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CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY SCRIPT - INSTRUCTOR
INVESTIGATING SAKAI 3.0 CAPABILITIES FOR LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Checklist for the Interviewer
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Introduce self & team
Give introduction (follow Introduction script)
Give consent form (bring 2 copies, one for interviewee and one for you to keep)
Ask if there are any questions before you begin
Observe and note items of interest within interviewee’s environment
Conduct interview
Switch to observation
Follow up with questions (if any)
Thank interviewee and ask wrap-up questions
Debrief with interview team; jot down your impressions
Type up notes
Have fun and thank you.
Introduction
The main focus of our interview/observation session today is to understand the different activities (e.g.,
homework, papers, tests, quizzes) that take place within a course, how they are created,
disseminated, completed, collected, and evaluated. The goal is to be able to identify what these
activities have in common and what they do not, how/if they are supported currently in Sakai, and how
they might be improved in the next generation of Sakai (Sakai 3). The interview/observation session will
take 1 hour.
We consider you the expert at your work so there are no wrong answers to any of our questions. While
you answer questions or guide us through tasks, please focus on the details of how you actually do your
work. It may help to think about the last time you performed the task and explain it to us as if we are
going to need to perform the task just as you did. Please feel free to be honest and critical even if the way
your work actually gets done is not the way you would ideally like for it to be done. Everything you tell
us is strictly confidential.
Please review and sign the consent form before we proceed.
Any questions before we begin?
Observations of the interviewee ’s work environment:
Notes for the Interviewer
The questions that follow under ‘Interview Portion’ are in the format:
[type] Question to be posed to interviewee. Topics to cover, potential follow-up questions, focusing
questions.
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For example:
[Motivation] What do you enjoy most about your job as [role]? Why? What activities do you
always tackle first?
Types of questions:
[Variables] – Verifying demographic and behavioral variables
[Mental Model] – How does the interviewee think about work, resources, services & systems?
[Activities] – What kinds of activities does the interviewee perform? Do they occur regularly or
occasionally?
[Motivation] – What are the interviewee’s goals? What does the interviewee enjoy doing?
[Opportunities] – What are the interviewee’s pain points? What do they avoid?
[Interactions] – Who or what does the interviewee consult or work with?
[Process] – How does the interviewee make decisions and perform tasks?
Interview Portion
Warm-up Questions
[Variables] How long have you been at [interviewee 's institution]?
[Variables] How long have you been teaching?
[Variables] Do you primarily teach undergraduate or graduate courses?
[Variables] What classes do you teach?
[Variables] Do you use [local name of Sakai system]? How long have you been using it? Have you used
any others?
[Variables] On a scale of 1 - 5 (1 being low and 5 high) how would you rate your technology skills?
[Variables] On a scale of 1 - 5 (1 being low and 5 high) how would you rate your comfort level with
[local name of Sakai system] (if used)?
[Variables, Opportunities] What kinds of activities do you typically use a computer for?
[Opportunities] Any favorite applications or websites? Why?
[Opportunities] Any you don't like?
General Questions
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[Activities] Could you please describe a typical day for you at work? Which activities occur
regularly? Which activities occur only on occasion? How does course preparation and conducting a
course fit in?
[Motivation] What do you enjoy most about your job as an instructor? Why? What activities do you
always tackle first?
[Opportunities] What do you enjoy least about your job as an instructor? Why? What activities
currently waste your time?
[Activities] Can you tell us more about the course you are currently most involved with? (If there is
no definitive course: please tell us about a course you are currently teaching or, if you are not
currently teaching, a course you most recently taught.)
[Activities] Is this a course you regularly teach?
[Variables] How many students are there?
[Variables] How large is your class? Are there multiple sections? Do you have teaching assistants
(TAs)? How often does it meet?
[Interactions, Process] Do you work with others to prepare for the course before the start of the
course? What do you do together?
[Interactions, Process] Do you work with others to conduct the course once it has begun? What do
you do together?
[Activities, Mental Model] We’re interested in learning, testing, and survey activities. Which of
these types of activities do your students engage in, (in-class vs. out-of-class)? How frequently do
these activities take place? Note: these activities do not have to be in Sakai.
