Considering Research

           Over the last eight weeks I have developed a better understanding of the different types of research and the processes involved in designing a study. There are many things to consider when designing a research project. One must first decide if the topic being studied lends itself to a quantitative, qualitative, or combination study. Then decisions must be made concerning who should participate in the study and how data should be collected. When making these decisions, issues of validity, ethics, and bias must be considered as well. It seems to me that, depending on the type of study being done, one could spend as much time preparing to do the study as it takes to actually do the study itself; this is a new realization for me.

 

            One of the challenges that I faced during this course was incorporating new knowledge into the work I was doing on the research simulation. Each week I would think that I had a fairly good understanding of the process and what would be required to carry it out, and then I would learn new information and have to rethink what I thought I knew.