Personal And Professional Development Web Survey Methodology Review

Discuss about the Personal and Professional Development Web Survey Methodology.

The website of Wolverhampton Online Learning Framework (WOLF) illustrates ordnance of lessons on workshops, presentations, academic literature, videos regarding preparation for a dissertation regarding project on Independent Business Analysis and Masters level dissertation. The study will provide suggestions to the selected themes posted in Week 7, Week 9 and Week 11.

The main aim of the study is to provide a brief review of the themes posted in Week 7, Week 9 and Week 11. Suggestions of the theme will be provided from external sources like peer-reviewed journals, scholarly articles, books, and other websites. The content of these external sources will help in providing effective suggestions and recommendations to the existing themes.

• To review the themes of research methods posted in the pedagogy (three Weeks 7, 9 and 11)
• To identify the areas of developments while providing recommendations by researching on external sources on journals, scholarly articles and books.

The scope of the study is limited to the research ideas and themes of research methods posted in the Week 7, Week 9 and Week 11 of the website of WOLF.

The report will proceed by reviewing the content on the websites especially the pedagogy presented in the three weeks such as Week 7, Week 9 and Week 11. Apart from that, similar information from the other sources like academic literatures like scholarly articles, journals, books which are available in databases like Google Scholar.

Week 7 focuses on the responses provided while conducting a survey and the requirements while formulating a questionnaire design. Surveys are the forms of conducting a primary research in order to collect feedback from the sample respondents chosen by the researcher. Issues related to surveys are also mentioned such as wrong type of questions related to personal information of the respondents, lack of clarity, complex language, biased sample, etc (Mackey and Gass 2015). Apart from that, it can be said that if the sample respondent size is big, then the possibility of getting positive response. The limitations of the surveys are improper knowledge of the research topic, inappropriate idea of the sample respondents, inappropriate attitude towards research ethics, less validity and reliability of the research (Choy 2014).

Another area illustrates the design of the questionnaires used by the researcher while conducting primary research methods like surveys and questionnaires. The questionnaire will follow the validity and reliability of the research. Sampling size and sampling representation also creates a factor in designing the questionnaire. An element of ethnicity and social class of the respondents is responsible for framing questions that will explain the social issues (Smith 2015). This section also describes about the validity of the content that can be measured as encourage participation, not ambiguous, not lead, encouragement of truthful answers, etc. Construct validity of the questionnaire such as Likert scale, factor analysis, etc. are used in the questionnaire so that the record of the sample respondents of the research should be collected properly and in a crisp way (Flick 2015).

Objective

Apart from surveys, interviews are also considered as an element that can be used as a part of the primary research that can be conducted by the researcher. Many limitations are not mentioned in the week & such as the selection criteria of the sample respondents, the role of ethics in conducting survey (Willis 2015). In designing questionnaire apart from cultural issues, there are many other factors such as the questions must relate to the hypothesis selected for the research topic. Questions may be open ended or descriptive if focus group is selected as the mode of conducting primary research.

Week 9 illustrates the details about the variables of the research and a brief understanding of the OLS modeling. Variables are described as the characteristics that will have two values at least. It can be an event, behaviour, situation and individual characteristics of the variables that can vary. Examples of variable include share price, profit by different firms, job satisfaction, age and height (Krumpal 2013). The presentation also focuses on class survey and formation of research questions. Two variables are comprised of the dependent and independent variable. Independent variable is denoted as ‘X’ variable and ‘Y’ decodes dependent variable. Independent variable is the cause whereas the dependent variable is the effect, response or outcome of the co-relational study. Based on the types of the value of variables there are many categorical variables such as ordinal, dichotomous, continuous, and nominal variables. In many slides formation of research questions that can include many elements such as gender, country and satisfaction of the research methods are described properly. The implementation of the both the dependent and independent variables should be included in the research questions (Dillman et al. 2014).

In the part of the OLS regression, the values of the variables are calculated. The statistical calculation of the regression of OLS is based on the hypothesis set for the research. The assumptions of the hypothesis will contain the both independent and dependent variables of the research topic. It is also mentioned that it can be checked via SPSS or by using correlation test or T test. Description of the T test, correlation regression, logarithm Philips curve, etc (Fowler 2013).

