Introduction to Research Methods Quiz 1
Quiz 2: Chapters 2-3 (Wolfer text)
This is an open book open note quiz, but you are expected to work alone. Think about your answers and try to construct your answers without immediate assistance from the book. (Don’t simply copy the answers from the book.)
Please provide your answers to the questions below. For questions asking for a description, please ensure that you provide a detailed description of the concept.
1. Construct a hypothesis for the research problem below.
a. As the president of a university, I would like to know why some of our students are withdrawing after their first semester. Preliminary student polling has surfaced lack of interest in course material as the top reason why first semester students are withdrawing. If I were to conduct a research study on this, what would my hypothesis be?
b. Explain how you would operationalize the dependent and independent variables in the hypothesis you constructed above.
Hypothesis – Why do first semester students have a lack of interest in course material?
My dependent variables are the students and the independent variables are the sets of questions in the survey. What must be operationalized is the term course material. The course material can be lecture notes, exercises, supplementary reading, textbook, link to other sites, or software. The researcher must ensure the people participating in the survey share the same definition.
2. Describe the four types of validity that a researcher can review in order to consider a measurement instrument valid.
Face validity – determine if the measure makes sense. Is the measurement believable?
Content validity – Does the measure cover all of the dimensions? Review other’s research, do a literature review.
Criterion validity – compares a researcher’s measure to a measure that is widely accepted in that field. Concurrent – measured during the course of the study. Predictive – used to validate their measure when the study is complete.
This is an open book open note quiz, but you are expected to work alone. Think about your answers and try to construct your answers without immediate assistance from the book. (Don’t simply copy the answers from the book.)
Please provide your answers to the questions below. For questions asking for a description, please ensure that you provide a detailed description of the concept.
1. Construct a hypothesis for the research problem below.
a. As the president of a university, I would like to know why some of our students are withdrawing after their first semester. Preliminary student polling has surfaced lack of interest in course material as the top reason why first semester students are withdrawing. If I were to conduct a research study on this, what would my hypothesis be?
b. Explain how you would operationalize the dependent and independent variables in the hypothesis you constructed above.
Hypothesis – Why do first semester students have a lack of interest in course material?
My dependent variables are the students and the independent variables are the sets of questions in the survey. What must be operationalized is the term course material. The course material can be lecture notes, exercises, supplementary reading, textbook, link to other sites, or software. The researcher must ensure the people participating in the survey share the same definition.
2. Describe the four types of validity that a researcher can review in order to consider a measurement instrument valid.
Face validity – determine if the measure makes sense. Is the measurement believable?
Content validity – Does the measure cover all of the dimensions? Review other’s research, do a literature review.
Criterion validity – compares a researcher’s measure to a measure that is widely accepted in that field. Concurrent – measured during the course of the study. Predictive – used to validate their measure when the study is complete.