Less is More – Consolidation is Key The Scenario A recent dissertation I reviewed contained over 100 small tables and graphs, each presenting a single aspect of the student’s findings. Tables were presented per demographic and item, for example, the respondents’ level of education, years of experience, and age group (there were six such small …
Are you an academic or postgraduate student feeling overwhelmed by your research? Are you having trouble analyzing your data or interpreting your statistical results? One key concept that can assist you is understanding what statistical significance truly means and, more importantly, what it signifies for your research. What Is Statistical Significance Telling You? Statistical significance …
If you are using a measurement scale in your dissertation, chances are that you have written about Cronbach’s alpha, or Coefficient alpha, in a section on reliability in your proposal or dissertation. Unfortunately, most students misapply the concept. I believe Cronbach’s alpha is one of the most misunderstood concepts in research involving measurement. There are …
This week, I reviewed a dissertation that was well researched, well conceptualised, and well designed but did not answer its main research question. The student had described its design, delimitations, and sampling method incorrectly which made the conclusions incorrect. Luckily it was fixable. Let me tell you about the study, with its details all changed …
Does Your Dissertation Answer Your Research Question? Read More »
Effect size: How strong are your statistical results, even your significant ones? In a previous post, I spoke about what a significant result means and doesn’t mean. A significant result may mean very little, not necessarily anything to inspire you to throw a party or make a supportive parent proud. What it doesn’t tell …
Effect size: How strong are your statistical results, even your significant ones? Read More »
If you’re involved in research, you’ve likely come across the notation ‘p < .05’ in journal articles or elsewhere, or you’re using this notation in your own writing to indicate a statistically significant result. It is used pretty much everywhere, almost as a mantra across research studies. But do you know what p < …
Sometimes, despite all your efforts, the sample size of your quantitative study turns out to be smaller than you planned. Maybe you received a low response rate to your online survey, your database search for patient records returned many unusable or missing records, or you found yourself in another scenario with a similar outcome. And …
In our next webinar on Thursday 5th October @ 7 pm (GMT + 2:00), Professor Linda Bloomberg and I will be discussing analysing your qualitative and quantitative data. In this post, I discuss the step before the analysis of quantitative data. This is where you inspect and clean the errors in your data before starting …
Google Forms is very useful for conducting surveys. It’s reliable, works beautifully, and now has added formatting options. And, importantly, it’s free which makes it perfect for students conducting surveys – more appealing than its paid rivals with attractive but nonessential extras. But there’s a problem here. As the responses come in, Google Forms provides …
Does Google Forms offer too much? And if so, when does one just have to say ‘No’? Read More »