Content of research design,

Introduction
Statement of the problem
Review of literature
Scope of the study
Objectives of the study
Conceptual model
Hypothesis
Operational definition of concept
Significance of the study
Methodology
Sampling plan
Tools for gathering data
Chapters scheme
Time budget
Financial budget

Characteristics of a good research design

Flexible
Appropriate
Efficient,
economical
Reliability

Types of research design

Exploratory
Descriptive
Diagnostic
Experimental or causal

(A)Exploratory research design

Exploratory research design is conducted for a research problem

when the researcher has no past data or only a few studies for
reference. Exploratory research is a preliminary study of a new
problem about which the researcher has little or no knowledge. The
main purpose of exploratory research is the formulation of the
problem, therefore, it is called formulative research.

Features of exploratory research design

:Sample size may not to be representative

:Tries to answer basic questions
:Further research expected
:No set of rules or standards to carry out the research
:No preplanned statistical design possible

Methods of exploratory research

1)Observation
Researchers observe participants ongoing behaviour in a natural
situation
2)Literature survey
It is the survey or review of scholarly knowledge on the topic
3)Experience survey
It is the survey involving participants who have knowledge of the
research problem
4)Focus group discussion
The method aims to obtain data from a purposely selected group of
individuals participating in the discussion guided by the moderator
5)Case study
It is the intensive study of one or a few selected complex situations
or cases relevant to the topic or problem
6)Analysis of secondary data
Data from published or unpublished sources

steps in exploratory research

*Identify the problem

A researcher identify the subject of research and the problem is
addressed by carrying out multiple methods to answer the questions
*Create the hypothesis
When the researcher has found out that there are no prior studies
and the problem is not precisely resolved, the researcher will create
a hypothesis based on the questions obtained while identifying the
problem
*Further research
Once the data has been obtained, the researcher will continue his
study through descriptive investigation

(B)Descriptive research design

Descriptive research design is a type of research design that aims to

obtain information to systematically Describe a phenomenon,
situation, or population
Descriptive research is a research that describe the characteristics
of a population.

Types of descriptive research design

*Cross sectional research design

A cross sectional study is a type of research design in which we
collect data from many different individual individuals at a single
point in time
*Longitudinal esearch design
Researches repeatedly examine the same individual over a period of
time

Methods of descriptive research

*Observation
Observing and recording participants on going behaviour in a natural
situation
*Survey
Collecting data from a predetermined group of respondents by
asking questions by means of interview scheduled and questionnaire
*Case study
It is an in-depth study of a single case, a social unit or a situation to
understand a complex issue

Steps in conducting descriptive research

*Identify problem
*Review of literature
*Select participants and instruments
*Collection of data
*Analysis of data
*Generalisation or interpretation of result
*Preparation of report

(C) diagnostic research design

Diagnostic research is one of the research design types that aims to

examine the underlying cause of a certain situation
Diagnostic research is the research conducted to identify the causes
of a problem and to find a possible solutions. It determines the
frequency of a current of something and its association with
something else.

Steps in diagnostic studies

*Identification of the problem

*Identification of information needed to solve the problem
*Selection or development of instruments for gathering the
information
*Identification of target population and determination of sampling
procedure
*Design of a procedure for information collection
*Collection of information
*Analysis of information, generalisation, and predictions
*Recommendations or suggestions for the problem solution

(D) experimental research design

Experimental research design means planning a set of procedures to

investigate a relationship between variables. It is the blue print of the
procedure to be adopted in experimental research.
Experimental research is the research in which the effort of the
independent variables on the dependent variable is usually observed
and recorded

Steps involved in experimental study

*Identify and define the problem

*Review relevant literature
*Specify independent and dependent variable
*Formulate hypothesis
*Construct an experimental design
*Conduct the experiment
*Organise and analyse the data
*Present findings and conclusions as a report

Types of experimental design

*Purely post design

In this design, the dependent variable is measured after exposing the
test unit to the experimental variables
*Classical experimental design
This design comprises the following elements random assignment to
the experimental and controlled groups, pre-testing and post testing
of the two groups
*Quasi experimental design
An experimental design without random experiment is called quasi
experimental design
*Statistical experimental design
In this design, the researcher manipulates two or more independent
variable simultaneously to observe their effect in the dependent
variable

