26 Quantitative Reasoning in the Life of a Qualitative Person

I had to do some real soul-searching when asked how I use quantitative reasoning in my life, since I am mainly a qualitative researcher. I tend to collect data through qualitative methods: my data sets include observations, interviews, and focus groups for my data points instead of strictly numbers. As an example, we measure the success of students in a class by the score or number of the final grade (quantitative), versus interviewing students in the class for their perspective of their learning in the class (qualitative). However, I do find value in both types of data when making decisions. As in the example above, the student’s perspective helps me improve the final grades in the class.

I need to first define what I mean by “quantitative reasoning.” I found a couple of definitions and put them into my own words so I could make sense of the term from my own thinking. Here is my definition for quantitative reasoning: “the ability to analyze or solve problems whether they are big or small based on numbers.”

My job at UA is to assist your instructors in designing and teaching online courses. I also teach a couple of fully online courses in the College of Education and the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences. I have taught a course on multicultural education for the past five years using digital storytelling as the final project. I am teaching a new course called Introduction to Adobe Creative Cloud where we explore Adobe applications as a tool for all disciplines to communicate. I enact a quantitative approach in teaching this course by using polls, questionnaires, and surveys with students to assess the value of what they are experiencing.

Since the teaching and learning analytics of our learning management system Desire2Learn (D2L) can affect your grades, it is good for you to know about the ways instructors observe your behaviors within this system. Often your behaviors in D2L are referred to as “learning analytics.” However, I personally don’t care for this term, because this data does not measure your learning, it measures your behavior in the system. We cannot assume you learned the content when you watched a video; we must actually engage you in some way (e.g. a quiz) to assess your comprehension of the content. The “learning analytics” in D2L only tell us how long your computer played the video, not if you learned from it.

Inside of D2L there is a data-collection engine that gathers information on your “movement” through the system. Some of the data includes where you are logging in from (your IP address), what device you are using (laptop or mobile), and predictive algorithms pertaining to your academic risk. An example of this academic risk is the early alert system that lets instructors know when you have not logged into the system, not turned in an assignment, or read instructor feedback. I use quantitative reasoning skills when looking at the numbers for overall class progress as well as individual data on students who might be struggling to keep up with the workload. This data helps me determine where students are spending their time, how they are doing on assessments, and how engaged they are with each other in discussions. I use this data to improve the design of the course. For individual students the data assists me in knowing if students are participating in the course, particularly if assignments or quizzes are not being completed. In some ways it mirrors how in-person classes take attendance by giving me data on who is showing up for a fully online course. Once I have this data, I can reach out to students to find out why they are not logging in, especially if they have never entered the course.

In gathering data — quantitative or qualitative — we must ask ourselves whether what we are measuring is what we value. As in my example of “learning analytics,” we are measuring behaviors that could lead to learning such as “seat time” in the online course, but this does not necessarily guarantee that what we value — learning — is actually taking place. Therefore, I cannot assume that just because the data shows a student is present that they are achieving the learning outcomes. Students need to demonstrate their knowledge through real-world application, which in my opinion goes well beyond the data gathered in D2L.

As I design and teach my online course, I use the data gathered by D2L to help me navigate my students’ experiences throughout the learning process. I find that if many students are failing an assignment or quiz, then maybe there is an issue with the lesson, or if students are spending too much time on a task, then perhaps adjustments are in order. I just need to keep in mind that I am measuring what I value, which, in my case, is student learning.

The use of quantitative data in my personal life is not as complex as in my professional life. I use number sets to navigate my transportation and guide my exercise routine. I indulge in German vehicles like driving a BMW to riding a Trek eBike with a Bosch motor: both vehicles are loaded with number sets that help me analyze my driving and exercise habits. These data points assist me in being safe as they measure my battery life, speed, and route for the car as well as my heartbeat, calorie intake, and distance goals on the bike. I often wonder how I managed before this quantitative information guided my life.

About the author

name: Melody Buckner

Melody Buckner is the associate vice provost of digital learning for the University of Arizona. In this role, she collaborates with faculty, students, and staff to implement excellence in online education and assist in creating a positive online learning experience for students. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Science from the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a master’s in educational technology from Northern Arizona University. She saved the best for last by earning her PhD in teaching, learning and sociocultural studies from the University of Arizona in 2015. Her informal education consists of living in over 40 different places of the course of 20 years including Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In continuing her passion for international education, she serves on the board of BYTE, a cross-border youth development program offering tennis and academic classes on both sides of the Nogales US/Mexico border. She became involved with this organization because of her passion for digital storytelling and love of the game of tennis (https://bytetennis.org/).

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