ECoLab: A cooperative system to improve training processes

Abstract

The goal of the qualitative research is to achieve information regarding the attitudes and opinions of a group of individuals with similar habits, needs and interests. The selection of the participants is a key element in the qualitative research. This paper presents a new model, ECoLab (Experiencial Cooperative Laboratory), of qualitative research that integrates the following methods: Focus Group, Delphi, After Action Review, LivingLab and MediaLab. This new model is designed to improve educational processes and works with the information from the tacit knowledge of the persons, specifically with their experience. For this reason, any person who participates must have participated (or be participating) in the process on which it is desired to investigate and improve. Thus, the group of people participating in ECoLab should be heterogeneous in terms of their role, experience and commitment to the subject matter of the study. ECoLab consists of different groups of people working cooperatively. The criterion of configuration of each group is based on the homogeneity of the role that they play or have played in the action to investigate. Therefore, the heterogeneity of the participants is integrated with the homogeneity in their grouping. This paper presents the ECoLab model (with two variants, iterative ECoLab and ECoLab lego) and a case study where the most urgent improvements of the Spanish University Education System are investigated in a qualitative way.