Research Proposal Assignment_ Research Design

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Michigan State University *

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355

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Marketing

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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pdf

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5

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Research Proposal Assignment: Research Design Research designs are defined by our unit five slideshow as “your plan for answering your research question through empirical observations” (U5). In short, it’s the ‘bird’s eye view' plan for the study, including every aspect of it. Just to reiterate before I begin getting into the ‘meat’ of this assignment, my research question is: how does social media (more specifically platforms like Facebook) influence highschool students and their college applications and college choice? To go into more detail, I’m trying to understand what specific factors social media, in today's world, offers to high school aged students that help influence, educate, and inform when they start applying and eventually when they make a concrete decision on what college they will attend. After reviewing the unit five slideshow for advice/help on how to address this assignment, I highlighted that for a research design, I will have to consider what participants I will need to answer my research question, what resources (time, money, skills) I have available, the possibility of controlling extraneous variables, how I you plan to use the study findings, and finally how I want people to use the findings. So, after much thought, review, and research, I decided my best route in regards to research methods would be to use a mixed-methods approach. To give some background, I first thought about using a correlation research method, but after more thought and research, I don’t believe that would be best in what I am trying to find through the study. Correlation would just show there is a connection between the two variables, not tell me how it gets to that point and in what ways it influences the relationship. By using a mixed method design, I would be able to combine quantitative and qualitative methods which would result in more data, research, and better results in regards to my specific research question. Qualitative data is information that is not represented by numbers. And, quantitative data is information that is represented numerically. The mixed-method research design is a design that includes BOTH qualitative and quantitative data. Using a mixed-method for my research design will help me gain a
comprehensive understanding of how social media affects highschool students pick and choose universities and or 4-year colleges to attend. Computers in Human Behavior used the same method, mixed-methods research, for one of their studies, “Facebook use and academic performance among college students: A mixed-methods study with a multi-ethnic sample” (2015). In this paper, they used a mixed-methods approach to examine the relationship between academic disclosure online and academic performance. They also used a multi-ethnic sample of college students to perform their study. This sample responded to open-ended questions about their Facebook use. I relate this to my own research and method because it deems successful in taking data in regards to students and social media, which I am also featuring in my research. Mixed-method research is good for studying social media because it’s multifaceted. I can use different sources of data and information and use them in a comparison and contrast stance. Another source that also used a mixed-method approach would be “Translating Evidence Into Practice via Social Media: A Mixed-Methods Study” , which is found in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of social media as an educational tool to effectively translate emerging research findings into clinical practice. In this study, they took data/samples from 317 clinicians from multiple health disciplines. This is important to note because for my own research, I would probably want to use a bigger sample to get the best understanding of the situation. And being able to see that this method is appropriate and successful in bigger samples is a great thing to note. In regards to population, participants, site, sample, and sample size, I would start by narrowing down the age and population of the participants. Population would be high school students, their school district, and region. Now depending on if I had the resources available, I would times that by 8. I would want to have at least two school districts from the north, east, south, and west regions of the United States to get the best idea and try to steer away from any bias or too focused of a group. The sample would be high school students within the age range
from 15-18 years old, and specifically those who are active on social media. I really want to focus on being diverse in this study in regards to gender, socioeconomic status, ethnic, and or religion. For recruitment, I’m focusing on an online-platform. One example would be posting on social media sites, specifically Facebook and Tiktok, possibly with ads, that are in reach of high school aged students. The advertisements provide brief yet ‘consuming’ information about the study that help draw participants in. Alongside the brief set of information presented on the ad, it also contains participant eligibility and a link on where to participate. If I were to go the in-person route for recruitment, which I am not but wanted to include for additional information, I would collaborate with the school board and faculty and have announcements made via posters and group announcements (overhead speakers in classrooms and or assemblies as an example). This helps spread the word and encourage the students to participate. The online consent form is a Google Form where the participants would read the consent form and have the option to press a box and or checkmark to provide their consent. In-person consent from would be the equivalent of the Google Form but paper form. Since this study uses a mixed-methods approach, participants are asked to complete an online survey, which connects to the quantitative research aspect. And, in regards to the qualitative research aspect, those students are then asked and or invited to join a focus group (e.g., group interviews). Since it’s conducted online, the focus group is held in a Zoom format. For the survey, I am using Google Forms. Google Forms is a great tool to use for this study because it is easily accessible, able to access data from any mobile device, and it will convert into a Google Spreadsheet which makes it easier to navigate through and find the correct data. The survey questions would include the following: How often do you see college advertisements on social media? Have you used social media to look into certain colleges? If you answered yes, please describe what college and what you found through that research. Have you seen any social media posts or discussions about college application deadlines? If you answered yes, what is a specific college(s)? Some challenges or limitations to this method of study are
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