Research Methods

Overview

Over the course of one semester, we studied 3 Research Methods and learned how to analyze data obtained from interviews, surveys and observations.

Qualitative Research

We wanted to understand the attitudes of students towards online education so that the experience of taking online classes can be improved. We interviewed 15 participants for this study and found out that the possibility of taking an online or on-campus class majorly depends on 3 aspects:

• Choice between online vs on-campus class
• Experience of taking an online class
• Experience with the Professor

RESEARCH DETAILS

• We asked 20 questions in the interviews which were divided into 4 categories: Introduction, Online and On-campus Courses at RIT, Online Courses Outside of RIT, and Conclusion.
• We only interviewed the students who have taken both online and on-campus courses at RIT. Because of this, the participants answered the comparison questions on the basis of their personal experiences.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS

• The research was conducted only on RIT students and the sample dataset was small.
• All the participants did not answer all the questions, so it was difficult to analyze it later.
• A lot of factors like student's interest in spending the time to check out other resources online, asking questions to the professor and other classmates when in doubt, the response time and how helpful the response is affects the student's decision to take online or on-campus courses and it was difficult to identify a common factor.

Quantitative Research

(Coming Soon)

Experimental Research

(Coming Soon)