ITECH 5500 Professional Research and Communication
Assignment 1
Overview
This is an early intervention task worth 10% of the course. The purpose of the early intervention task is to make sure that you are engaging and on track to pass the course.
This task consists of a series of questions that go over the material that we covered in weeks one to four. They require you to think carefully about the material and tell me YOUR thoughts on what the answers should be and justify your answers where necessary.
This is an individual assignment that you are expected to complete by yourself. All outside sources of information must be acknowledged.
Timelines and Expectations
Percentage Value of Task: 10%
Due: 17:00 Friday August 19th (Week 5)
Minimum time expectation: 2 - 5 hours
Learning Outcomes Assessed
The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:
K3. Identify appropriate research philosophies for IT projects which match organisational approaches S1. Utilise effective communication practice in organisations.
S2. Demonstrate expert English language skills in academic and professional contexts
Assessment Details
1. Consider a survey in which customers’ perceptions of the service at a local store are gathered using a Likert Scale. Using this survey the customer gives a score of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 in response to a statement about the service. The scores represent
1 – Strongly Disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Unsure
4 – Agree
5 – Strongly agree
For example, one of the statements might be
“The staff member appears knowledgeable regarding the store’s products”
and the customer would give a score based upon how much they agree with the statement. Now consider a situation in which 100 customers provide a response to this statement and they are distributed as follows
1 – Strongly Disagree 10 (10%)
2 – Disagree 25 (25%) 3 – Unsure 17 (17%) 4 – Agree 32 (32%)
5 – Strongly agree 16 (16%)
Now let’s assume that the store wants to summarise this data into a single score. They calculate this score by multiplying the number of responses by the number assigned, adding the five together and dividing by the number of respondents. In this case, (10 + 50 + 51 + 128 + 80) / 100 = 319/100
= 3.19
Explain why this value is not a valid summary of the data collected. Suggest a more valid way of representing the data. Justify your response.
[2 marks]
2. This question continues from question 1. Let’s assume that the survey is not necessarily answered by every customer. If a customer wishes to fill out the survey they need to go to the relevant web page on the store’s web site. This way the store can automate the collection and analysis of data. Does the data collected provide a true reflection of the perceptions of all of the store’s customers? Why or why not? Justify your answer. (Note: this is not a simple yes/no answer. There may be times at which the data is more reliable than others)
[2 marks]
3. We discussed four types of quantitative data in class – nominal, ordinal, ratio and interval. What types of data are collected from each of the following questions? Justify your answer. a. Gender
i. Requires one of two responses – male or female
b. Fahrenheit thermometers
i. Collects values representing temperatures in Fahrenheit
c. Kelvin thermometers
i. Collects values representing temperatures in Kelvin
d. The number of items a customer buys
i. In whole numbers
e. Bank account balances (careful with this one)
[2 * ½ + 1 = 3 marks]
4. Assume you are the coach of a local sports team. You believe it is possible that drinking orange juice three times per day, for four days each week, might make the players perform better in the game at the weekend. Explain how you could test this hypothesis in each of the following ways:
a. As a descriptive non-experimental study
b. A quasi experimental study
c. An experimental study
Which of the studies would give you the firmest evidence of whether your theory is correct? Justify your answers.
[3 marks]
Submission
Complete the assignment as a word document. If you wish you can use this document as a starting point. Clearly put your name and student number at the top. Submit via the submission link on Moodle
Marking Criteria/Rubric
Question 1 – requires you to understand the nature of data collected using a Likert scale. You will need to understand the limitations of data collected in this way in order to be able to explain why the manipulation in the question is not valid. You will need to think of a better way to summarise the data that takes these limitations into account (you will need to be a little creative with this). You will require ½ page to a page for this answer.
A response that takes addresses all of the above concerns and shows depth of understanding of the concepts will attract the full 2 marks. Marks deducted for explanations that are not clear or which show misunderstandings.
Question 2 – you will need to be a little creative with this one. You will need to consider whether the people filling out the survey are an accurate representation of all customers and explain (carefully) why or why not. You will need to think of situations in which you might consider the data more reliable. You will probably only require ½ page for this response but can write more if you think it is warranted. A response that takes addresses all of the above concerns and shows depth of understanding of the concepts will attract the full 2 marks. Marks deducted for explanations that are not clear or which show misunderstandings.
Question 3 – Is a little more straightforward. For each sub-question you need to think about what the nature of the data is and which categorization suits it best. You must explain why you have chosen the category to get the mark for each. Just choosing a category will result in zero marks for that subquestion. Part e) allows for two possibilities – ½ mark for each.
Question 4 – You will need to think about the requirements for each type of quantitative study. Think of how the hypothesis might be tested in each of these three ways. You don’t have to go in-depth – just a paragraph to show that you understand the way the study would work. Each study is worth one mark each and part marks will be awarded for explanations that are not clear or contain misconceptions. The final question (about the firmest evidence) does not attract any marks per se but ½ mark will be deducted if the question isn’t answered correctly. You will probably require at least a page for this answer.
Feedback
Every attempt will be made to have feedback ready for the second half of tutorial 6. If this isn’t possible then email or other means will be employed.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the presentation of the expressed thought or work of another person as though it is one's own without properly acknowledging that person. You must not allow other students to copy your work and must take care to safeguard against this happening. More information about the plagiarism policy and procedure for the university can be found at http://federation.edu.au/students/learning-andstudy/online-help-with/plagiarism.