Reasons graduate students avoid new media composition
In analyzing the data gathered from interviews, patterns began to emerge. I encountered three key factors that discourage graduate students from engaging in new media composition:
- Factor 1: Lack of knowledge and/or experience [video, 2:26] Referenced 12 times throughout the various interviews, the students’ perception that they lacked knowledge and/or experience in composing new media scholarship was the primary reason given for avoiding these types of digital compositions.
- Factor 2: Lack of time to complete projects [video, 2:44] Referenced nine times across interviews, students also cited a lack of time as a discouraging factor. By this stage of their academic careers, all felt they were very proficient in writing extended papers. They knew the time it took to complete such a project and believed they could complete this type of written assignment quickly and efficiently. This is not the case with new media composition which all participants indicated took longer.
- Factor 3: Fear of producing weak arguments and earning poor grades [video, 2:02] The term “fear” was a common element throughout the interviews used often in relation to a lack of skill or the time involved with developing new media scholarship. Fear also was referenced five times in the context of being afraid to produce a weak rhetorical argument and of being afraid of getting a poor grade for the assignment.
Note: I believe that the most effective way to present my argument regarding key factors is to provide the opportunities for readers/viewers to hear the interview participants’ voices. As a result, the findings and data in this section are presented in video format. Links connect video packages. Segment lengths are included in minutes:seconds format.
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