The variables of the research are an important aspect in framing the hypothesis. Formation of hypothesis is related to the research objective and the research questions framed related to the topic of the research. It is seen that, the importance of hypothesis is not mentioned in a detailed manner. The hypothesis formation of the research is necessary for a researcher while determining the methods of questionnaire selected for the sample respondents of the research topic (Callegaro et al. 2015).

Scope

Lecture slides of Week 11 discusses about the importance of observation as a research methods and the process of conducting observation by the person conducting the research in a detailed format. The definition of observation along with its features is described in the presentation slides. The features of the observation are scientific purpose, intentional, qualitative and quantitative, recording, analyzing, native environment, etc. The need of observation is elaborated in a way so that the reader can get a detailed analysis of the need of the observation. The observer mostly understands the visual stimuli. He also seeks an understanding the subject of the research project (Nardi 2015). Observation without filters is also mandatory. The dynamic situations of the observation are need to be analyzed. The natural setting is important. The reality of the subjects of the research is explained. In the process of observation, the subject, observer and the assistants are included.

The role of researcher is categorized into two groups such as participant observation, non-participant observation. The limitations of the observation technique are biasness of the researcher, difficult in replication of the research, lack of interpretive skills, and highly dependent on the researcher (Panneerselvam 2014). The methods that are used in doing analysis of the observation are analysis of audio-visual collection, analysis of document collection, questionnaires and interviews. Detailed description of the data collection method is described by determining what to observe, recording the procedures and recording the different approaches. Data analysis is the important part before completion of the research. It is done by implementation of different processes (McPeake et al. 2014).

In the lecture slides, a detailed analysis of the various types of observation is described. The reader can get a detailed idea about the process of observation and its importance in a research. However, the part of data analysis is very important like that of other parts which are not described in the lecture slides. Data analysis is an important part that can be completed while organizing the information, developing ideas and drawing conclusion by verifying different types of data collected through primary research and secondary research methods. An explanation of the statistical tools used in data analysis methods can be mentioned in the slides. Readers must have a knowledge on doing data analysis properly otherwise the results of the research will vary (Gelman et al. 2014).

It is to be recommended to the website of WOLF in an overall should be improved as the website is for the readers that will gather knowledge about the dissertation. Secondary research methods are not mentioned in the three lecture slides of the Week 7, Week 9 and Week 11. Apart from that, details about data analysis methods should be added in the lecture slides of Week 11. Importance of hypothesis should be mentioned in the learning portals (Kraemer and Blasey 2015).

Conclusion

The study focuses on elaborate description of the different lecture slides present in the website of WOLF. Along with the description of the review, recommendations regarding the missing elements regarding the topic explained in the lecture slides are explained from different external sources such as books, journals and scholarly articles.

References

Callegaro, M., Manfreda, K.L. and Vehovar, V., 2015. Web survey methodology. Sage.

Choy, L.T., 2014. The strengths and weaknesses of research methodology: Comparison and complimentary between qualitative and quantitative approaches. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(4), pp.99-104.

Dillman, D.A., Smyth, J.D. and Christian, L.M., 2014. Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: the tailored design method. John Wiley & Sons.

Flick, U., 2015. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research project. Sage.

Fowler Jr, F.J., 2013. Survey research methods. Sage publications.

Gelman, A., Carlin, J.B., Stern, H.S. and Rubin, D.B., 2014. Bayesian data analysis (Vol. 2). Boca Raton, FL, USA: Chapman & Hall/CRC.

Kraemer, H.C. and Blasey, C., 2015. How many subjects?: Statistical power analysis in research. Sage Publications.

Krumpal, I., 2013. Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: a literature review. Quality & Quantity, 47(4), pp.2025-2047.

Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.

McPeake, J., Bateson, M. and O’Neill, A., 2014. Electronic surveys: how to maximise success. Nurse researcher, 21(3), pp.24-26.

Nardi, P.M., 2015. Doing survey research. Routledge.

Panneerselvam, R., 2014. Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..

Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.

Willis, G.B., 2015. Analysis of the cognitive interview in questionnaire design. Oxford University Press.