Essay RES-832-O500 Foundations of Research Design 2 Full Course GCU

Essay RES-832-O500 Foundations of Research Design 2 Full Course GCU

RES-832-O500 Foundations of Research Design 2 Full Course GCU

RES 832 Full Course Discussion GCU

Topic 1 DQ 1

Quantitative research tends to require the use of relatively large samples. With that in mind, consider the strengths and weaknesses of purposeful, convenience, and random sampling approaches in quantitative research. Assume that you are an automobile manufacturing executive tasked with increasing sales in your state. You wish to evaluate the effectiveness of an incentive program for sales personnel implemented at 10 dealerships in medium-size cities and 10 dealerships in small cities. All you have at hand are archived records of the incentives received by the sales staff and of their respective sales transactions. What information, data, and variables do you choose to analyze as relevant to your evaluation? Why? Which of the GCU core quantitative designs (introduced in a previous course) would best fit your evaluation plan? Why? How much data do you need to analyze in order to reach a meaningful conclusion? Explain. Do you anticipate any logistic difficulties or ethical concerns? Explain.

Topic 1 DQ 2

Assume you wish to study the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools in your state. Do you need primary data, secondary data, or both? Explain. What logistic difficulties do you expect in gathering all necessary data? Explain. How are you going to combine all data into a single file for statistical analysis?

Topic 2 DQ 1

Think again of that study on the predictive relationships of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools in your state. The instrumentation must be aligned with the research questions and study design and must be feasible for administration of the study. How do you identify instruments appropriate for use with GCU core quantitative research designs? How might you address concerns about the influence of instrumentation on study feasibility? Do you have any ethical concerns about recruitment and data collection? Explain.

Topic 2 DQ 2

Imagine again that you are an automotive manufacturing executive tasked with increasing sales in your state. You wish to assess the effectiveness of an incentive program for sales personnel implemented at 10 dealerships in medium-size cities and 10 dealerships in small cities. What three data collection approaches are most feasible for such a study? What are the most significant strengths and weaknesses of these data collection approaches? Why are these significant? What concerns do you have about the feasibility of implementing these approaches to data collection for this study? Explain.

Topic 3 DQ 1

Imagine you are a state-level health policy maker interested in health care access. You want to identify geographic areas and ethnic communities that are underserved to be able to correct problems and ensure fair access. You can only use archival data for your study. What data do you need for your study? What variables will you use? Do you expect any difficulties in obtaining those data? Why or why not? What kind of design would you use? Why? What parametric and nonparametric statistical tests can you use to obtain the information you need? Explain.

Topic 3 DQ 2

Now, imagine you are the CEO of a large hospital. You are interested in reducing turnover among nurses. You wish to find out to what extent nurses’ turnover intention is related to their overall job satisfaction, their average number of hours worked per week, and their level of professional stress. You plan a correlational study, administer an anonymous survey, and collect interval data for all four variables. What parametric and nonparametric statistical tests can you use to analyze the data?

Topic 4 DQ 1

Qualitative research tends to use small samples to examine a problem instead of using large samples as in quantitative research. With fewer people in the sample, it is important for the participants to be information-rich informants. With that in mind, consider the strengths and weaknesses of purposeful, convenience, and random sampling approaches in qualitative research. Then, assume you are an automobile manufacturing executive tasked with increasing sales in your state. You wish to do a qualitative study to obtain the perspective of sales personnel regarding an incentive program you implemented at a few dealerships that quantitatively proved to be successful. What sampling approach would you use to identify and select the 12-15 information-rich personnel from the target population? What eligibility criteria would you use in addition to being sales personnel in a dealership of this manufacturer in the given state? What logistic difficulties would you anticipate in drawing your sample? Explain your answers.

Topic 4 DQ 2

Assume you wish to study the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools in your state. How would you sample 12-15 potential participants for a single case study using convenience sampling and purposeful sampling? What factors would make you choose one approach over the other? Why? What logistic difficulties could you expect in drawing the sample?

Topic 5 DQ 1

Think again of the study on the influence of high school principals’ leadership styles and academic achievement in their schools in your state. The sources of data must be aligned with the research questions and study design, and they must be feasible for administration of the study. Identify five different qualitative data sources that could be used to examine participants’ experiences and perceptions about the phenomenon. Which ones are most appropriate for use with each of the GCU core qualitative research designs? What are some concerns you may have about the feasibility of using each one of the five data sources identified in the qualitative study described above?

Topic 5 DQ 2

Imagine once again that you are an automobile manufacturing executive tasked with increasing sales in your state. You wish to do a qualitative study to obtain the perspective of sales personnel regarding an incentive program you implemented at few dealerships that quantitatively proved to be successful. The three sources of data for your case study are individual semi-structured interviews, archival documents, and field observations. What are the most significant strengths and weaknesses of the methods for collecting data from these data sources? Why are these significant? What skills are needed to collect the data effectively? Explain. What concerns do you have about the feasibility of implementing these methods of data collection for this study? Explain.

Topic 6 DQ 1

Imagine you are a state-level health policy maker interested in health care access. You want to explore health care access barriers in underserved rural communities. You have contacts in these communities and decide to do a qualitative case study to explore how residents in one small rural community experience difficulties accessing health care services. You plan to use semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and a sociogram as your sources of data. How would you use a thematic analysis approach to analyze these data sets? Should the analysis be inductive or deductive? Why? What is the preferred sequence for analyzing each data set? Explain. In this study, how would you move accordingly from the analysis of raw data to development of codes and thematic findings? Explain.

Topic 6 DQ 2

Now, imagine you are the CEO of a large hospital. You are interested in reducing the turnover among nurses. You wish to understand the reasons for leaving their jobs on a more personal, open, and in-depth manner. You plan a phenomenological study to obtain the lived experiences of a small sample of participants who recently left the hospital. What qualitative sources of data and data analysis approaches are aligned and ideal for use in such a study? Explain. What sources of data and data analysis approaches are not aligned and ideal for such a study? Why?

