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This course was superb!

From the word "go," students were involved in various group activities. These activities thought me how to be a team player and how to meet objectives as a group. There was initial hick-ups which included the questioning of the e-tutor's competence to handle the simple marking of activities for this course. Thanks to our CC, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The Padlet activity was one of the first which challenged me to showcase my creative capabilities (however I held back still), and I was very happy to know that the CC welcomes persons personal reflections on matters - this is an important part of any course/learning session.

The Required Text was a major help in this course and I recommend that students obtain an early copy: I sources and ordered my personal copy from Amazon.com and I paid only a few dollars - it was worth the investment. I do recommend that the course materials, i.e. the Units be revised. Although they contain pertinent information, there should be more in depth material apart from the readings - remember, this is the main course material to most students.

To me, there was not enough BBC Sessions to assist students to gain a full grasp of the research proposal and final report - I felt almost abandoned by my e-tutor. Not to mention, my e-tutor provided misleading feedback for the research proposal in that, she firstly said I submitted a "Great so far" draft and to my surprise, the final proposal was only satisfactory as I received an appalling 13/20 grade.

The almost daily, but definitely weekly, motivational encouragement by our CC made life a lot easier. Ms. Karima Mohammed is an excellent "people person" and Coordinator and there should be a lot more CC's and e-tutors like her at the UWIOC - having the support, understanding and external motivation by someone who sees herself as an equal (or even as a learner) is very encouraging and thought provoking and it speaks to the personality of that individual. Imagine, we had a lounge area for Birthday's... Who does that? Only the best CC in the UWIOC - Ms. Mohammed.

Overall, this was truly a "Semester to Remember." I would not like to repeat it but I surely enjoyed it. I almost forgot, I had to explain what I meant by " the nature of this course is a bit serious." Now, what I mean is that this course is a continuous assessment course and the CC and e-tutor are very strict markers who adhere 100% to the grading rubrics. Thus, although there is a friendly ambience throughout the course, one should not be carried away by some of the seemingly "short and easy" weekly activities/tasks.

I will end this reflection by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to the CC and the e-Tutor for being patient and understanding throughout this semester. There are times as students and working adults (some with families), it can be extremely difficult to balance the load of each, at many times, one suffers - so as students, we are often forced to choose - do I choose my family first, my work first or my education first - undeniably, those are not very easy choices/decisions to make. I truly appreciate the patience and understanding extended to me during this course and I do wish you the CC and e-tutor a very Merry Christmas and a Bright and Prosperous New Year 2017... Until we meet again!

CHEERS!!!
!
!

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This week's presentations gave students the opportunity to improve on their public speaking skills and strengthen on the PowerPoint Presentation Skills - those are important qualities to managers of business organisations.

The presentation week challenged individuals to come out of their shell and become creative. I was an opportunity to listen to peers for the first time and it was a fun experience - some of the presentations made me chuckle a bit and I was happy that at the end of this course, I was able to get a laugh out of it, which was different for a change.

Different because the nature of this course is a bit serious (and I will explain in a subsequent posting). I think students generally gave a good account of themselves and tried their utmost to produce excellent presentations. I was very impressed by some of the presentations I saw because everyone sounded so professional.

The Q and A forum was also an excellent idea - being that it was a separate forum left little room for confusion - the instructions by the CC were also easy to follow and made the process easier to manage. One thing I can boast about is that I was able to use a little regression analysis in my research and include that in my presentation and I also spoke about Pearson's r and the P-Value.

My final thoughts would be that this individual presentation gave students the opportunity to showcase all they have learned throughout the course and I think it provided the CC and e-tutor with the opportunity to know whether students took away anything from this course, i.e. whether we were able to apply knowledge and skills thought during the course

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Unit 8 introduced data analysis. We started with learning about qualitative data analysis which involved taking in and recording of mental notes using the senses. We also learned that there are various data analysis software that a researcher can use when conducting qualitative analysis.

At the end I was able to: "summarise the basic qualitative data analysis process; describe processes involved in analysing qualitative data; analyse qualitative data using appropriate data analysis techniques; and distinguish between the roles of the research and software programmes in the analysis of qualitative data" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 134).

