As I hurdle along the weeks are going by so quickly. It was week three and it was time to start working on the big research project whilst we work on our group research as well. I have managed to read through the course reading for the unit which discuss the research proposal and why it is important. Some key point was mentioned namely the components of the research proposal and how one should proceed to write the proposal. These include the responsibility of the researcher to convince the company of the reason for the research and the importance of communication in research.

 The point of referencing was another key factor that was stress in this unit and how important it is to use proper referencing. In addition to that the components of the report was discuss in regards to the finding and how it is expected to write and the approach that should be taken in preparing for the presentation and how to proceed in presenting the report to the specified audience.

A bbc session was conducted by My etutor Ms. Indira Rampersad and Wednesday September 21, The outlined of the course was discussed alongside the different assignment and what was expected of each student in the assignment. Feedback was also given on the draft proposal of the big assignment which was received well because it gave me better grasp of what was expected of me.

 

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The work load is very demanding but I once heard this saying that “a winner never quits and quitter never wins”. I was able to cover reading on unit four which speaks about research design. This unit covers three sub heading namely Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Method Approaches, Conceptualization and Measurement and Sampling and Non-Sampling Designs. In the session Qualitative & Quantitative approaches pg.54 Mgmt2063 it was stated that these two research falls at the ends of the continuum. It was also said that research designed can be categorized in two, that is exploratory and conclusive (Shukla, 2008).A pictorial diagram was shown to show how each would falls into each other whilst a link was given for video to show how the methods work.

The second session spoke about the Conceptualization and Measurement  in terms of variables which can be of two types dependent and independent where the dependent one is the changes the research which to explain whist the independent one explain the changes itself. As it relates to measurement there are four levels these include nominal,ordinal,interval and ratio however it can be faulty and as such reliability, validity and sensitivity is used to evaluate these measurement.

In addition to that sampling design was another heading which could be broken down further into probability Sampling and Non-probability Sampling, Probability Sampling and that they were used because of time constraint budget constraint etc. Probability Sampling is narrowed down to a process of four namely simple random Sampling,Systemaic Sampling, Stratified Sampling and Cluster however each one is choose based on feasibility of research. On the other hand nonprobability Sampling can be broken down to four just the same such as Convenience Sampling, Judgment Sampling Quota Sampling and snowball sampling which a video was provided to explain each process, ����E

 

This unit of speaks about Data Collection which includes the Sources of Data, The Data Collection Process and Preparation and Management of field Processes. It was discovered that there are two types of data used in data collection these are known as primary data and secondary data. It was noted that there are several sources of primary data which include interview letters and surveys just to name a few. In addition to that primary data is said to be original data that the researcher collects for the study from his/her own efforts with a particular purpose and specific objective in mind. One advantage of using such data is that the research has greater control over the quality of data collection whereas with secondary data, the quality of data collected may be questionable. In regards to the primary there could also be disadvantages like the cost of collecting original data be higher than the cost of collecting secondary data.

On the other hand secondary data is vice versa to primary data and as such is said to be a good place to begin research when collecting data because it help the researcher to understand the problem. Secondary data also as its advantages and disadvantages respectively such as saving money since it tends to less costly whilst the relevance of the data might be questionable. It was also discovered that researcher can determine the value of data based on four criteria namely timeless, relevance, completeness and quality.

The Data collection process involves the gathering of data to obtain answers to research question. During this process the objectives should be identified as well as the selection of samples and respondents which will determine the data collection method or strategies. The video revealed that interview, survey and observation were the main method used in business research. In addition to that the preparation of management of field processes was discussed where the roles of the field workers and managers were explained. This was said to include the collection of data from respondents or participants outside of the organization. Whilst all this was done daily management of the fieldworkers was also administered like checking to see if interview schedule or being met and conduct briefing sessions etc. These was done in an effort to minimize error being made in the field. \"lt�sC"

 

This particular week was considered the middle of the semester as the journey gets more difficult but as the famous quote states by George Sheehan “Success means having the courage, the determination and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be” therefore I will continue to run my race with confidences and patience. The days go by so quick but I was able to accomplish my weekly task. The presentation when on with my fellow group mates and etutor which I believe was well presented.

Nonetheless we also had to meet as group re our presentation to discussion questions that we would ask the teams that we were assigned to ask question after the presentation. This question and answer forum when well because it allowed for each person to learn from each other. In addition to that I was able to post my padlet for the previous unit which was about the data collection process. 

To end the week  our midterm quiz was also on the agenda which I found to be quiet manageable based on the fact that most of the question ask ,the answer was right in the notes given providing that prior reading was done before attempting the quiz.

 

This unit was able the whole process of the questionnaire in a research. The unit was also divided into three subsections namely communicating with the respondent, Questionnaires and Types of errors. It was discovered that the medium of communication used for questionnaires can place differing amount of burden on the respondent and such they prefer self-administered one which is of two types self-administered and interviewer administered modes.

