Description
This report is designed to test your knowledge of both qualitative and quantitative
research methods and your ability to design research studies.
This report will consist of two essay questions of 1,000 words each. The first essay
question is about qualitative research methods and the second essay question is
about quantitative methods.
Instructions
You must answer ONE of the essay questions from Part A: Qualitative Methods.
Your answer should be 1,000 words (+/- 10%) and will count for 50 marks.
You must then answer ONE of the essay questions from Part B: Quantitative
Methods. Your answer should be 1,000 words (+/- 10%) and will count for 50 marks.

Part A: Qualitative Methods
Please answer ONE of the following two questions:
1. Imagine you are working for a small non-profit organization in Brighton. The
organization has approximately 40 full-time, permanent employees. Before Covid-19,
everyone worked in an office in Brighton, Monday to Friday during normal working
hours. However, during the pandemic, everyone has shifted to working from home.
At this stage in the pandemic, the CEO has asked you to conduct a qualitative
research project to determine whether the company should allow flexible working
(e.g., working from home) from now on. Specifically, the CEO wants you to
determine how employees in the organization truly feel about working from home
and how working from home has impacted their productivity and well-being.
Describe a qualitative research study that you would undertake to present to the
CEO. The study you design should include information about your research
question(s), participants, recruitment, measures, procedure, and analysis. You
should consider what issues might occur when conducting the study and how you
might address these issues in the design of your study. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of your study?

2. The University of Sussex is keen to improve how it works with alumni. Specifically,
the university wants to improve alumni relations so that alumni can provide more
opportunities for current students such as mentoring and potential job opportunities.
Although the university has contact information for many alumni, the university isn’t
sure how to best engage the alumni, what specific opportunities the alumni can offer,
and what opportunities current students would find valuable. Ruby Moore, the Alumni
Relations Coordinator, has asked you to develop a qualitative research project
designed to answer these questions.
Describe a qualitative research project you would undertake to present to Ruby
Moore. The study you design should include information about your research
question(s), participants, recruitment, measures, procedure, and analysis. You
should consider what issues might occur when conducting the study and how you
might address these issues in the design of your study. What are the strengths and
weaknesses of your study?

Part B: Quantitative Methods
Please answer ONE of the following two questions:
3. You have been hired as a Junior Research Analysist for Walkers, a large food
manufacturing company that makes crisps in the UK. Walkers wants to introduce a
new flavour of crisp. There are four options for the new flavour: barbecue wings,
caramelized onion, jalapeno, and chilli lime. Walkers wants you to design a
consumer-focused quantitative research study to help them determine which of the
four flavours would be the most profitable.
Your answer should describe the quantitative research study you would design for
Walkers. You should include information about your participants, recruitment and
sampling, measures, procedure, and analysis. You should consider what issues
might occur when conducting the study and how you might address these issues in
the design of your study. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your study?

4. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, some people have argued that virtual
teaching (classes over Zoom) causes university students to learn less and perform
worse on assessments compared to face-to-face instruction in the classroom.
Describe how you would design a quantitative research study at the University of
Sussex in order to determine whether virtual teaching causes students to perform
worse on assessments and receive lower marks compared to face-to-face teaching
in the classroom.
The quantitative study you design should include detailed information about your
participants, recruitment and sampling, measures, procedure, and analysis. You
should also discuss what specific issues might occur when conducting this study and
how you can design a study that helps to address these issues. You should consider
what issues might occur when conducting the study and how you might address
these issues in the design of your study. What are the strengths and weaknesses of
your study?

SOLUTION

A qualitative research design involves use of non-numerical data to explain a given phenomenon. The researcher in qualitative research process aims to give meaning to words given by study participants about a given problem or issue.

Quantitative research design using survey involves use of numerical data to describe and explain the trends, views, opinions or characteristics of the sample being studied. Researchers in this design, can make inference, generalize findings and draw conclusions to the population that sample was selected from…..Please contact us to get an original copy