Theme 4 Pre

Theme 4: Quantitative research

 

Select a media technology research paper that you argue is using quantitative methods in a good way.

            The journal I choose was “Computers in Human Behavior”, with an impact factor of 2.273. The title of the article I interest is “A case study of Augmented Reality simulation system application in a chemistry course” by Su Cai, Xu Wang and Feng-Kuang Chiang and published on 10 May 2014.

            This paper focusses on how to help student to learn abstract concepts while learning chemistry, and proposes the augmented reality (AR) tools to help learning chemistry. The experiment design they propose is consisting pre-test, grouping and learning using AR tools, post-Test, questionnaire surveys and interview. Through some experiment and data analysis, this paper concludes that the AR tools can be introduce to the student as computer-assisted learning tool, because it give an improvement result to the student to understand  chemistry.

 

1.    Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?

This paper use mixed research method to get the result, it means in this paper they use both methods (qualitative and quantitative) to analyze the result.

They use quantitative method to measure the data obtained from the quiz and the questionnaire, and they calculated descriptive statistics of each item and each construct as a whole, including the average score, standard deviation, and maximum and minimum values.

They use qualitative method to examine the video-recorded and picture during the AR class and recorded interview.

With mixed method, we can get positive value in both quantitative and qualitative view of human behavior. Mixed researcher intends to use both methods to understand the word more fully, because with this method they can focusing on causal factor and examining human choice and behavior. The limitation is the researcher must know the important to understand both the subjective (individual), inter-subjective (language-based, discursive, cultural), and objective (material and causal) realities in our world.

 

2.    What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?

In this paper, when using quantitative method, they use various method to analyze the data statistics. The statistical method that I see in this paper are Cronbach’s Alpha to check validity of the questionnaire, p-value (two tailed) to compare the test result before and after the introduction of AR tools, also some basic statistic.

I think in order to use quantitative method, we need to understand the statistics method and make sure the plan for the experiment is already prepared.

 

3.    Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?

The main methodological problem in this paper is the limited number of participants in the experiment, they only gather 29 people from 1 school. Also, when they conduct the interview, they only interview 5 people. Based on this condition, I think they need to add more participant from different school. However, with using this quantitative method, they tend to be objective to the result.

Read the following paper written by Olle Bälter and colleagues. Reflect on the key points and what you learnt by reading the text.

            The paper written by Olle Bälter and colleagues discuss about correlation between physical activity and stress factor towards Upper Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI). Their method to collect the data is based on using a web questionnaire and email as a reminder. In the subject and method, they stated the rule that they used to select the participant and established all variable, segmentation, assumption and analysis method. In the part Result and Discussion, the writer give all the result as statistic tables and give analysis base on the data. In the end, the conclusion part gives us the answer that people with moderate to high total physical activity had a lower risk of URTI.

 

1.    Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?

Benefit of quantitative method:

·         Operate under the assumption of objectivity or fact.

·         The result usually neutral based on data and the statistic.

Limitation of quantitative method:

·         Need a lot of data to make it more comprehensive.

·         The focus is on only one or a few causal factors at the same time.

 

2.    Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?

Benefit of qualitative method:

·         The research usually wide- and deep-angle lens, examining human choice and behavior as it occurs naturally in all of its detail.

·         The research tries to understand multiple dimensions and layers of reality, such as cultural and social condition.

Limitation of qualitative method:

·         The result is sometimes subjective based on the researcher concept.

·         Takes a great deal of time studying the many aspects to come up with an analysis.