[Goals] What is/are the goal(s) behind these activities?
[Opportunities] Any frustrations with your current process of creating, deploying, collecting or
evaluating these activities? What frustrations do you have with this within [local name of Sakai
system (if used)?
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Observation Portion
In this part of the interview, the interview team acts as apprentices observing as the interviewee walks
through an activity, interrupting with questions only occasionally. The goal is for the interview team to be
able to re-create the work of the interviewee. The activity of interest should be one that the interviewee
has said occurs most regularly.
For example, the interviewee may be assigning weekly homework assignments in the form of multiple
choice problem sets. Given this example, the interview team may request the interviewee give a running
description of how they create these problem sets, how they make them available to students, how
students complete them, how they collect them, if/how they assess them:
We would like to observe as you give us a running description of how you create the problem sets
for your course, how you make them available to students, how students complete them, how you
collect them, if/how you assess them. Please walk us through this activity just as you performed it
last, thinking aloud and letting us know why you are doing what you are doing. Think of yourself as
a master and us as your apprentices: we want to understand how you do your work so that we may
re-create it.
Be sure to have the interviewee focus on the activity from beginning to end, with emphasis on thinking
aloud. If time does not allow for the completion of the activity, be sure to ask how the interviewee would
finish the activity.
The interview team should interrupt the interviewee only in the following circumstances:
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The interviewee is doing a lot of work without speaking about it – Ask the interviewee questions
about what they are doing and remind them to give a running description of what they are doing so
that you, the interview team, may be able to re-create their work.
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The interviewee is giving very general or broad details about an important task or action – Ask the
interviewee questions about what they are doing and remind them that you are looking for details
of their work so that you can re-create it. Remind them that they can recount the details of the last
time they went through this activity to make it more concrete.
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It is unclear what the interviewee is talking about – the interviewee may use jargon that the
interview team is unfamiliar with. As an apprentice, it is important to know what you are dealing
with and it is all right to interrupt the interviewee to ask a clarifying question when you do not
know what they are talking about.
Important areas that you would want to see/hear described
Creating Activity
 Is Sakai used? If yes, which Sakai tool(s). How are they used?
 Do you collaborate with others to create the activity? In what way?
 Do you re-use the activity? When? How (often)?
Deploying Activity
 How do make the activity available to students?
 How do you alert students that activity is available?
Completing Activity
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How do students complete activity?
Collecting Activity
 How do you collect activity once completed?
Evaluating Activity
 When you look at the responses of your student to the activity (paper, homework, survey, test), do
you need to respond to the student (assign a score/grade, make comments) or take other types of
action (e.g., review topic in class based on class response, re-write bad test question).
 If activity is graded, how do you share grading outcomes with students? Do you share grading
outcomes with anyone else in your department/program? For what reason?
Do you share these activities with others?
 With whom?
 How?
 Within your department/program?
 At another school?
Observation Notes:
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Follow-up Questions
In this part of the interview, the interview team takes a moment to reflect on the observation:
Are there gaps in the process the interviewee has described to you? Now is the time to investigate
and make sure all the steps involved in completing the activity are recorded. The interview team
may end up delving back into observation mode as the interviewee remembers something they
forgot to mention and begins another description of tasks and actions.
Are there other parts of the process that are unclear? Now is the time to clarify.
Were there instances where the interviewer or note-taker had a question, but did not ask because it
would have adversely interrupted the interviewee? Now is the time to ask these questions.
Wrap-up Questions
Give the interviewee a big Thank You!
What did you think of this interview? Anything you did not understand? Anything that made you
anxious?
Is there anything else regarding the process of creating, disseminating, collecting, evaluating
learning activities that you would like to add?
Would you be willing to be contacted with follow-up questions?
Can you suggest a TA, student or another faculty for us to talk to? (omit if not applicable)
Would you be willing to be contacted about providing feedback on prototypes we design?
Notes from Debriefing Session
After the interview and observation session, enter notes below of your impressions, standout moments, key
takeaways