Quantitative Research: Conducting a Survey

Abstract

Having developed your research question & planned the outline for your literature review, you are now ready to look at how your research question can be examined through a variety of different designs, specifically quantitative research & conducting a survey. Quantitative research is used to measure how many people feel, think or act in a particular way. Measurement is the process of assigning numbers according to some specified rule such that the numbers reflect differences in the amount of the variable possessed by different individuals. The numbers can give the extent of the difference on an ordinal scale, an interval scale, or a ratio scale. Surveys tend to include large samples & structured questionnaires are usually used incorporating mainly closed questions-questions with set responses. This presentation will examine all aspects of quantitative research that includes, evaluation information or a score yielded by an assessment method, validity, error of measurement, survey questionnaire & sampling (people, frame & design).