Artifact: Research Proposal (ETEC 500)

Reflecting on Research Methods and Strategies
This project was a group project completed in the course ETEC 500, Research Methodology in Education. This course focuses on applied research, research ethics, and how to apply the process of research to education. Overall I found this course challenging, as, in a way, it challenged me to connect something I generally consider very rigid (scientific research process) to something I do not consider rigid (education). 

​This project was a three part project completed over the term of a semester, and the purpose of it was to apply theories and methods of research to a specific study, on a specific group of people. My group chose to focus on the effectiveness of blended learning in corporate technology training. 

This was the only project I completed in MET that had a focus on Blended Learning. As we summarized in our research proposal, "The most wisely held understanding and simplified explanation of blended learning is that it is a combination of 'face-to-face instruction and computer mediated instruction' (Graham, 2006, p. 5 as cited in Wang Han, and Yang, 2015)" (Cox, Franklin, Hagen, Handford, & Mauro, 2017). Throughout this project I learned more about the potentials of blended learning in corporate settings, including the ability to target varying learning styles (Kraemer et al., 2007, p. 341). 

For this project, we essentially proposed a potential research study that could be conducted to measure the effectiveness of blended learning for tech training. 

We developed the following:

• Abstract
• Objective
• Hypothesis
• Sample Size
• Theoretical Framework
• Method/testing Description
• Description of Data Sources
• Conclusion

We proposed a pretest-posttest two group true experimental design. One group was the control group that we proposed would receive a traditional face-to-face classroom instruction, and the other group was the experimental group that would receive blended instruction. As well, we indicated that quantitative data would be collected from the testing from both the control and experimental groups. 

While we did not conduct the testing we anticipated that the blended delivery method would be more effective in training. 

This project taught me the importance of research methodology and research proposal writing in order to ensure that educational research is conducted in a clear and accurate way to ensure usability and limit bias. It's important to consider what data you need and how it can be obtained before conducting research. As well, by properly mapping out a research plan you can identify areas of uncertainty or error and better address them in any findings and conclusions. 

While I believe that this research proposal would also fit well under the Analyzing category, I chose to place it under Implementing because of the activities and participants that are described for the research study. Research and careful considerations were taken in determining how a research study could be implemented into a corporate learning setting. ​