Assignment 1 (2017/07) Overview This is an early intervention task worth 10% of the course. The purpose of the early intervention task is to make see 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, April 21, 2017 (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. 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. Colour i. Requires one of five responses – yellow, green, red, black or blue b. Course grades i. F, P, C, D and HD c. Overall course score i. In whole numbers d. Kelvin thermometers i. Collects values representing temperatures in Kelvin [4 * ½ = 2 marks] 3. Assume that you work for a University (perhaps this one – perhaps another) and you are interested in finding out whether the time of day that a lecture is scheduled has an effect on the number of students that attend. To this end you keep meticulous records of the number of students who attend lectures that are scheduled at: • 8:30 am • 12:30 pm (early afternoon) • 5:30 pm You believe that students are more likely to skip early and late lectures and more likely to attend lectures in the middle of the day. You compare the numbers of students that have attended each of the lectures you have chosen to study with the expectation of finding out that more students attend at 12:30 than the other times. a) What are the dependent and independent variables in the above study? [1 mark] b) A confounding variable is one which might provide an alternative explanation of your results. There are many possible confounding variables in the above study. Name two of them and explain why they might affect the validity of your results. [2 marks] c) We have discussed three types of quantitative study in class • Descriptive non-experimental • Quasi experimental • True experimental Identify what type of quantitative study is used in the experiment above. Explain your answer. [2 marks] d) In your opinion, is the research design described above a good way of testing your hypothesis? Explain why. [1 mark] 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 – 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 sub-question. Question 3 – This question is split up into four parts. You will need to think about what this study is trying to achieve and how the researcher intends to go about doing it. You then need to answer questions which reflect your understanding of various aspects of quantitative studies. 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-and-study/online-help-with/plagiarism.