Session 2 of Unit 8 introduced students to inferential data analysis which has two branches: univariate and bivariate analysis. This part was designed to enable students to "distinguish between descriptive and inferential statistics; interpret frequency, central tendency, dispersion and correlation of data; and use tables, graphs and charts to display and interpret descriptive data" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 138).

Session 3 of Unit 8 explored the use of estimation statistics and hypothesis testing. Basically, students were supposed to learn how to extrapolate data and come to solid conclusions from data analysis and collection. This part of the unit focused on developing null and alternative hypotheses and reaching statistical conclusions.

I thought that the chapter contained information about different areas of statistics and and should have been more in depth to serve as a refresher. However, I was able to learn the difference between inferential and hypothesis testing statistics. Additionally, I was able to see the importance of being able to calculate variances and standard deviations.

I believe this unit will help in strengthening my data analysis skills and will be beneficial when conducting organisational research in the future. There were also some very useful information in the e-tutor presentations, including great videos and website links. I can now confidently say that I should be able do a good data analysis and present to an organisation.

Course Notes. (2016). “Unit 8 – Data Analysis.” MGMT2063 - Research
Methods for Business – Introduction to Qualitative and
Quantitative Methods. [PDF Document]. http://201610.tle.courses.open.uwi.edu/pluginfile.php/13588/mod_resource/content/0/MGMT2063_u8-20151109.pdf

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I am very amazed at the in-depth group work involvement that this course exposes students to and the numerous opportunities to engage and express our most inner thoughts on business research issues. This week's Research Debate invoked robust discussion among students on a major debate topic: Qualitative-Quantitative.

The discussion raised very cogent points from both sides and encouraged intellectual thinking and online research. Teams were very involved with the forums and their material content proved to be properly compiled as the paragraphs flowed fluently. Additionally, the paragraphs demonstrated good in-text citations and referencing in conjunction with the APA Formatting Style.

I think the Qualitative-Quantitative Debate is one which arouses deep arguments as to the superiority of the two. Personally, I think that all data is by very nature Quantitative. However, I do not negate the fact  that if researchers are to provide comprehensive and detailed research reports, then they must engage in some type of qualitative element to their research.

It was informative and eye-opening to learn that Trochim (2006) stated that “all qualitative data can be coded quantitatively... anything that is qualitative can be assigned meaningful numerical values.” However, it was also equally important to learn that the same Trochim (2006) stated that “all quantitative data is based on qualitative judgment. Numbers in and of themselves can't be interpreted without understanding the assumptions which underlie them."

In closing, I think this week's Research Debate provided me with the additional information needed to address this particular issue in future conversations. If I were to make a choice as to the type of data I would rather or choose when conducting research and I was unable to combine both, I would stick with quantitative data because that type of data makes provision for the researcher to conduct statistical analyses from large numbers of participants versus the other which makes it very difficult and expensive to obtain data from very large, and at most times random, samples.

Reference:

Trochim, W. M. K. (2006). “The Qualitative Debate.” Research Methods
Knowledge Base. Retrieved from
http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualdeb.php

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During Unit 7 I was exposed to the "editing and coding of data" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 8). It is important that the researcher checks for data omissions, consistency, legibility and errors to ensure the integrity if the data" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 8). Checking to ensure the data are correct is imperative since one bad record or entry could report an incorrect result to the reader.

It was also understood that computer programs and software make it possible for researchers to analyse and present data so that it can be better understood - through the means of "using a codebook and software use to code data" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 8). From this unit I was able to learn how to identify errors and edit it should the need arise; understand the purpose of a code book and its construction and how to compare and contrast analytical software used in coding.

Further, I was able to grasp the concept of data cleaning and modification, which was a topic under the data dictionary. The unit also highlighted what the purpose of using a data dictionary is and the relationships between fields, data records, files and databases.

Finally, I learned about the various data presentation methods and about the different "graphical display methods such as tables, bar graphs, and charts" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 20) - particularly the Pie Chart which I love so much.

The forum discussion also provided much needed practice in constructing graphs and charts. My colleagues had different graphs and charts based on preference - just goes to show we are not all attracted to the same things.

In the end, I was able to "distinguish between the different techniques for displaying data, explain appropriate use of different techniques for displaying data and create and interpret visual representations of data" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 21).

