is not yet a great deal of research in formal online learning environments focusing on the "off task" conversations that small groups engage in. This study explores how participants establish common ground in distance learning environments. The e-mail, discussion forum, and chat transcripts of ten small online groups were investigated using c...

There is not yet a great deal of research in formal online learning environments focusing on the seemingly "off-topic" conversations that small groups engage in as they complete learning tasks together. This study uses the theory of common ground as a framework to explore what participants are talking about when not discussing the concepts to be le...

This qualitative study explores how individuals made meaning of their life history experiences while in dialogue with others in an online learning group that was part of a graduate course on adult development. All online discussion forum postings exchanged by the group over the 3-week assignment period were downloaded and analyzed through phenomeno...

THERE IS INCREASING INTEREST in creating frameworks for online discussions to improve learning outcomes in higher education environments. Many of these frameworks rely on and promote argumentation-based “challenge” models as the primary mode of discourse. This study tested one existing framework, created by Gunawardena, Lowe, and Anderson (1997), w...

Teamwork skills such as conflict resolution and communication strategies are challenging to teach. The use of stories may help develop these complex skills. Although engagement is generally seen as a key component of learning environments, what constitutes engagement has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study was to examine how graduate...

This article describes the conversational interactions of one online learning group whose task was to identify themes of human development from life histories of the group members. The data were analyzed by a research team using the hermeneutic circle, which involves continually looking at parts of the text in light of the meaning of the larger tex...

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. Case studies are frequently used to prepare preservice teachers through reflection and analysis of classroom situations. Previous research suggests asynchronous online discussions provide more opportunity for reflection and analysis than face to face environments. Online c...

High attrition rates among new teachers are of concern to teacher educators. Support mechanisms may help teachers feel less isolated in their new profession. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies can connect novice teachers in ways that are both time and place independent. Most research on asynchronous online discussions has focused on...

One purpose of online group projects is to encourage collaborative dialogue for new knowledge construction. During such projects students have a dual objective: learn through constructing new knowledge together while also completing the task. Cooperative approaches to task completion are an alternative to collaborative dialogue. The impact of task...

Distance learning environments provide a rich opportunity for collaborative knowledge building, particularly through peer-to-peer dialogue. Much of the discussion in distance learning environments occurs in asynchronous forums, and it is content analysis of these discussions that constitutes the majority of research in online learning. However few...

Project-based team activities are commonly used in higher education. Teams comprised of members from different national cultures can be faced with unique challenges during the creative process. Hofstede's (199110. Hofstede G Cultures and organizations: software of the mind, McGraw-Hill London 1991 View all references) cultural dimension of power d...

This chapter illustrates how computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA) can be used systematically to investigate online communication. It argues that intended outcomes of learner interactions, such as meaningful dialogue and joint knowledge construction, must be identified and analyzed to better understand the effectiveness of online learning act...

Conclusion In order to make PIHnet forum more usable and useful, we recently redesigned the forum tool based on findings from a survey, interviews and observations of user posting patterns. We also developed a journal tool to assist teachers with their personal reflection. Interviews with four users showed that the new forum was easy to use and ef...

A goal of distance educators is to lower high attrition rates by connecting learners through Internet communication tools. However, structuring and evaluating online discussions for effective learning continues to be a challenge for educators. Gunawardena et al. (1997) created an interaction analysis framework to examine the "social construction of...

Language teacher education programs attempt to foster collaboration amongst pre-service and in-service teachers. The approach is in place in an online teacher education program in a Midwestern university where the current study was undertaken. Collaborative interactions are an essential element of any pedagogy which assumes that good learning is co...

This purpose of this study is to examine how language teachers apply practical experiences from computer-assisted language learning (CALL) coursework to their teaching. It also examines ways in which teachers continue their CALL professional development. Participants in the study were 20 English as a second language and foreign language teachers wh...

This study developed and formatively evaluated an instructional design theory to guide designers in selecting when and how to utilize interactions as instructional methods in a Web-based distance learning higher education environment. Research questions asked: What are the types and outcomes of interactions between participants in a Web-based learn...

Provides four techniques for teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. These include a newspaper scramble, a focus on learning styles, learning vocabulary through poetry, and an in-class survey. (Author/VWL)

Although teacher and peer feedback, together with required revision, is a common component of the process-approach English as Second Language (ESL) writing classroom, the effect that the feedback and revision process has on the improvement of student writing is as yet undetermined. The researcher analyzed 11 ESL student essays in detail: categorizi...

With social networking sites playing an increasingly important role in today's society, educators are exploring how they can be used as a teaching and learning tool. This article reports the findings of a qualitative case study about the integration of Ning into a blended course. The study draws on the perspectives of the students, the instructor a...

Blogs have the potential to increase reflection, sense of community and collaboration in undergraduate classrooms. Studies of their effectiveness are still limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of blogs in a large lecture class would enhance students' perceived learning. Students in an undergraduate nutrition course...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 2003.