Research project report
Research Design Assignment 4 Notes and Instructions MNG10720 Associate Professor Martin Young Unit Assessor
[email protected] 1 Assignment 4: Research Project Report Due: Week 12 – Friday 25th May 2018 Length: 1500 words (+/- 10%) Weighing: 50% Format: Report Covers: Mainly Topics 4-9, but also includes some elements discussed in Topic 2 (ethical considerations and problem statement/objectives) Late submissions Late submission will lose 5% per day Assignment extensions need to be applied for via special consideration procedures These are now eforms submitted via ‘My Enrolment’ For details on special consideration visit http://scu.edu.au/students/index.php/30 Assignment overview You are required to prepare a report that will set out how you will go about answering the research question developed in Assignment 2. The report will map out a research design - techniques you will use to convincingly address the research question. Your report will describe and justify the decisions you have made for your research design, data collection methods, sample selection, ethical considerations and data analysis techniques. The proposal report also involves the development of a Qualtrics survey which you need to design and include whether you choose to develop a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method of survey and/or interview questions. Assignment text Instructions Your research proposal should address the following criteria (and use these headings in your Research Project Report): 1. Problem Statement and Research Objectives – state your problem statement and research objectives at the start of your research proposal report so your lecturer can refer to these when reviewing your proposal. Use the feedback from assignment 2 to improve these A problem statement is a concise statement of the purpose of your study – be specific Grammar and expression heavily scrutinised here To find the sub objectives you need to identify the steps required to fulfill your problem statement Use instruction words like describe, examine, explore… Should reflect the scope of the project – geographic, temporal, demographic Make sure that the sub objectives are relevant to solve the overall ‘problem’ Tips for problem statement and research objectives Assignment text 2. Research design – explain and justify the methodological approach you propose to guide your research proposal using relevant literature. Tips for the research design section Provide a brief discussion of research design at the 3 levels Core function (pure vs applied research) Information requirements (exploratory, descriptive, explanatory research etc) Methodology (quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods research) Good papers do justify their design choices with appropriate academic references Assignment text 3. Data Collection Methods – explain and justify the methods you propose for data collection and data management using relevant literature. Tips for the data collection methods section You may compare/contrast your selected methods with other methods that you did not select for your research project (explain why) by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods available Based on this discussion, explain and justify the particular data collection methods/techniques that you selected to apply in your research project Make sure to support your explanation/justification with evidence from the academic literature using appropriate academic references (e.g. research methodology books and/or academic journal articles) Remember, if your choose a mixed methods approach for A3 and use Qualtrics you can use other methods in addition to this, if you wish, and it fits with your problem statement/objectives, e.g. observation) Tips for the data collection methods section Methods commonly used for quantitative research include: Surveys (household, street/intercept, telephone, mail, on-site, web/e-surveys, captive group, organisation) Structured interviews Longitudinal studies Observation Case studies Methods commonly used for qualitative research include: In-depth interviews Participant observation Focus groups Case studies Content Analysis Assignment text 4. Qualtrics Survey – design and include your Qualtrics survey and/or interview format and explain and justify the questions and style of questions you use with respect to collecting appropriate data to address your objectives. Tips for the Qualtrics survey section Include your Qualtrics questionnaire as an Appendix in your Assignment 3 (export it into Word from Qualtrics) In this section in the body of your assignment, you need to explain and justify why you use particular types of questions in order to address your problem statement and objectives, such as: Open-ended vs closed/pre-coded questions Poll questions Multiple choice questions Checklists Ranking questions Fill in the blanks Rating scales Filter questions Justify your choice with reference to the levels of measurement (i.e. nominal, ordinal, interval and ration) Assignment text 5. Sample Selection – explain and justify the sample selection process relevant to your research proposal. Tips for the sample selection section In the sampling section you must: State whether you are using probability or non-probability sampling Justify this choice using appropriate references You should explain explicitly why your selected sampling techniques are suitable for your study Good idea to include a paragraph on the sampling procedures that could be applied to your study – noting their advantages and disadvantages Then narrow down to the ones you have selected and justify your choice with a reference or two E.g. Neuman (2006) stated that stratified sampling was appropriate under such and such circumstances, therefore stratified sampling has been selected for the present study… Tips for the sample selection section Specifically, you need to address: What is your research population What is your target population What is your sampling procedure (simple random, stratified, convenience, purposive etc.) How big will your sample be? For your quantitative sample, I will expect a number based on, for example, Neuman’s guidelines (see Power Point slides from Topic 7) For your qualitative sample, while you can estimate an approximate number, it is sufficient to justify your sample size here referring to the point of saturation Assignment text 6. Data Analysis Techniques – explain and justify how you would propose to analyse and present the data collected. Tips for the data analysis techniques section You should discuss: What forms of analysis you will apply to your data (univariate, bivariate – frequency counts, central tendency, scatterplots etc.) You are advised to explain which variables will be subject of univariate analysis and which will be bivariate. How you will present your analysed data (e.g. frequency tables, bar graphs, pie charts etc.) Justify your choices – e.g. ‘frequency tables are suitable for presenting nominal data’ (Smith, 1999, p. 45) Remember to explain/justify data analysis of both your survey and your interviews Assignment text 7. Ethical Considerations – explain how you would consider the ethical issues associated with the research proposal. Tips for the Ethical Considerations Section Briefly outline how your project will be ethically conducted: How you will obtain informed consent The risks to participants in your study, and how you will protect them from those risks (mostly to do with privacy) How the anonymity of participants will be maintained How will collected data be reported and stored? Assignment Text 8. Provide a reference list (Harvard) for any reference sources you use to justify your final research proposal. Good papers include a variety of academic references to justify decisions made in relation to the research proposal (A3 required 5 references, so I would propose that 5 is the minimum for A4 as well – however, HDs and Ds may require more references than this) Marking Criteria Your Assignment 3 will be marked based on the following criteria CriteriaMarks % Research design20 Data collection methods20 Qualtrics survey10 Sample selection10 Ethical considerations10 Proposed data analysis techniques10 Presentation and clarity of the report10 Referencing quality and list10 Total % marks100 Format of Assignment 3 Cover page Title Page Problem Statement and Research Objectives Research Design Data Collection Methods Qualtrics Survey explanation Sample Selection Ethical Considerations Data Analysis Techniques Reference List Appendices Qualtrics Questionnaire Word limit and assignment sections The cover sheet, title page, reference list, and appendices are not included in the 1500 word limit The following 7 sections are included in the 1500 word limit: Problem Statement and Research Objectives, Research Design, Data Collection Methods, Qualtrics Survey, Sample Selection, Ethical Considerations, and Data Analysis Techniques Use headings corresponding with the required sections above within your assignment It is up to you whether you would like to number your sections or not (1, 2, 3 etc. – 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc. if you use subsections) but it is a useful tool Physical presentation Double spaced At least 2.5 cm margins Insert page numbers Use 3rd person (instead of writing ‘I’, refer to yourself as ‘the researcher’ or similar term) More details of in UIG Reference Style: Harvard The required reference style for this unit is the Harvard style Click on the ‘Topic 3’ folder and upload the referencing chapter from Summers and Smith’s (2006) Communication Skills Handbook It provides you with examples and everything you need to know about the Harvard referencing style Make sure that your referencing is consistent Final notes Focus on the marking criteria of the assignment – this is your guide to ensure that you have included all necessary elements into the assignment that you will be marked on Start early – last minute assignments written the night before the due date seldom obtain a high grade