Reference:

Course Notes. (2016). “Unit 7 – Data Presentation and Representation.”           MGMT2063 - Research Methods for Business – Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. [PDF document].1-22. The Learning Exchange 2016 Semester I. Retrieved from http://201610.tle.courses.open.uwi.edu/pluginfile.php/13573/mod_resource/content/0/MGMT2063%20Unit7_Version%201_Oct-17-2015.pdf

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According to Course Notes (2016), during this unit I was "introduced to the communication media or modes of administering questionnaires" (p. 95). Further, I was able to understand that the "medium used can place differing amounts of burden on the respondent to interpret and follow instructions and interpret and respond to questions" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 95). Therefore, it is important that the questionnaire be a clear and straight forward as possible. And, its questions should not be too complex.

Respondents may prefer self-administered questionnaires, especially with the scenario of the pizza shop which we had for discussion. Self-administered questionnaires are best for keeping respondents anonymous. Based on the required mode, the interview should structure the questions to suit. In other words, questionnaires should have more close-ended questions while a telephone interview should have more open-ended questions.

Session two of Unit 6 went into the whole questionnaire design where we "learnt the benefits and limitations of open-ended and closed questions and that the type of questions should depend on factors, such as depth of required responses and available time (Course Notes, 2016, p. 100). At the end of that session, I had a better grasp on how to construct  a proper questionnaire, including the structure of questions and overall layout of the questionnaire.

The final session of Unit 6 revealed the various types of errors that  may occur  during the questionnaire design to wit: "Avoid complex questions; Avoid leading and loaded questions; Avoid ambiguity; Avoid double-barreled items; Avoid making assumptions; Avoid questions that tax the respondent's memory and Avoid order bias" (Course Notes, 2016, p. 102). It was also shown why pretesting is important to minimizing those errors.

In the final analysis, this unit culminated with a reading and discussion activity which afforded the students to practice what we learnt in this unit. I can now safely say that I have a much better understanding of questionnaire formation and modes of administering the questionnaire. Additionally, I understand what the questionnaire must entail to reduce errors.

Reference:

Course Notes. (2016). “Unit 6 – Questionnaire Design.” MGMT2063 -                 Research Methods for Business – Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. [PDF document]. 90-105. The Learning Exchange 2016 Semester I. Retrieved from http://201610.tle.courses.open.uwi.edu/pluginfile.php/13566/mod_resource/content/0/MGMT2063_u6-20151004.pdf

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Presentation week placed emphasis on public speaking and presentation skills. Even though we were not able to see our audience, there was a anxious mood just before delivery. Personally, I thought I did a great job at delivering and I think my team (Q2 Investigators) also did a fantastic job at delivering their parts - I think we should get 100% for that performance. Additionally our slides was prepared using the necessary Power Point animations which I think made our presentation stand out.

The other groups did fantastic jobs as well. In my opinion, everyone who presented on the 11/10/2016 was flawless - I do not recall any of us having internet troubles at all. Those who presented on the 13/10/16  was not as flawless in my opinion because there was some internet issues and the slides could not have been uploaded properly.

One thing which I am proud of is that I had the opportunity to lead my team and I had scheduled some time to use the BBC room to practice, so I think that gave my team an edge on the other teams. I am inclined to think that my team was the only team to practice via the BBC.

It brought immense joy to my heart to see how effective we were and how well each one of us presented - Presentation skills are extremely important when you are a researcher, or just in general. Ones ability to speak publicly is a real skill that every employer should be interested in when recruiting and selecting employees.

Our study was a paper which highlighted the effect of employee absenteeism in Cadbury Nigeria - Cadbury is actually one of the largest snack companies in the world. Our study of the paper showed that employee absenteeism does affect, more so, it lowers the company's performance and productivity.

If I have the chance to do that presentation all over again, I surely would because that experience was unforgettable.

Looking forward to getting that "A" at the end of this course.

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Further to my summary, I lay here on my bed reflecting on Unit 5, and I must admit how important it is to conduct business research.

This unit reminded me that the researcher may need internal or external data when conducting research. These sources include a combination of primary data and secondary data. Primary data being the information collected for the first time and secondary data being the information retrieved from old sources like government statistical offices.

