To put the research issue to the test
Two groups of students will be chosen and taught the same ideas but in two distinct ways. Students will next be asked questions about the concepts to assess their comprehension.
The usage of virtual learning environments
Is predicted to result in enhanced student learning outcomes compared to the use of traditional learning methods where a tutor directly interacts with the students?
To test the research question
Two groups of students will be selected, and taught the same concepts but using two different methods. They will then be given questions regarding the concepts to test their understanding.
Describe changes if any to your outcome variable
The expected outcome is that there will be improved student learning outcomes through the use of virtual learning environments compared to the use of traditional methods of learning. This is because, the virtual learning environment will allow increased reuse of knowledge and personalization of contents. The students exposed to virtual learning environments will have access to learning and teaching tools that are specifically designed to enhance the student's learning experience by using the internet and computers specifically in the learning process. There are different forms of virtual learning environments that may be used for the experiments such as the Lotus Learning space. In this case, learning is a social process, and exposing students to effective learning environments can facilitate the active acquisition of general expertise and subject specific. Such factors affect the success of learning for college students.
Setting the experimental stage
One of the ways of enhancing learning of students through the internet will be use of virtual resource room. The virtual resource room will be student centered, will work in a self-paced format and will be designed to encourage students to take on the responsibility for their own learning. In the experiment, the materials will be available in the form of lecture notes, computer aided learning program as well as availability of special-self assessment module. Another way that will allow the students in the virtual resource room to interact with one another is through the use of a novel link cyber tutor. This will allow students to connect with the staff and the course content through the use of the internet. The staff will remain anonymous, which will allow the staff to act as cyber tutors during the course learning.
Manipulation and implementation of treatment effect
The experiment will deliberately impose a treatment on a specific group of subjects to allow the researcher to observe the response. In this case, two groups of students will be selected. One group will be taught using the traditional method where students interact with their tutor physically. The next group will be taught through the use of Virtual Learning Environment. This refers to a system of delivering learning materials to students through the use of the web. The various systems that will be used in the experiment include: student tracking, assessment, communication tools and collaboration.
Sample and Assignment
All participants will be college students who will be randomly selected. The experiment will use stratified random sampling in which the population will be sorted into different groups from which the samples will be chosen. This relies on the laws of probability to choose a sample that may be used to make an inference to the population. All the study participants will be randomly assigned to receive the treatment.
Evaluating the success of the experiment (Comparison)
There are numerous benefits of lab experiments. Firstly, they have precision and accuracy. Laboratory experiment tends to allow the precise effects of different independent variables on dependent variables to be measured. As a result, this makes it possible to establish the effect and cause relationships between variables. Secondly, they allow isolation of variables. The controlled conditions of laboratory experiments often allow the researchers to isolate specific variables more effectively compared to any form of research method. This in turn further allows the researchers to be able to precisely measure the exact effects which a single or more independent variables have on the dependent variables. This controlled conditions also allows the researchers to eliminate the effects associated with the extraneous variables. This refers to variables that are undesirable and have no interests to the researcher. Another benefit of laboratory experiments is that they offer a high reliability. This is because it is easy for the researcher to replicate similar environmental conditions to those of the original environment. It is also relatively easy for the researcher to precisely and clearly outline the same exact stages of the experiment all over again making replication easier. Also on the issue of reliability, there is usually a high level of detachment between the respondent and the researcher. The researcher usually takes on the role of being an expert and often simply manipulates the variables, trying as much as possible to have an interaction with the research respondents.
There are several disadvantages of laboratory experiments
Firstly, the sociologists in most cases lack external validity. This means that they hardly ever use the lab experiments due to the fact that the artificial environment of the laboratory is normally removed from real-life. Therefore, many sociologists agree that the results obtained in such cases usually tell little about ways in which respondents would actually act in real-life situations. Secondly, there is a lack of informed consent and deception. In most cases, the researchers deceive their subjects as to the true nature of the experiments with the intention of making them not to act differently. This means that researchers are not in a position of giving full, informed consent. Another disadvantage is that you cannot actually get a huge number of research respondents into the lab to conduct any form of experiment. For instance, a whole subculture or even a community.
On the other hand, Survey research involves administering questionnaires
Interviewing them or having written surveys. The investigators tend to analyze the data that is obtained from the surveys and learns about the differences and similarities. There ae several advantages of using surveys. This includes: obtaining information from a huge number of respondents, conducting personal interviews during a time that is convenient as well as obtaining data through inexpensive means.
There are several disadvantages of using surveys
This includes: interviewer bias, distortion and volunteer bias. Volunteer bias in most cases takes place when a sample of volunteers are nor represented in the general population. Subjects who are in most cases willing to take about specific topics may end up answering surveys differently compared to those persons who are not willing to talk.