Merits of experimental method

*Scientific method
*Determination of cause and relationship
*Greater accuracy and precision
*Useful in testing hypothesis

Demerits of experimental method

*Difficulties in setting
*Difficulties to get cooperation
*Difficulties in controlling all the factors

Types of experimental design

1)Informal experimental design

*Before and after without control design
*After only with control design
*Before and after with the control design
2)Formal experimental design
*Completely randomised design
*Randomised block design
*Latin Square design
*Factorial designs

Reliability VS validity

Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of

research. They indicate how well a method, technique or test
measures something.
Reliability refers to how consistently a method measures something.
If the same result can be consistently achieved by using the same
method. Under the same circumstances, the measurement is
considered reliable.
Variety refers to how accurately a method measures what it is
intended to measure. Reliability alone is not enough, measure need
to be reliable as well as valid.

Types of validity

1)Construct validity
Construct validity is the degree degree to which your research
measures what it claims measure.
2)Internal validity
The degree to which changes in the dependent variable or affected
by the manipulated independent variable
3)External validity
External validity refers to how well the outcome of a study can be
expected to apply to other settings.
4)Concurrent validity
The term concurrent validity is used to indicate the process of
validating a new test by correlating its scores with the some existing
test
5)Predictive validity
Predictive validity is concerned with the predictive capacity of a test.
It indicates the effectiveness of a test in forecasting or predicting
future outcomes in a specific area
6)Content validity
Content content validity assesses whether a test is representative of
all aspects of the construct. It must be contain items from thematic,
geometry, trigonometry, etc
7)Face validity
Face validity considers how suit with the content of a test seems to
be on the surface

Variables

Anything that can vary can be considered a variable

Types of variables

1)Dependent variable
Dependent variable is the variable being tested and measured in an
experiment and is dependent on the independent variable
2)Independent variable
Independent variable is the variable that experimenter manipulates or
changes, and is assumed to have a direct effort on the dependent
variable
3)Moderator variable
A moderator variable changes, the relationship between dependent
and independent variable by strengthening or weakening the
intervening variable affect
4)Intervening variable
An intervening variable is something that impact the relationship
between an independent and independent variable
5)Control variable
Control variables are characteristics that are constant and do not
change during a study. They have no effect on other variables.
6)Quantitative variable
Quantitative variable are any data sets that involve a number or
amounts
7)Qualitative variable
Qualitative variable or non-numerical values or groupings
8)Extraneous variables
A extraneous variable is one you did not account for that and can
disguise another variable effect
9)Discrete variable
It is the one which involves counting the number of events. It consist
of only whole numbers. Fractional values can occur.
10)Continuous variable
They are divisible into smaller and smaller fractional units
11)Dichotomous variable
A variable which has only two values
12)Polychromous variable
It can have more than two variables
13)Demographic variable
Demographic variable are characteristics or attributes of subject that
are collected to describe the sample. they are also called sample
characteristics

Measurement and scaling

Measurement is the process of observing and recording the
observations that are collected as part of a research effort. It is the
task of assigning numbers to characteristics of object being
investigated.
Scaling on the other hand, a criteria in which a characteristics is
measured against

Types of measurement scales

Nominal scale
Ordinal scale
Interval scale
Ratio scale

Nominal scale
In this scale, the different scores on a measure measurement simply
indicate different categories. The nominal scale is often referred to
as a categorical scale. The assigned numbers have no arithmetic
properties and act only as labels.

Ordinal scale
It involves the ranking of items along the continuum of the
characteristic being scaled this type of scale permits the
measurement of degree of differences, but not the specific amount
of differences. This scale is very common in marketing, satisfaction,
and at terminal research.

Interval scale
Interval scales are a numerical scales in which we know, not only the
order, but also the exact difference between the values. Interval
scales allows us to measure the order of two objects and also the
distance between those objects.

Ratio scale
This level of data measurement allows the researcher to compare
both the difference and their relative magnitude of numbers.