Trident DOC670 2020 January Module 2 CASE & SLP Latest

DOC670 Applied Statistics for Research

Module 2 Case

DESIGNING THE STUDY AND ASSESSMENT OF THE RESEARCH CONTEXT

Assignment Overview

In this Case, you will be reading materials relating to definition of constructs, operational definition, and measurement. Then, you will be asked to create a list of such constructs and measures for your own study, taking into consideration the issues you have been reviewing and the decisions that you previously made regarding research designs. You will also be asked to identify control and/or environmental factors that you won’t be able to include directly in your study, but which might affect your results.

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. You have an opportunity to go back and revise and/or extend the previous section completed in the previous module. If you do revise the earlier section, please include it and indicate what changes you have made to it. 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 measurement issues for your project in accordance with the following outline:

List of main concepts in your study; why you believe that each of them is important.

Any explicit or implicit model that you may believe connects these concepts and that you propose to explore, if any. See above on creating and illustrating models.

Initial operational definitions of your study concepts, arranged in the form of this grid (please replace our illustration with your information):

Concepts	Constructs	Variables/ Indicators	Measures	Source	Study or control	Level of analysis
Love	Love of children	Time spent with child	Minutes of direct contact per week	Observation	Study	Individual
		Quality of interaction	Assessments immediately after interaction; qualitative ordinal scale 1-5 low-high	Questionnaire to participants	Study	Individual
Gender	Self-expressed gender	Gender category	Self-identification	Participant query	Control	Individual
Profitability	ROI	ROI	Calculated rate	Organizational records	Study	Organizational

 

List any concerns you may have about measurement or the general availability of the data you need.

 

DOC670 Applied Statistics for Research

Module 2 SLP

DESIGNING THE STUDY AND ASSESSMENT OF THE RESEARCH CONTEXT

Now that you have described the context for your research and provided a description of the secondary data available for that firm, you will now begin to mine that data. As an example, the United Way of Orange County was selected to demonstrate some use of Excel for your background analysis. For nonprofits, there is a database listed in the secondary sources list that has the financial report forms 990 listed for the nonprofits. This data is used in a running analysis for the United Way of Orange County.

If you need an Excel refresher, here are some resources to help you:

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

Harvey, G. (2016). Excel 2016 all-in-one for dummies [Books24x7 version]. John Wiley & Sons. Available in the Trident Online Library: Follow these instructions for Finding Skillsoft Books. Enter 112925 in the search bar.

Harvey, G. (2016). Chapter 10: Charming charts and gorgeous graphics. In Excel 2016 for dummies [Books24x7 version]. John Wiley & Sons. Available in the Trident Online Library: Follow these instructions for Finding Skillsoft Books. Enter 117498 in the search bar.

In Figure 3 below is the Excel Chart done for the United Way of Orange County showing how the spreadsheet was set up. (Click on the image below to open the file.)

Figure 3

Using this as a model and using the secondary data you found on your firm, produce a background analysis on the firm that shows some pertinent information in the spreadsheet along with charts to show the impact this firm is having in the area or the competitive space in which it is located. This is your unique perspective on the firm you have selected for the dissertation, and you will put this in the appendix ultimately as background on your firm. This, along with the Introduction you developed in SLP 1, will be the second part of the Background Analysis for your firm that will go in the Appendix of the dissertation. Integrate the spreadsheet and graphical analysis into your Module 2 SLP.