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This paper proposes the use of collaborative secondary data analysis (SDA) as a tool for building capacity in engineering education research. We first characterise the value of collaborative SDA as a tool to help emerging researchers develop skills in qualitative data analysis. We then describe an ongoing collaboration that involves a series of workshops as well as two pilot projects that seek to develop and test frameworks and practices for SDA in engineering education research. We identify emerging benefits and practical challenges associated with implementing SDA as a capacity building tool, and conclude with a discussion of future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) has been sponsoring a Winter School in Engineering Education Research Methods since 2011. This paper describes how in 2017 attendees at the School applied what they had learned about a little-used data-gathering technique: observation. Starting with a Program Logic analysis, which identifies what an intervention ought to be doing, and hence what kind of evidence needs to be collected to describe its effect, some participants who had attended prior Winter Schools, were given the chance to collect the evidence. They found observation to be much harder to do well than one would think. This paper describes their experience and argues for the use of observational techniques in order to triangulate our data-gathering methods and improve the quality of our educational research. However, we also learned that a great benefit of observation comes from sustained reflection on the process and the data collected. Without such reflection, we argue observation is likely to produce rather thin results. abbriviations: AAEE - Australasian Association of Engineering Education; JEE - Australasian Journal of Engineering Education; WS2017 - 2017 Winter School [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]