Topic 7 DQ 1

What are the most significant philosophical underpinnings and assumptions of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies? How do the kinds of useful knowledge produced vary from quantitative to qualitative research? How does the methodology employed require you to adapt your perspective of a problem? Explain.

Topic 7 DQ 2

What are the relative strengths and shortcomings of quantitative and qualitative methodologies? Consider the comparative advantages and disadvantages in terms of design components including sampling strategies, methods of data collection, and data analysis approaches.

Topic 8 DQ 1

What are your three most important personal and professional priorities regarding the completion of your dissertation research and life beyond graduation? Why are these important to you and the scholarly community? How does your current plan for your dissertation research meet each one of your priorities? If a certain priority is not sufficiently met, what changes to your plan could you make to adequately meet it? Explain.

Topic 8 DQ 2

Are you planning to pursue a quantitative or a qualitative methodology for your proposed research study? Why? What things did you learn in this class that strengthened your decision to use one methodology and not the other? Which of the GCU core research designs (introduced in a previous course) might best serve the needs of both your proposed research study and your personal and professional priorities? Explain. What things did you learn in this class that you used to advance, refine, and/or improve your dissertation research plan? Explain.

 

RES 832 Full Course Assignment GCU

Topic 3 Building a Potential Quantitative Study

Assessment Description

Upon completion of this course, you will have a window of time in which you must declare whether you intend to pursue your dissertation research using a quantitative or qualitative methodology. In this assignment, you will apply what you learned thus far in this course and in your previous research courses to develop your potential dissertation topic as a quantitative study.

General Requirements

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• Refer to the discussions in which you have engaged to date in the forums in this course.
• Refer to the dissertation topic you have been developing in your previous research courses as well as any feedback from faculty and peers.
• If you have attended your first Residency, refer to the Prospectus PowerPoint from Residency and any feedback given by faculty or peers.
• This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
• Refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for specific guidelines related to doctoral-level writing. The Manual contains essential information on manuscript structure and content, clear and concise writing, and academic grammar and usage.
• This assignment requires that at least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.
• You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Directions

Write a paper (750-1,000 words) in which you discuss the attributes of quantitative methodology that could be used to study your potential dissertation topic. Include the following in your paper:

1. A statement of your potential dissertation topic as refined over the last several courses.
2. A discussion of the attributes of quantitative methodology that could be used to study your potential dissertation topic.
3. A rationale for approaching your potential dissertation topic as a quantitative study. You must support your rationale with examples including at least two quantitative studies from the extant literature that justify pursuing the topic using a quantitative methodology.

Topic 5 Building a Potential Qualitative Study

Assessment Description

Upon completion of this course, you will have a window of time in which you must declare whether you intend to pursue your dissertation research using a quantitative or qualitative methodology. In this assignment, you will apply what you learned thus far in this course and in your previous research courses to develop your potential dissertation topic as a qualitative study.

General Requirements

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• Refer to the discussions in which you have engaged to date in the forums in this course.
• Refer to the dissertation topic you have been developing in your previous research courses as well as any feedback from faculty and peers.
• If you have attended your first Residency, refer to the Prospectus PowerPoint from Residency and any feedback given by faculty or peers.
• This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
• Refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for specific guidelines related to doctoral-level writing. The Manual contains essential information on manuscript structure and content, clear and concise writing, and academic grammar and usage.
• This assignment requires that at least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.
• You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Directions

Write a paper (750-1,000 words) in which you discuss the attributes of qualitative methodology that could be used to study your potential dissertation topic. Include the following in your paper:

1. A statement of your potential dissertation topic as refined over the last several courses.
2. A discussion of the attributes of qualitative methodology that could be used to study your potential dissertation topic.
3. A rationale for approaching your potential dissertation topic as a qualitative study. You must support your rationale with examples including at least two qualitative studies from the extant literature that justify pursuing the topic using a qualitative methodology.

Topic 7 Justification for Quantitative or Qualitative Methodology

Assessment Description

Upon completion of this course, you will have a window of time in which you must declare whether you intend to pursue your dissertation research using a quantitative or qualitative methodology. Consider the work you have done in this course and previous courses in which you explored your potential dissertation topic through both quantitative and qualitative lenses.

In this assignment, you will choose to conduct your potential dissertation research using either a quantitative or qualitative methodology. You will justify your choice of methodology based on the problem statement and supported by the extant literature and the nature of the research questions.

General Requirements

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• Refer to the discussions in which you have engaged to date in the forums in this course as well as your assignments submitted in Topics 2 and 5 and any feedback from faculty and peers.
• Refer to the dissertation topic you have been developing in your previous research courses as well as any feedback from faculty and peers.
• If you have attended your first Residency, refer to the Prospectus PowerPoint from Residency and any feedback given by faculty or peers. The most current template can be found in the DC Network.
• This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
• Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is located in the Student Success Center.
• Refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for specific guidelines related to doctoral level writing. The Manual contains essential information on manuscript structure and content, clear and concise writing, and academic grammar and usage.
• This assignment requires that at least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and at least one in-text citation from each source be included.
• You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Directions

Write a paper (1,250-1,500 words) in which you create an argument for your chosen methodology. Include the following in your paper:

1. A refined statement of your potential dissertation topic.
2. A single-sentence problem statement that aligns with your potential dissertation topic.
3. A cohesive, literature-based argument for your choice of employing a quantitative or qualitative methodology for your study. How does this methodology align with your problem statement?
4. A cohesive argument for not choosing the alternate method to explore your study. Why does this methodology not align with your problem statement?