Ascertained From Those Individuals That

¶ … ascertained from those individuals that have participated in online university courses or having taught online university courses or attained a degree from an online university, it is imperative the answers to the surveys, questionnaires or interviews be compiled into workable frameworks in order for the data to be effectively analyzed. There are numerous avenues that can be followed when attempting to assign quantitative values to normative and qualitative designs and results. Specifically, measurements consists of devising a system for assigning numbers to observations-in its most pure sense.

These assignments may be purely arbitrary or they may reflect the ranking of ordinal or interval variables. These numbers, in conclusion, represent what qualitative researchers refer to as a code (Patton, 2002). This "code" should be consistent across cases or units when the same condition exists. For example, if a code of "1" means female the variables associated with gender should be coded as 1 for each female. Researchers can also use codes to group various classifications of a concept (Patton, 2002).

There are specific rules that govern the concept of "coding" in order for the codes of these normative responses, answers to various survey questions, to make logical sense. The various factors of coding involve coding theory, mutually exclusivity, exhaustiveness and detail must be considered. Researchers who engage in quantitative research generally engage in a process where a hypothesis is derived from the data and the coding system they use should be linked to the theory they hope to support or falsify (Patton, 2002).

An examination of the theory will provide the researchers with an idea of the types of responses the participants will provide. The first factor that is utilized in qualitative data analysis involves the concept of mutual exclusivity. Under the rule of mutual exclusivity, the coding categories for each variable must be designed so that each case or unit of analysis be coded into one and only one category of the variable. The second factor that goes into qualitative data analysis involves the concept of exhaustiveness.

The rule of exhaustiveness dictates that the enumeration of categories is sufficient to exhaust all the relevant categories expected of respondents-each and every response or behavior can be classified without a substantial number being classified as "other" (Patton, 2002). Theory and knowledge about the expected sample can help the researcher to determine exhaustiveness. The third factor involves the detail of categories when devising a coding system to engage in qualitative data analysis of survey results.

It is well advised for a qualitative researcher to devise as many categories as possible in order to ensure that all categories of responses are included within the qualitative data analysis. If a category is not utilized, it is easier for a category to be removed than to added later and fit to the data. Once the data has been coded, it is time for the data to placed into raw analytical constructs (Patton, 2002). The most common construct is that of a Frequency Distribution.

The purpose of using a Frequency Distribution is to examine the relationship between each individual's response to the various survey questions. A frequency distribution of a single variable, is known as "Uni-variate Frequency Distribution" (Patton, 2002). A Uni-variate Frequency Distribution shows the frequency of observations in each category of variable. To construct this Frequency Distribution, the researcher must list the categories of.