Based on the nature of research, it may be wise to have both new and outdated information to show comparisons, create analyses and highlight patterns and/or emerging trends. We can never have enough information; in order to explicitly outline research objectives and capture background framework in the literature review, it is important that the researcher use both primary and secondary data.

Collecting data involves either a quantitative or qualitative approach or a mixed methodology preference. Due to ethical considerations, the researcher who knows about data collection ought to know that the methodologies places the researcher in an advantageous position when it comes to data analysis and presentation of results. Explanation of data must be done in its simplest from so as to convince audiences of the facts presented and also to allow them to form their opinions based of what they think they understand. By doing this, the researcher is opening the doors for further research and topic development.

Finally the issue of field work is highly relative to the managing of field resources. This is important because research costs money - normally to do a proposal for consideration, the budget of the estimated cost to execute the survey must be included. For example, let us say that we are doing financial research to determine whether the citizenry of a country should pay Value Added Taxes; it would be important to outline the exact monetary consumption such a venture would cost.

As a final point, data provides organisations with information for making executive decisions such as, whether to change location, whether to introduce a new line of product, whether to discontinue operations, inter alia.

Unit 5 contains important developmental topics - in academia, candidates who are pursuing their Doctorate conduct regular research in their fields to support their dissertations. Therefore, I cannot stress how important it is for a person in business to know how to conduct research, particularly in understanding the data sources and collection methods.

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Unit 4 provided thorough knowledge on the concepts behind Research Design, i.e. Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed-Methodology: I think this is important because as a researcher you do not want to get caught being unprepared or coming across as an incompetent when conducting experiment because there may be times the researcher will come under supervision.

I say this to say, that these methods provide options to choose from when conducting experiments. Depending on the sample size and purpose for the study, the researcher will be able to say whether he/she thinks it is better to be descriptive or casual or both.

Measurement and conceptualisation are equally important in the research design - data can be empirical or theoretical. One interesting study that I read was the Pygmalion effect, which is the effect of expectancy on other people. Now, the physicality with which that happens may not be measurable but it does contain both types of data based on the tested experiment.

Sampling and its techniques, process, errors and the various forms such as the sampling process outlines the general path of which the researcher is to follow when doing an experiment or study. It serves as a guide to his sampling analysis.

I think having knowledge about the sampling techniques, especially, the criteria in selecting the research design will put any researcher in an advantageous position in terms of making the most effective use of available resources - conducting research costs money and the researcher needs to properly manage financial resources so as to make the most out of an experiment or research.

Moreover, sampling size and errors are equally important for the researcher in making proper sample adjustments and for determining the difference between an estimated and a true value data within an experiment.

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Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hillary Beckles

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Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hillary Beckles

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I truly admire this Caribbean Hero - He is a true Caribbean Revolutionary Spirit and I would love to meet him in person one day and engage in conversation with him - He may not know it, but he is one of my role models and a person I aspire to be like one day.

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Proposal, Report and Oral Presentation - The essence of Unit 3; I must say that I have taken away a great amount of pertinent information from this seemingly short [but sweet] topic.

Interestingly, I think that being a business student and prospective executive business manager (or Chairman for a major corporate organisation), it is rather of paramount importance that I learn business research techniques and methods.

Knowledge in this particular area is important because as leaders, we make decisions that affect the lives of many... it is therefore a necessity that we [as managers] are able to read, understand and interpret data when presented to us for perusal.

Prior to being organisational leaders, our departmental heads may need to know why there is a sudden change in sales for a particular month or quarter. Alternatively, our heads may need to know how to reduce the waiting time for customers standing in a queue at an ATM or for a Bank Teller, and may call on you, being the holder of a Management Degree from UWI, to carry out investigations and come up with solutions to the problem - this would then call for the identification of variables, writing of a proposal, reporting and oral [and/or written] presentation of findings.

Therefore, for this (and other undisclosed reasons of course), I think Unit 3 - Communication in the Research Process, is worth paying attention to.

Communication is key to effective leadership and organisational governance and I have learnt that being good at Business Research places you in an advantageous position within your organisation in comparison to your colleagues.

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See all the wonderful things terol_jackasal has made

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I must express my inner thoughts on what I would consider blatant and utter disregard by some students for our inner-most and essential reasons for why we attend a university.

Living in the Caribbean, most of us are privy to first hand poverty situations; we may have ourselves lived through situations of poverty.

