Online Research Essentials Designing and Implementing Research Studies

by Russell, Brenda; Purcell, John

• ISBN13: 9780470185681
• ISBN10: 0470185686
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-27
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• More Book Details

Summary

Written by experts in the field, Online Research Essentials provides step-b-step guidance to the student or new practitioner in how to create, test, and deploy online survey research. The book includes everything needed for planning and developing a survey, putting it online, and formatting data for further analysis.

Author Biography

Brenda Russell, PhD, is an associate professor in the applied psychology program at Pennsylvania State University, Berks in Reading, Pennsylvania. Her recent research involves using the Internet to design, administer, and collect survey and experimental research data.

John Purcell, MBA, MS, is recently retired from Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont, where he was department chair and professor and coordinator of the e-commerce concentration in the Department of Business Administration.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
The Authors	p. xxix
Understanding the Basics of Research	p. 1
Learning Objectives	p. 1
Making Decisions: Intuition Versus Science	p. 3
Using the Scientific Method in Research	p. 4
Formulating a Research Question	p. 7
Understanding Research Terminology	p. 9
Research Methods That Can Help Answer Your Question	p. 10
Ethical Considerations for Using the Internet For Research	p. 17
Learning Objectives	p. 17
Defining Ethics and Its Role in Conducting Research	p. 18
What Can We Learn from Debriefing Statements?	p. 27
Deception and Online Research: Participant Privacy, Anonymity, and Other Issues	p. 27
Getting to Know Microsoft Expression	p. 33
Learning Objectives	p. 33
How the Internet Works	p. 34
Introducing Microsoft Expression	p. 36
Creating and Modifying Tables	p. 47
Planning Your Research Study	p. 55
Learning Objectives	p. 55
Formulating Your Research Question	p. 56
How to Create a Clear and Testable Hypothesis	p. 60
The Role of Reliability and Validity in Planning Your Research	p. 67
Additional Considerations for Experimental Designs	p. 70
Creating A Simple Survey on the Internet	p. 75
Learning Objectives	p. 75
Planning the Survey	p. 76
Constructing the Survey	p. 82
Designing and Creating the Database and Connecting It to the Online Survey	p. 95
Specifying the Survey Processing	p. 100
Introduction to Survey Development: Easy Steps to Creating an Online Survey	p. 113
Learning Objectives	p. 113
Survey Methods: Interviews and Questionnaires	p. 114
General Guidelines for Formating an Online Survey	p. 120
Using Styles, Style Sheets, and Graphics	p. 133
Learning Objectives	p. 133
Exploring Styles	p. 134
Working with Style Sheets	p. 139
Working with Pictures and Graphics	p. 144
Creating More Complicated Internet Surveys	p. 155
Learning Objectives	p. 155
Style Guidelines	p. 156
Chunking Questions	p. 161
Sampling Procedures	p. 173
Learning Objectives	p. 173
Understanding Populations and Samples	p. 174
Developing Experimental Designs	p. 187
Learning Objectives	p. 187
Introduction to Experiments and Between-Subjects Designs	p. 188
Introduction to Web Programming	p. 201
Learning Objectives	p. 201
Javascript Programming	p. 202
Creating Multiple Versions of a Page to Eliminate Bias	p. 213
Repeated Measures and Matched Groups Designs	p. 225
Learning Objectives	p. 225
Introduction to Within-Subjects Designs (Repeated Measures)	p. 226
Advanced Javascript Programming	p. 243
Learning Objectives	p. 243
Variable Scope	p. 246
Using Cookies to Prevent Multiple Submissions	p. 251
Advanced Javascript Programming II	p. 259
Learning Objectives	p. 259
Using Query Strings	p. 260
When Things Go Wrong	p. 267
General Tips on Downloading and Analyzing Your Data Using Statistics	p. 273
Learning Objectives	p. 273
Downloading Data out of the Web Survey	p. 274
Descriptive Analyses	p. 282
Testing Your Research Hypothesis Using Inferential Statistics	p. 287
Helpful Resources and Links to Analyze Data	p. 296
Appendix: Using Photoshop to Create Buttons and Banners	p. 301
Resources	p. 309
Glossary	p. 311
References	p. 327
Index	p. 333
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