Imagine you are taking part in a project exploring University’s undergraduate students’ use of social networking sites (SNS). The objectives of the study are as follows:
1) Explore how students use SNS
2) Test whether or not there is a statistically significant relationship between student’s use of SNS for their university lives and their personal lives
3) Test whether or not there is a statistically significant relationship between student’s use of SNS and their learning
As an experienced quantitative researcher you have been asked to create a questionnaire to be used with students .
A crucial part of good research design concerns making sure that the questionnaire design addresses the needs and the objectives of the research. In other words, it is important to ensure that the questions asked are the right ones. To move from the research objectives to deciding what are the right questions to put on a questionnaire is a key aspect that needs to be addressed by the researcher.
For this assessment you will be working on SNS use data using SPSS. Develop a structured questionnaire (remember open ended is not allowed) based on 20 questions as simple as possible. Your purpose is to create 20 variables from 20 questions.
Outputs:
1.Remember you have to use an appropriate survey tool (probabilistic or non-probabilistic sampling) and justify briefly the reason why you have selected it.
2.You need to collect data from at least 10 students i.e., the minimum number is 10.
3.Variables should be coded properly, say for gender variable (male = 1 and female = 2).
4.Include in an appendix your SPSS file (so we can see you have created one)- you can do this by pressing print screen and pasting into the word document. Similarly, you can use print screen to show a variable view (we need to assess that you have created the correct variables and how you input them). So we need to see an 1) SPSS file 2) Variable view- they can both be contained in the same appendix. Remember you need to create 20 variables from your questionnaire.
Assessment Criteria:
I. Design questionnaire, word limit = 1000
a. An introduction to the research, the researcher, and explain any confidentiality issues.
b. Develop a structured questionnaire based on 20 questions that meet the objectives of the study. How you have finalized the questionnaire.
c. What survey method is used to select sample of students and why have you selected such a method? How you have administered the interview (face to face or any other way), explain it briefly.
d. Whether or not you have surveyed 10 students successfully.
II. Report on Data and Data Analysis, word limit 1000
a. Whether or not you have coded variables properly. For example, Gender is a dummy variable, with Male coded as 1 and Female coded as 2. Complete data view and variable view.
b. Creating an SPSS data file.
c. Show frequency distributions for 10 variables.
d. Test whether or not there is a statistically significant relationship between SNS use and their learning.
e. Write a brief report on the results.
