PEDAGOGICAL DECISION-MAKING IN ONLINE COURSES: A LOCALIZED THEORY

Abstract

This research study developed a localized theory describing what factors influenced pedagogical decision-making in online courses and how these factors might be related. Using a Critical Realist Grounded Theory methodology, this research project developed the Contextually Grounded Decision-Making theory to explain decision-making structures, mechanisms, and the relationship between these components. This study used interview data, product reviews, and focus group data from full- and part-time faculty to ensure the emerging theory was meaningful to the research site and data participants. This theory will open areas for faculty reflection and empowerment, institutional change, and further research into understanding the tensions of digital transformation in higher education, identifying points of influence to intervene in pedagogical decisions through the structural components or mechanisms. Although the specific structural components and mechanisms of the resulting theory are limited to the research site, the contribution to the scholarship of this project is the general critical realist-based theoretical model and a process for developing a localized theory across areas of decision-making (including pedagogical) within any given institution.