Module 3 – Case

Obtaining the Data for the Research Context

Assignment Overview

In this Case Assignment, you will be reading several articles and sources about sampling, about participant recruitment and interaction, and about managing the relationship between research participants and researchers. You will then be asked to think about how these issues apply to your project and your research questions, and to develop an appropriate sampling plan for your study taking all these issues into consideration.

As the course progresses, you will be making a series of decisions in which you will increasingly specify the structure of your project. These decisions build on each other in critical ways. However, you are not locked into previous decisions if you subsequently decide you need to change direction. As before, you have an opportunity to go back and revise and/or extend the previous sections completed in previous modules. If you do revise earlier sections, please include them and indicate what changes you have made to them. Case grades given for the first four modules will be advisory rather than final. Your ultimate grade will be based on the completed methodology at the end of the course.

Case Assignment

Prepare a 5- to 7-page paper in accordance with the following Assignment Expectations, describing the sampling issues for your project, in accordance with the following outline:

1. Identify the organization within which you are going to be constructing your project, and the nature of the problem that you are investigating.
2. Identify the general kinds of respondents within the organization, and the kinds of information that you will need to collect from each group of people in order to complete your project.
3. Complete the following grid describing the respondents in your project and some things about them:

Interview(s)
Subject	Role	Topics	When	Purpose	IRB concerns?
Questionnaire(s)
To whom	Role(s)	Topics	Purpose	IRB concerns?

1. Identify any additional issues which you think might arise in terms of obtaining cooperation from your respondents or that might complicate getting the information that you need.

Assignment Expectations

Length: The written component of this assignment should be 5–7 pages long (double-spaced) without counting the cover page and reference page.

Organization: Subheadings should be used to organize your paper according to the questions.

Grammar and Spelling: While no points are deducted for minor errors, assignments are expected to adhere to standard guidelines of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence syntax. Points may be deducted if grammar and spelling impact clarity. We encourage you to use tools such as grammarly.com and proofread your paper before submission.

When you write your paper make sure you do the following:

• Answer the assignment questions directly.
• Stay focused on the precise assignment questions. Do not go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to summarizing general background materials.
• Use evidence from your readings to justify your conclusions.
• Be sure to cite at least five credible resources.
• Make sure to reference your sources of information with both a bibliography and in-text citations. See the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, including pages 11-14 on in-text citations. Another resource is the “Writing Style Guide,” which is found under “My Resources” in the TLC Portal.

Your assignment will be graded using the following criteria:

Assignment-Driven Criteria: Student demonstrates mastery covering all key elements of the assignment.

Critical Thinking/Application to Professional Practice: Student demonstrates mastery conceptualizing the problem and analyzing information. Conclusions are logically presented and applied to professional practice in an exceptional manner.

Business Writing and Quality of References: Student demonstrates mastery and proficiency in written communication and use of appropriate and relevant literature at the doctoral level.

Citing Sources: Student demonstrates mastery applying APA formatting standards to both in-text citations and the reference list.

Professionalism and Timeliness: Assignments are submitted on time.

Module 3 – Background

Obtaining the Data for the Research Context

Required Reading

Barnett, J., Vasileiou, K. Thorpe, S., and Young, T. (2015, January). Justifying the adequacy of samples in qualitative interview-based studies: Differences between and within journals. In Quality in qualitative research and enduring problematics. Symposium conducted by the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Bath, Bath, Somerset, United Kingdom. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from http://www.bath.ac.uk/sps/events/Documents/27_jan_2015_slides/julie_barnett.pdf

Chapters 1-4 in:
Carlberg, C. (2016). Excel sales forecasting for dummies, 2nd edition. John Wiley & Sons. Available in the Trident Online Library: Follow these instructions for Finding Skillsoft Books. Enter 132620 in the search bar.

Preface in:
Dean, S., & Illowsky, B. (2014). Collaborative Statistics. Connexions: Rice University. Creative Commons License 3.0. Retrieved from https://cnx.org/contents/XgdE-Z55@40.9:LnCgyaMt@17/Preface

Chapter 1 in:
Dean, S., & Illowsky, B. (2014). Collaborative Statistics. Connexions: Rice University. Creative Commons License 3.0. Retrieved from https://cnx.org/contents/gLOpQmDR@1.28:AkLGjuVA@15/Video-Lecture-1-Sampling-and-Data

Dudovskiy, J. (n.d.) Sampling. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from the Research Methodology website at https://research-methodology.net/sampling-in-primary-data-collection/

Råheim, M., Magnussen, L. H., Sekse, R., Lunde, A., Jacobsen, T., & Blystad, A. (2016). Researcher–researched relationship in qualitative research: Shifts in positions and researcher vulnerability. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 11, 10.3402/qhw.v11.30996. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/qhw.v11.30996

Rowley, J. (2014). Designing and using research questionnaires. Management Research Review. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/579515/1/Designing%20and%20using%20Research%20QuestionnairesREV18042013.pdf

Stockberger, D. (2016). Introductory statistics: Concepts, models, and applications. Missouri State University. Retrieved from http://www.psychstat.missouristate.edu/introbook/sbk19.htm

Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology: How to choose a sampling technique for research. International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM ), 5(2), 18–27.

Yip, C., Han, N., & Sng, B. (2016). Legal and ethical issues in research. Indian Journal of Anaesthesia, 60(9), 684–688. Retrieved from http://www.ijaweb.org/article.asp?issn=0019-5049;year=2016;volume=60;issue=9;spage=684;epage=688;aulast=Yip

Video Material

Flipp, C. (2014, Feburary 22). Qualitative Sampling [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dn4u9DPmDs

Flipp, C. (2014, March 3). Quantitative sampling [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKUAop1Pre0

Excel Campus – Jon. (2015, February 4). Introduction to pivot tables, charts and dashboards in Excel (part 1) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NUjHBNWe9M

Excel Resources

Brown, N., Lave, B., Romey, J., Schatz, M., & Shingledecker, M. (2018) Beginning Excel. OpenOregon, Creative Commons License. Retrieved from https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/beginningexcel/ and https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/beginningexcel/front-matter/introduction/

ExcellsFun. (2016, May 20). Highline Excel 2016 class 15: Excel charts to visualize data: Comprehensive lesson 11 chart examples [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLmtGk7Ymy8&t=2003s

Chapter 10 in:
Harvey, G. (2016). Excel 2016 for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. Available in the Trident Online Library: Follow these instructions for Finding Skillsoft Books. Enter 117498 in the search bar.

Book II: Chapters 1–4 and
Book V: Chapter 1 in:
Harvey, G. (2016). Excel 2016 All-in-One For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. Available in the Trident Online Library: Follow these instructions for Finding Skillsoft Books. Enter 112925 in the search bar.

Kaceli, S. (2016, January 24). Excel 2016 Tutorial: A comprehensive guide on Excel for anyone
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lXerL3DHRw. Note: This video runs for 2 hours.

Optional Reading

Cooper, B. (2017). The best ways to persuade people. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from the Planio website at https://plan.io/blog/the-best-ways-to-persuade-people/

Hearn, P. (2016). 5 ways to encourage people to complete your online survey. Retrieved May 10, 2018, from the MRDC Software website at http://www.mrdcsoftware.com/blog/5-ways-to-encourage-people-to-complete-your-online-survey