Activity

Elements of study design	Examples of study design of a research paper
r  Study design ?
1.      Who makes up the study population? (subjects)
2.      How will the study population be identified? ( sampling methods)
3.      Will a sample or the whole population be selected?
4.       If a sample is selected, how will it be contacted? ( in person, postal mail, email, online and so)
5.       how will consent be sought? ( participants should be informed in ways prior participating in the research study)
6.       What method of data collection will be used and why?( research instruments)
7.      In the case of a questionnaire, where will the responses be returned?
9.       how should respondents contact you if they have queries?
10.   In the case of interviews, where will they be conducted?
11.   how will ethical issues be taken care of?

 

 

  METHODOLOGY

This research aims at investigating teacher and learner perceptions on mobile learning technology. This section will cover the research design, area of study, population and population sample, sampling technique, data collection instrument, validation of the questionnaire, and method of data analysis. Design of the study According to (Slawomir, 2008), research design is defined as the plan used by a scholar to obtain research participants and to collect information. The research design of this study is exploratory in nature. An exploratory research is carried out when earlier studies to refer to are limited. Exploratory design will be useful for this study because it will explore teacher and learner perceptions on mobile learning technology in high schools as an e learning tool and no study have previously been done to identify new knowledge, new perceptions, new understandings, and new meanings. The study will employ a mixed approach to collect the data. Mixed methods is a research approach for conducting research involving collection, analyzing and integration of quantitative (e.g., surveys) and qualitative (e.g., interviews) research.

AREA OF THE STUDY

Hardap region, which is the study area, is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia with Mariental as its capital. Hardap is home to the popular Hardap Dam. Hardap has a stretch that covers the entire width of Namibia. It stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the eastern national border of Namibia. It borders the Kgalagadi District of Botwsana in the northeast, and the Northern Cape Province of South Africa in the southeast. Hardap borders the following regions within Namibia: Erongo region – northcentral, Karas region- south and Omaheke region northeast Hardap has a population of 68,249 (33,665 females and 34,579 males or 103 males for every 100 females) with an annual growth rate of 0.3%. The Hardap people are known for their distinct “Afrikaans” language. 88% which is the majority of the population are for the coloured and white Namibian extraction. In the area of education, 84% of girls and 83% of boys between the ages of 6-15 attend school, and of those older than 15, 73% dropped out, while only 9% remained in school, and 13% had never attended (Census, 2011). Hardap region has 56 schools with a total of 22,103 learners of whom exactly 50% are girls. The majority of learners are in primary schools - 14,343. In addition, there were 4,450 learners in junior secondary; and 1,092 in senior secondary. The grade pyramid to the left shows the number of learners by sex in each grade. There are some bulging at grades 1, 5 and 8 caused by high repetition. Repetition rates in Hardap are few compared to the other regions of Namibia. The pyramid is relatively straight up to grade 8, suggesting that many children are able to complete primary education.

POPULATION OF THE STUDY

A population can be referred to as “a group of individuals/item who possess specific characteristics and from which a sample is drawn to determine the parameters or characteristics” (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007; Maree & Pietersen, 2007; Singh, 2007). The population used for this study consists of students in 56 schools and 22,103 learners of the Hardap region (MoE, 2006).

  

SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

Since carrying out a study of the whole population was not realistic, a sample of the population was taken. Research supports the selection of a sample from a given population to participate in a study (Babbie & Mouton, 2010; Brynard & Hanekom, 2006; Maree & Pietersen, 2007; Strydom, 2011). The benefits of using a sample, according to Bergman (2008) as well as Mitchell and Jolley (2007), is to save costs and time.

The sample of the study was selected from participants in three (3) high schools in the Hardap region. Purposive sampling was also employed to get the target population. “Purposive sampling is a technique widely used in qualitative research to identify and select information-rich cases for the most effective use of limited resources” (Patton, 2002). In this case individuals or group of individuals that have experience and knowledge about an area of interest are identified and selected (Cresswell, Plano & Clark 2011). In addition to knowledge, Bernard (2002) noted the “significance of willingness to partake, and the ability to share experiences and views in an articulate, expressive, and reflective manner”. Three schools were selected using the random sampling procedure.

PARTICIPANTS

A sample of high school teachers and learners were drawn from the three (3) high schools that met the criteria described above on sampling method. The learners were selected specifically from grades (11) and twelve (12). This is because of their maturity and having spent more years in high school. Twenty (20) learners were randomly drawn from each grade which give a total of forty (40) learners selected per school summing up to one hundred and twenty (120) learners from the three high schools. Also eight teachers were carefully selected from each school giving a total of twenty four (24) teachers from all the selected schools in the regions. This is explained in the table below.

INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION

A survey questionnaire usually has a number of different questions related to the research being conducted listed in it. These are printed formats whereby respondents are requested to complete with their answers. Babbie & Mouton (2010) noted that, “survey questionnaires are exceptional means of measuring attitudes and orientations in population that is large”. Babbie & Mouton (2010) contended that it is the best available method that can be used in the collection of original data for describing a large population. Struwig and Stead (2001) stressed that questionnaires offer better confidentiality, are less costly, effective and very convenient.

The survey questionnaire will basically use the instruments of survey formulated by Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, (2003); Wang, Wu & Wang, (2009). The UTAUT survey instrument has been tested and utilized by several researchers (Anderson & Schwager, 2004; Moran, 2006; Wang & Shih, 2008) and contains questions which are adapted from past information System (IS) studies used to evaluate the various elements incorporated in the model (Venkatesh, et al., 2003; Wang & Shih, 2009; Wang, et al., 2009).

There were modifications in the survey instrument so as to create suitable questions aligned to the context this study and the participating population. For instance the words “mobile learning” will be used to replace to word “system”. Other studies have made similar modifications on the UTAUT instrument (Anderson & Schwager, 2004; Moran, 2006; Wang & Shih, 2008). The survey questions will include questions with regards to the UTAUT constructs such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, behavioural intention, social influence and facilitating conditions. These constructs will be used to determine teachers and learners intentions to use and perceptions of mobile technology. Other questions will be incorporated in order to gather both opinion-related and demographic data. Questions formulated will align to the objectives of the research, the theories and models established in the literature.

VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENT

All items regarding the measurement of UTAUT constructs will be adapted. This will ensure the content validity and reliability of the questionnaire used. “UTAUT is an empirically validated model that integrates constructs from eight key information technology acceptance models” (Venkatesh, et. al., 2003).