Research Seminars in IT in Education MIT6003 The use of computers in educational research

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Research Seminars inIT in Education(MIT6003)Th
e use of computers in educational research

• Dr Jacky Pow

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Agenda

• Internet and research
• Online survey
• Online experiment

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Internet and research

• Through the use of tools such as online focus
  groups, electronic mail, and online
  questionnaires, the Internet opens up new
  possibilities for conducting research. It offers,
  for example
• shorter timeframes for collecting and recording
  data e-mail messages can be saved and analyzed
  in qualitative data packages, for example, while
  online surveys can be captured directly into a
  database 
• the possibility of conducting interviews and
  focus groups by e-mail, with related savings in
  costs and time
• new "communities" to serve as the object of
  social scientific enquiry
• opportunities for including mixed multiple media
  in questionnaires

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Internet and research

• On the other hand, these opportunities also raise
  new challenges for the researcher, such as
• problems of sampling
• the ethics of conducting research into online
  communities
• physical access and skills required to use the
  technologies involved
• accuracy and reliability of information obtained
  from online sources
• the changed chronology of interaction resulting
  from asynchronous communication

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Evaluation of information sources

• It is necessary to validate the information you
  got from the Internet
• http//www.vuw.ac.nz/staff/alastair_smith/evaln/ev
  aln.htm

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Online survey

• While some of the characteristics of online
  survey research overlap with those of traditional
  survey research, there are also differences.
  Among the potential advantages of online
  questionnaires are low-cost delivery and return
  wide potential coverage ease of completion,
  submission and data capture appropriateness to
  particular - not all - populations high
  respondent acceptance for some groups and even
  novelty

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Online experiment

• Psychology Research Online (PRO)
• http//ssweb.cityu.edu.hk/pro

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The Internet as a medium for research

• Study the website below. Discuss with your group
  members to see whether the Internet is a good
  medium for research
• http//www.nrf.ac.za/yenza/research/internet.htm