Research Design
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What is Research Design?
Research design is a formal plan of action for a research project. Research designs help researchers to lay out their research questions, methodologies, implementation procedures, and data collection and analysis for the conduct of a research project. Generally there are three types of research design: quantitative design, qualitative design, and mixed methods design. Research design is a decision making process. During the decision making process, the researcher, like an architect, should choose from many design alternatives and consider over the trade-offs of each approach and decide the best possible solution. Generally speaking, the research design decisions are influenced by the questions the investigator is trying to answer, by the resources such as time, trained personnel, and money that the researcher have at hand, by the characteristics of the research sites, and also by the researcher's personal preferences.
William M.K. Trochim in his social research method website suggests five criteria to judge research designs":
- Theory-grounded. Good research design finds its roots in theories, that is, it has the power to test the existing theories as specific theoretical expectations are incorporated in the design.
- Situational. Good research design reflects the setting of the investigation. The design comes up with strategies to cope with situational threats to validity such as "intergroup rivalry, competition".
- Feasible. Good research design takes reality into account. The design anticipates potential problems in implementation, measurement and if necessary, includes additional groups or measurements.
- Redundant. Good research designs duplicate some essential design features.
- Efficient. Good research designs also refrain themselves from overdesign.
Research Study Types
General Articles and Expert Positions
"These are articles that describe processes, strategies, approaches, theoretical models, policies, curriculum or technology using standards, that may or may not allude to full-scale evaluation or empirical studies. Often such articles are based on experience, observations, and ideas proposed by the author(s)" (CARET, 2005).
Descriptive and Survey Studies
Formal Research Studies
Formal Evaluation Studies
"These are evaluation studies that assess the extent of implementation and impact of a specific program or project and usually emphasize needs assessment and/or formative evaluation methods designed to provide ongoing feedback to program or project managers" (CARET, 2005).
Research Data Collection and Analysis
Data collection
Reseach design includes selecting appropriate data collection methods. Different research designs lend themselves to the use of different instruments. A variety of data collection methods are available to researchers, including audio recording, diaries and journals, interviews, memory-work, and questionnaires.
Data analysis
Collected data is analyzed according to the researcher's analysis plan.
Related Topics
Examples of clever or elegant study designs
Special Considerations for Doing Research Online
References
Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology. (2005). CARET: Definition of study types. Retrieved September 24, 2008, from http://caret.iste.org/RatingStudy.html
