The Course Coordinator has made my classmates and I feel very welcomed through the orientation activities per day. The first week I explored the Tutor student exchange, I introduced myself, I stated my expectations and that of my tutor and course coordinator etc.  My tutor, Ms. Gladys Leu, put us in pairs and we were required to formulate a team name.  I hope that my team mate gets back to me and works together with me throughout this semester.  This course is relevant to me as this is a part of the requirement for the completion of my degree. It is also important to me because I get to explore the research methods, the components of a research, data collection, analysis etc which I will be able to use in making sound decisions in a business.  

Discussion 1 was based on ethics.  It is important to note that major problems faced by a researcher revolve around ethics. I read valuable information of conducting a research. Some characteristics that a researcher must have include being objective and impartial, honest and basically to the right thing.  In general, Unit 1 has provided me with the basic knowledge of a business research which will continue to benefit me in the units to come. 

I have learned that the literature review is a vital aspect of a research paper and there are different guidelines that must be followed to write a very good literature review. For this week’s discussion, we needed to search for a peer reviewed article’s literature review and do a reflection of that literature review. I now understand that the literature review is very important to the researcher.

I look forward to the other units in this course. 

I have learned that the research proposal is very important before I can move on to the research paper.  The research proposal is a tool for communicating the research plan and is the first step in the communication process between management and the researcher. I have learned all the parts that the research proposal is comprised of which includes the abstract, statement of problem, purpose of study, research hypothesis, timeframe, literature review, just to name a few. I am currently working on my draft proposal for my e- tutor to check and see if I am going in the right path.  I will also need to work on the oral presentation as a means of communication in the research process. 

I have also learned more about doing a research. When I was going to sixth form, I had to do a research report on a problem affecting youths in Belize. However, looking back at what I had done then and what I have learned so far in this course, I believe that that report was not properly done. Some parts of the communication process were left out which are relevant to the report.

I look forward to the other unit in this course.  

 

I have learned that conceptualization is a process used to put together generated ideas for the research topic at hand. For this week’s discussion, we were tasked to create a concept map based on sampling.  This was an excellent start to brainstorming my concept map.  

When I was doing my research report in school, I was not aware of a broad spectrum of research designs. Now that I am doing this course, I have learned that the purpose of selecting a research design is to ensure that evidence obtained enables one to effectively address the research problem logically as possible. With this new information I have learned so far, will definitely take me a long way especially in correctly doing my research report. Now I am fully aware of all the components that needs to be included.

I look forward to the other unit. 

 All the information learned will be applied when I am doing my actual research paper but it will be taken into consideration as I finish my research proposal. I learned about combining research methods.  Something new that I learned was triangulation.  This basically means using more than one method to collect data on the same topic.  Triangulation has its advantages as well as its disadvantages.   I also learned that there are certain skills and responsibilities of the interviewer. They must be confidential with the information that they receiver, must possess good communication skills, be confident and professional, just to name a few.

While in school working on my research report, I was only aware primary and secondary data. I was not aware of other components such as the data collection methods. After reading this unit, I have learned the data collection methods and I have applied them in my research proposal to be submitted to my e-tutor. I always keep in my that it is very important that I document my data collection process as accurately as possible.

I look forward to Unit 6.

 

 

 

As I continued to work on my research proposal, I faced several challenges in understanding the objectives of my research.  This allowed me to further explore the topic and be more concise in rewording my research question and problem statement as well as my main research objective.  Additional research results were included in the literature review and helped provide valuable background to the proposal.

 

I was able to clearly identify the methodology I wanted to use and included the specific research design elements.  Further to the research design, I included the Data Analysis, as well as, Results and Budget.  I formulated a series of questions that will be included in my survey

 

This was my first experience in actually writing a proper research proposal with all the headings that my e-tutor required.  While it was challenging, it was an opportunity that allowed me to learn the different aspects and processes used prior to actually obtaining data and writing the research report.  In my prior research paper, the headings were limited to only a few but with the help of my e-tutor, a clearer understanding of each title was properly discussed in this course. The proposal reminded me much of a project plan that is prepared to provide insight on the research’s objectives.   Hopefully, it was a thorough proposal including all its important aspects.

 

Additionally, I also read over units 1 to 5 to grasp the course material and prepare myself for the upcoming quiz.

 

Furthermore, we were tasked to ask questions to two groups and to answer the two questions posed to our group.  I answered the questions posed to our group and my team mate asked the questions to the two groups.  

