Overview
MDDE 701: Quantitative Research Methods is second of the four required courses in the thesis program route. The course focuses on the knowledge and skills that a distance education researcher or practitioner must possess in order to interpret the results of empirical investigations as reported in the distance education and social science literature, as well as to conduct such investigations in their thesis research. Such knowledge and skills are beneficial for graduate students preparing to develop their thesis proposals. The computer-based data analysis tool, SPSS, will be used to carry out course-related exercises and to prepare students for the selection and implementation of appropriate statistical tests for their future thesis research.
All students taking the thesis route in the M.Ed. (Distance Education) program must successfully complete MDDE 700 before they can register in MDDE 701.
Students who successfully complete MDDE 701, but who opt to pursue the course-based route, will be granted three elective credits.
Outline
The course is divided into seven units:
Unit 1: Format of Articles/Descriptive statistics
Unit 2: Parametric Inferential Statistics
Unit 3: Inferences Concerning One or Two Means
Unit 4: Tests on Three or More Means/Post-hoc comparisons
Unit 5: Statistical Tests on Ranks (Non-parametric Tests)/Survey Data Analysis
Unit 6: Bivariate Correlation/Multiple Regression
Unit 7: Factor Analysis
Learning outcomes
The goals of this course are to provide students with the concepts and skills required to interpret and evaluate the results of research reported in the social sciences and distance education literature, as well as to acquire an effective set of advanced computer-based, statistical and data analysis skills for their future thesis endeavors.
It should be noted that this is not a course in research design or a course in conventional statistical course content. Although there is a strong focus on the implementation of specific statistical tests using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), the goal of these activities is to instruct the student on the conceptual foundations for both descriptive and inferential statistical procedures of data analysis and to provide for the application of these procedures to simulated but realistic data.
Evaluation
Students will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis for each assignment and for the final grade. The assignments are described below.
- Assignment 1: A series of problems on the normality/non-normality of distributions, on tests concerning one or two means, on tests concerning three or more means, and on post-hoc comparison tests.
- Assignment 2: A series of problems on statistical tests on ranks, on survey data analysis, on bivariate correlation/multiple regression, and on factor analysis.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Huck, S. W. (2012). Reading Statistics and Research. Toronto: Pearson Higher Education.
Other Materials
IBM SPSS® software, (Digital License Key).