The Pros and Cons of a Study

¶ … Strategic Points in This Quantitative Research Study What page is the broad topic are located? Page 1162 (the first page of the article) What page is the literature review located? it's within the introduction What page is the problem statement located? within the abstract. There is also some discussion in the introduction. What page is the sample located? Page 1162 in the methods section ..

92 doctoral candidates (first sentence) What page described phenomena (qualitative) or what page defined variable/hypothesis (quantitative)? The abstract on page 1162 mentions that the main point of the study is to assess whether the use of software like Microsoft SharePoint helps with distance doctoral students. However, the talk of variables and what is being measured is in the research design and analysis, which starts no page 1164.

What page is the methodology and design located? It runs through several sections starting on page 1162 in methods and this continues through the next two sections through the top of page 1166. 7. What page is the purpose statement located? Not explicitly stated as a purpose statement, but the last sentence of the abstract lays bare what the main concern is. 8. What page is the data collection approach located? It is touched upon in "Methods" but the survey itself and such is in the research design and analysis ..

so part or all of pages 1162-1165. 9. What page is data analysis approach located? Page 1162 and 1163 .. the first paragraph of the methods section is the start. The rest can be seen in parts of the instrumentation and research design sections, on pages 1164 and 1165. 10. Evaluation Complete the "Evaluation" section by addressing the following questions (850-900 words) with regard to the 10 strategic points in the study. Discuss the key points in the literature review and how the author used this section to identify the gap or problem addressed in the study. 1.

Describe the variables under study and how they are a key component in this quantitative research study. You are not expected to understand the differences between variables at this point, but should be able to identify how they inform the problem, purpose, research questions and data collection instruments. The main point of comparison is whether the use of SharePoint has a positive effect on attrition rates in doctoral programs (meaning, do the rates go down). There is also a comparison of ground-based and distance-based doctoral programs.

However, it would seem the main "control" group are distance learners that do NOT use SharePoint and they are being compared to those that do use SharePoint. 2. Describe the problem and how it informed the research questions under study. The problem identified and discussed is that the attrition rate, with distance doctoral programs in particular, is rather high at ten to fifty percent. The research questions garnered from that are based on how best to lower those attrition rate.

Another statement that points to the overall problem in play here is that a doctoral student abandoning his/her studies presents and causes an economic loss. This loss is induced with both the student who drops and the university that will no longer get the tuition money from the student.

Of course, there is a litany of factors that cause people to drop out of school such as an unexpected child, a new relationship, a death in the family, a sick relative that needs to be taken care of and so forth.

However, those reasons that relate to the satisfaction (or lack thereof) with the connectivity that is had with the school, connectivity that is had with the other students and how well the program is designed overall will obviously make up a bulk of the situations where people abandon their studies. Both the colleges in question as well as the students have a vested interest in figuring out what is causing the attrition and getting it addressed properly. 3.

Describe the quantitative design used and why it is appropriate for the identified problem and research questions. Support your response with a peer-reviewed citation from a research source. Generally speaking, the author of this report feels that a blended approach is the best one. In other words, there needs to be use of number-based and quantitative measures but this needs to be fused and joined with a qualitative approach. Without this blend, there is not both a "what" and "why" to what is being discussed and found.

A survey was used in this report and that is indeed the best way to go about this in many ways. However, the proper questions need to be asked so as to get to the core of what is happening. For example, asking "are you happy with the college" may get a real answer but that question is so vague that very little in the way of exhaustive conclusions could be found from that.

Being more specific like "is it hard being a distance doctoral student due to the lack of human contact" would be a great starting point and then one can drill down from there. Indeed, numbers can only tell so much. Open-ended questions might be a good thing to add as well.

While the answers to these questions is hard (but not impossible) to measure in terms of patterns and such, keeping questions closed might prevent something that the researcher(s) did not think about from being revealed during the course of the study. One source that the author of this response found reveals a line of thought that very much mimics what was just said above.

Indeed, when looking at organizations of any type or structure, the research methods used including the questions asked and the structure of the study need to be "modern" in nature and need to allow for the most information discovery possible (Toaddy, 2016). 4. Assess the appropriateness of the instruments used to collect data and answer the research questions as well as to address the stated problem. The use of the survey and the Likert scale was a good thing. The use of the survey was also a good move.

However, perhaps the fatal flaw of the study as presented is that it was a convenience sample. Given the subject of this study in particular, with its focus on distance-learning students, that is perhaps not the best way to get a sample if the focus is the least bit (or entirely) on distance learners and the reasons that they depart their doctoral studies. It would have been much better to find a way to get the survey done by the target population, those being the distance learners.

Beyond that, any university would be wise to get real and unvarnished opinions from the people who actually leave right after they announce their intentions. If that could be harnessed and then used as part of a study like this, that would be huge. It might be hard to get a response but the school/study people should make it clear that they want to know what they are doing wrong if that is the reason for the person.