Reference no: EM132951833

CMP9139M-1JF Research Methods - University of Lincoln

Requirements
This assignment is about research data gathering, analysis and interpretation - you will obtain a dataset, investigate quantitative methods for analysing this data using inferential statistics, design an appropriate methodology, conduct your own data analysis using SPSS Statistics software and reflect upon the results. The assessment involves writing a 4-page report in the format of a scientific article, together with a viva voce (oral test) where you will demonstrate your work to the module instructors and answer questions.

Your first task is to acquire a non-trivial research dataset. This task might involve the design of a methodology for collecting data as a primary part of the research - for example, by constructing a survey to elicit data from a chosen user group. Alternately you may take a pre-existing dataset from another source, which should be acknowledged in your report, and focus more on the analysis of this data. A few indicative examples of possible datasets would include (but are not limited to):

• student attendance patterns in the School of Computer Science,
• "fantasy football" player performance statistics,
• multi-user video-game data,
• performance statistics versus ground-truth data for a computer-vision recognition system,
• etc.

The choice of dataset can be oriented towards your own personal interests, such as data relating to your Research Project, etc., and you must submit only original work which has not been submitted for any other assignment. If in doubt, please discuss the choice of dataset with the module instructors at the earliest available opportunity.

The next task is to investigate the existing research methods and background literature (previous research by other authors) for acquiring and analysing similar datasets. Please note that the focus of this task should be more than the domain-specific methods used for solving a particular research problem (e.g. if a research paper describes the development of an artificial neural network system for stock market prediction, we are most interested in the methods used to evaluate the system performance in predicting stock market trends, not the details of the neural network model itself). Please note also that the literature review should focus on literature relating to your own research question, not "textbook" literature on research methods in general.

Based on the background research, design and implement an appropriate methodology for analysing your chosen dataset. You will need to identify a research question (or questions) or hypothesis to test. For example:

• testing whether more men than women suffer from nightmares,
• evaluating the effect of the full moon on behaviour,
• deciding whether hospital carpeting results in more infections,
• selecting the best means to stop smoking,
• checking whether bumper stickers reflect car owner behaviour,
• testing whether acetaminophen or ibuprofen helps faster with headaches,
• testing if people run faster in the morning compared to the afternoon,
• etc.

Please note: you must apply inferential statistics to draw conclusions about the population under consideration from the sample data, for example, by applying techniques introduced in the module such as confidence intervals or statistical tests (t-Test, ANOVA, Spearman Correlation, etc). Your analysis must be non-trivial - for example, just applying descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation would not be sufficient. Descriptive statistics can be used to justify the choice of techniques. If you are in doubt, please discuss the choice of methodology with the module instructors at the earliest available opportunity.

Take care to justify the choice of research techniques in your report, including discussion of the alternatives considered. You should make sure to explain and describe the techniques applied with sufficient clarity to allow other researchers to replicate your findings if desired. Please make sure to describe the approach and software (SPSS) that you used to carry out statistical testing. Consider how to best present you results, e.g. using tables, graphs, etc. Discuss the results obtained and the conclusions inferred with respect to the original research hypothesis or question. Finally, please reflect on the value of quantitative approaches in respect to your study. How does this differ from qualitative approaches, and could the latter be valuable/how?

Report and Viva Voce

Write a 4-page report using the IEEE conference paper format (please use the accompanying template ieee_conference_format.doc) with a maximum of 4 pages including references.
Appendices or additional pages are not allowed. The report should be written in your own words
and follow the general format of a scientific paper. The report should have the following sections:

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction (approx. ½ page), including motivation for the topic, choice of dataset, and research hypothesis or question(s).
• Related Work, comprising a literature survey of existing research methods considered for data acquisition and analysis (approx. 1 page).
• Methodology (approx. 1 page), including a thorough description of the research techniques applied in practice.
• Results (approx. 1 page).
• Conclusion (approx. ½ page), including further discussion of the results and your conclusions with respect to the original research hypothesis or question.
• References

In addition, you are required to attend an online viva voce session, where you will have up to 10 minutes to present your work to the module instructors. You should be prepared to demonstrate your dataset and how you carried out statistical testing using SPSS, and to answer any further questions about your work. Please follow carefully the instructions given in the lectures on the requirements for the viva voce session.

Learning Outcome 1: Identify an appropriate area for study contextualised by the award being studied.

Learning Outcome 2: Critically evaluate, select and apply research methods in the specialist area of study.

Learning Outcome 3: Demonstrate practical skills in the development of a research proposal and literature survey.

Attachment:- Research Methods.rar