 It was also found out that questionnaires is one of the most important aspect of survey research process and Zikmund et al. (2209) in an effort to meet criteria of relevance accuracy advise researcher to be mindful of five question, these are What should be asked?, How should question be phrased?, How should questionnaire be pretested and revised, What questionnaire layout will best serve the research objectives? And in what sequence should the question be arranged. In addition to that a few guideline was discuss that Zikmund recommend as it relates to writing the question such as keeping it simple and avoiding complex language and jargons, avoiding questions that may tax respondent memory and double barreled question that covers two issues in one.

One other aspect that was discussed was the type of errors in questionnaire’s which can either be on the part of the interviewer or the respondent. Some of these include interviewer cheating where the interviewer provide the responses, interviewer influencing the responses of the respondents, by their gestures, tone, mannerisms etc. whilst the respondent error occur because of providing fake or inaccurate responses or incorrectly completing questionnaires. The errors can be minimized by avoid making assumptions, avoid leading and loaded question, avoid ambiguity and double barreled items etc.

As the semester is coming towards an end the work load seem to be much heavier. To that end the feeling of giving up taunts your mind but in the midst of that there is a small voice saying hold out to end because you can do it.The week went by so quickly as I continued working on my research report, groups meeting was held to complete our debate discussion and I participated in forum discussion about data dictionary. The discussion was quite interesting because I was able to learn the use of the data dictionary and its purpose in the research process.

In addition to that I was able to complete a summary on the data Preparation and presentation whilst listening to the power presentation prepared by the etutor which was quite helpful in terms of completing the report. Cl�����[

 

This week was a bit pressuring based on the fact that it is coming very close to the end of the semester and the work load was so much because all the assignment was just one behind the other and they were not just individual assignment but groups also. Inspite of the many challenges I manage to pull through because I was able to garner enough information toward my collaborative piece for the debate and work together as team to finish the task at hand

In addition to that I manage to post a second padlet for unit seven based on the fact that I had went ahead and posted a padlet for the week prior to that one.As a result of that I just went ahead and posted a second one with the inclusion of any information I thought would have been left out the previous one I had posted.

Overall it was a very productive  week even though I had power outage one the night of ,the debate discussion was really good and think I now have a clear concept as it relates to quantitative and qualitative data and how they works in terms of subjectivity. I therefore believe it is safe to say quantitative data is considered to have its main purpose the quantification of data which allows generalizations of results from a sample to an entire population of interest and the measurement of the incidence of various views and opinions in a given sample whilst qualitative data is considered to be particularly suitable for gaining an in-depth understanding of underlying reasons and motivations ����6 �

Quantitative Analysis of data was explored and is said to be a systematic analysis of numerical data collected. It was also discovered that there are two branches of statistics descriptive and inferential. The descriptive is used for describing aggregate and presents the features and characteristics of the data while inferential is used to make inferences or draw conclusion about population beyond immediate data. The descriptive data was further broken down into univariate analysis is used to examine characteristics of a variable and bivariate analysis which is used for examine the relationship between two variables. In addition to that the section spoke about frequency, central tendency, dispersion and correlation and how to determine them.

The final section Inferential Statistics which spoke about the researcher not being able to access entire population and such samples or selected to represent the population. The Inferential Statistics can be further broken down to estimation statistics and hypothesis test.Estimation Statistics was said to be used by statistical inferences about population based on sample with two types of estimation being confidence intervals and parameter estimation. The confidence intervals establish range that has a known probability of capturing the true value of a population whilst the parameter makes inferences of a model describe relationship between variables in a population. Hypothesis test is said to use to make inferences on whether or not data support a particular hypothesis. V�'�����Hȅ�

In addition to that although I was bit late in doing so, I manage to listen to the two peers that I was assigned for the presentation. I resorted to give my feedback even though one of them was bit confusing but yet I manage to critique and post my question.

I was also able to make a reply to my peer as it relates to my presentation and I found the question very interesting. Overall it was very good week full of interaction. In light of that I personally believes it is very good thing to be able to interact with my fellow peers through such medium and get such good results. C

The course was packed with assignments but yet informative and clearly delivered in terms of the constant reminder and explanation and how to complete the given task. In addition to that this course has broad my horizon as it relates doing research in regard to an organization and the different issues.

I would also like to add that the course was a refresher in terms of being able to manipulate Microsoft excel and create different chart/graphs. The course also sought to introduce me to new software and becoming more computers savvy.

In closing I would like to thank my etutor Ms Rampersad and course coordinator Ms Mohammed for the constant reminder and encouragement in regards to completing assignments and keep up to par with the course. �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������黖�<0&?