Kimberley Tuapawa is a consulting educator, PhD candidate, and internationally published author from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. She has a solid background in adult education, e-learning, digital media and business management. In addition to her PhD candidacy, Kimberley holds a Masters Degree in Digital Media (Distinction)(MDM), Bachelors Degree in Computing Systems (BCS), Diploma in Multimedia and Web Development (DipMWD), Diploma in Information and Communications Technologies (DipICT), Diploma in e-Business Supoort (DipeBus), and Certificate in Adult Education. Linked in profile.
Kimberley's thesis, submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, was entitled: "An Interpretation of Key Stakeholders' Experiences Using Educational Online Technologies in Blended Tertiary Environments." Its output comprised a collection of 13 complementary papers, all of which were published or accepted for publication in internationally peer-reviewed journals, book chapter(s), or conference proceedings.
Using a phenomenological approach, Kimberley's research aimed to build understandings of key stakeholders’ educational online technology (EOT) experiences to determine their current EOT needs and challenges, and provide a basis from which to recommend methods for effective EOT support. It was completed in two stages. Firstly, the preliminary research aimed to establish a robust foundation of current knowledge. It verified and updated key issues in the literature through a qualitative analysis of data from 13 blended learning experts in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Secondly, the phenomenological research aimed to make an interpretation of key stakeholders’ EOT experiences. It examined and classified the experiences of 10 students and 10 teachers from New Zealand and Australia, and interpreted their phenomenological meanings through an abstraction, articulation and synthesis of local and global themes. These interpretations, which included descriptions of stakeholders’ EOT challenges, helped to inform a set of recommendations for effective EOT use with different key entities, and assist tertiary education institutes (TEIs) to address EOT challenges and meet stakeholders’ needs. The research also proposed the development of a digital tool that could conceptualise phenomenological data and further help TEIs make practical application of stakeholders’ EOT experiences.
Kimberley's research developed and unified two extensive systems of data, aggregating a collection of highly contextualised phenomenological interpretations with a spectrum of expertly-verified literature, to form an elaborate and multi-dimensional structure of knowledge. Its output was richly narrated across a dual modularised set of publications, which illuminated and synergised a wide array of contemporaneous EOT issues with compelling firsthand insights into the phenomena of EOT use.