As Vice Chancellor , Professor Sir. Hillary Beckles said in his inaugural speech  at Cave Hill Campus in May, 2015, "We must strive to rekindle our Caribbean revolutionary spirit."

I think what he means is that we as a people have forgotten our sad pasts, our years of seemingly endless slavery, our periods of struggle and our moments before attending UWI when we would sit and dream about our future and envision ourselves doing our degrees.

Students, as motivational speaker Les Brown would say all the time: "Living your dreams is hard."

If you are at UWI and you are encountering struggles, you must remain resilient and patient for "this too shall pass" continue to do your best and give 120% all the time.

T.D. Jackasal

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Another interesting topic.

The Research Process is important because conducting research requires a standard procedure and protocol. I have gained a better understanding of what is required to write an efficient research proposal.

A point to note is that I appreciated the unit pictures and images. They were very essential for persons who scored a Multimodal learning style in the VARK questionnaire.

Being guided by a process is also good for novice researchers in order for them to produce excellent work, in that, they have a work plan to follow and execute which is designed to obtain results.

Further, I think the literature review is one of the more important parts of a research paper since it provides the systemic breakdown of what the paper contains - it gives the synopsis (so to speak) of what is contained in the research.

Lastly, the methodology - In my perception, researches have always heard about methodologies and ways of doing experiments, because that's what Business Research is, a myriad of social and/or managerial experiments - the testing of hypotheses, etc.

Knowing methodology will help me make decisions on selecting proper research techniques and choosing accurate and appropriate data collection methods.

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I must commence by saying that I am in love with this course: Research Methods for Business. I think it is imperative that persons who hold managerial positions or who those aspiring to be managers should learn the basic elements of business research.

To me, this is imperative because we live in a would where change is constant - Imagine having to wait in lines for service. Here, we can employ the use of the "Queuing Theory" and conduct research as to the possible reasons why it will take a particular amount of time to serve customers.

If I am Operations Manager or even front line supervisor operating in an organisation, and I have some level of training in Business Research Methods, I can conduct a study to assist in maximising my organisations output level - I would be able to be an indispensable asset for my company.

Lastly, knowledge abut ethical conduct will enable me to adhere to proper protocols, procedures and policies within my organisation and jurisdiction. This knowledge is imperative for moral guidance.

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See all the wonderful things terol_jackasal has made

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See all the wonderful things terol_jackasal has made

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ERIC THOMAS | YOU OWE YOU | Motivational Speaker

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Courage of Famous Failures - Inspirational

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Permit me to start by saying how much I love this course: MGMT2063 – Research Methods for Business.

Firstly, the CC has made every attempt to communicate with us students and this is highly commendable and encouraging – I beg her to keep it up.

Secondly, I have completed all of the Orientations postings with ease – My favourite so far was the creation of this Padlet account; I think that it makes an excellent student space where persons can be creative and express themselves with ease of reference. It is user friendly, easily accessible by all students and best of all, it’s free!

The Lounge creates a lively atmosphere where students can interact and share thoughts – On posting a motivational video I was elated to see some of the responses. It made me happy to know that connected with my colleagues and that my kind gesture was welcomed and forthcoming.

The BBC, I am waiting anxiously to participate because I can feel the energy of the CC and e-tutor. They seem like very remarkable educators and I am very comfortable with their level of involvement with the group.

The VARK Test was not my first; I have done it before so I am cognisant that my learning ability involves a mixture of learning styles, termed “multimodal” learning style.

Lastly, this course orientation was the best I have done since entering UWI two years ago – The class involvement and participation is at a very high level.

The CC and e-tutors have done a magnificent job of putting this course together.

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https://www.youtube.com/soundscapesss We believe in Motivation but we also believe in Meditation so we are starting another channel called SoundScapes. SoundScapes is where music and real world sounds collide to bring you the ultimate relaxation experience. Join SoundScapes on Youtube and compliment this motivation with becoming centred. SoundScapes is a Ping Pong Studio company.

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I have known many struggles in life, many of which has led me down a narrow path of disappointment only to find that I had to travel that same road backwards in order to reach this point in life - one thing I have learned along the way: "The life you live is based upon the thoughts you have inside your head about it."