 

This group assignment was an excellent experience. Our team work was very well coordinated and helped us in achieving timely submission for all aspects of this assignment.  We communicated mainly via whatsapp and through emails.  I enjoyed this presentation week as I got to learn on different topics in business research.

 

In this week’s discussion, I learned how to go about asking the correct questions in relation to desining a questionnaire given a specific topic.  I have done questionnaires in the past but I did not have an in-depth background knowledge of how to properly ask questions to obtain appropriate results.  After reading the paper that my e-tutor provided, I can now make the connection on what should be contained in a questionnaire.  I learned that survey questionnaire designers aim to develop standardized questions and response options that are concise so that they are easily understood by the respondents.  I also learned the types of errors that are made when designing a questionnaire and measures that can be taken to minimize such errors.  I learned about pretesting a questionnaire.  This was new to me as I did not think that researchers do a pilot testing before the actual questionnaire is distributed to the sample population.  Now that I have read this unit and specifically this section on pretesting, I now understand the rationale behind pretesting the questionnaire.  This identifies weaknesses and corrections are made to the questionnaire. 

This unit has helped me a lot as I move forward with my research report.  Now I am fully aware of how to communicate with my respondents, the principles of the questionnaire design and measures taken to minimize errors throughout the data collection process.  I look forward to Unit 7. 

 
 

 

Editing and Coding is a part of data analysis that help researchers to transform raw data collected into usable data. This process checks to see whether the data was omitted, consistent and legible for the next step of coding.  Numerical scores and symbols are used to put data into categories when coding. This helps for minimum use of words for qualitative data.

An interesting concept I learned was the data dictionary.  This is a collection of descriptions of the data objects or items in a database, which helps for analytical processes.  Data is inputted into the database for storage and analysis. Data cleaning is used to verify that all values collected are correct and consistent.  Data modification is the alteration of data used to create an index score, re arrange numerical categories and allow a broader categories of variables. 

The last section covered the displaying of data. These are usually represented in the form of tables, graphs, and charts, which gives the readers visual images to make obvious comparisons in reports.  The type of image used depends on the type of data collected and what type of information needs to be retrieved.  This week’s discussion allowed me to practice how to create a bar chart in Microsoft Excel and how to analyze information from a set of data collected. I recall doing graphs and charts in a previous project, however, this was done through Google forms which was easier.  Now I got the firsthand experience on how to create a graph when given data.  I recall when I was going to sixth form, we did graphs in Mathematics, Statistics and also in our Computer class. 

It was definitely an interesting unit, and I look forward to Unit 8.

Our stance taken involves choosing  non-probability sampling methods in the selection elements in which not all have equal chances of being selected.  Non-probability sampling methods include convenience sampling, judgmental sampling, quota sampling and snowball sampling.  Each method has its advantages and disadvantages.  After discussing with my team mate I got a better understanding about the sampling methods which expanded my knowledge base.  We encouraged the financial institution to use the non-probability sampling method in conducting a customer satisfaction survey due to the large population involved, the lack of a sampling frame and limitations in the timing of conducting the survey as well as the costs involved. We will post our rebuttal after reading our opponents’ post.

I look forward to reading Unit 8.

The discussion for this week consisted of doing a frequency table from data, creating a histogram and the mean, mode, median, range, standard deviation and variance. The only part of the discussion that was challenging to me was creating the histogram as this was new to me. I knew what a histogram was but I never really created one until this discussion.  I went step by step creating the histogram.  An important aspect when creating a graph is to include a description of what is displayed in the graph.  This unit is important to me to continue analyzing my data for my research report. 

Inferential statistics was used as a means of analyzing quantitative data.  This unit was a refresher for my Introductory Statistics course that I am presently enrolled in.  We learned about both descriptive and inferential statistics, central tendency and brief explanations of graphs earlier in the semester as well as correlation of quantitative data.  Some news terms to me were univariate and bivariate analysis used in descriptive data analysis.  Other material I learned was hypothesis testing, chi-square test and p-values in decision making.  This was easily recognized as I have worked on these topics in my statistics course.  Although I had previous knowledge on some of the topics, I learned a bit more as I read Unit 8.

 

I must admit that during this semester, I have learned quite a lot throughout this course.  I will share my knowledge with my peers especially since two of my co-workers are going to take this course next semester. It is indeed true that every day you learn something new. The wealth of information I have learned is very important information to guide anyone with a research report.  All these skills will be used further when I do my thesis paper/research report during my last semester to complete my Bachelor’s Degree.  

 

Thanks for a wonderful course Ms. Leu.