QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH WORKSHOP SERIES

1. Quantitative research design for researchers using a questionnaire as instrument: 1 Day.

WHY should you consider this workshop?

“To consult the statistician after an experiment is finished, is often merely to ask him to conduct a post mortem examination. He can perhaps say what the experiment died of.”

This quote is from the Statistician R.A. Fisher, this workshop will assist with the research design to ensure that it is correctly applied.

One day workshop:

Who should attend: 

Everyone considering quantitative research including lecturers, students, as well as other quantitative researchers before data is gathered.

The goal of this workshop is to help prepare the researcher with the design of a research project to ensure that the research approach, research design, sampling and questionnaire is done in such a way that the research questions can be answered by conducting statistical analysis.

Here’s some things you’re going to learn:

• The correct research approach, and design for the quantitative study.
•  How to have valid and reliable constructs for the questionnaire.
• How to sample in the correct manner and have a large enough sample size for analysis.
• Which statistical techniques to use to test the research hypotheses.
• Make sure the research hypotheses, questionnaire and statistical analyses are aligned.
• What format the data must be in for statistical analysis.
• How to distribute the questionnaire online.

 Contents:

• The research process
• The research problem
• Research questions and hypotheses
• Research approaches
• Research design
• Experimental design only focus on repeated measures design
• The questionnaire: General issues
• The questionnaire: Validation of constructs of scales
• The questionnaire: Reliability of constructs of scales
• Choose a validated scale
• Calculating scores for variables
• Online questionnaires and format
• Sampling: Important concepts
• Sampling: Types of sampling techniques
• Sampling: Determine sample size
• Intended statistical Analyses techniques for the questionnaire
• The research consistency matrix aligning your research

2. Essential statistical analysis using a questionnaire as instrument: 1 Day

One day workshop:

Who should attend: Everyone embarking on quantitative research including lecturers, students as well as other quantitative researchers.

The goal of this course is to help the researcher analyse data. The emphasis will be on the application of the techniques and not on the computer package employed. The mostly used statistical techniques for analysing questionnaires will be discussed. Note that this is not a Statistics course, but rather a practical approach. The structure of the course will follow the data analysis cycle. Please note that the analyses will be discussed but not done hands-on on a computer package.

Contents:

• Read raw data into a statistical package
• Cleaning and verification of data
• Validation of the research instrument
• Descriptive statistics and graphs
• Exploratory analysis
• How to decide on the statistical technique
• Statistical analysis techniques
• Interpretation of results

The techniques that will be discussed in the workshop are: Exploratory Factor Analysis, Cronbach Alpha Coefficient, independent T-test, The Pearson Chi-square test, Analysis of Variance, Correlation, Simple Linear Regression. There will be touched on Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling briefly if time permits.

Outcomes:

• Participant must be aware of all the pitfalls regarding the analysis process.
• Participant must be able to follow the statistical analysis process.
• Participant must understand how the statistical techniques works as well as the assumptions of the techniques

3. Intermediate statistical analysis using a questionnaire as instrument: 1 Day

Who should attend:

Contents:

• The statistical analysis process will be followed.
• Awareness of pitfalls in the analysis process.
• How statistical techniques work as well as assumptions associated to the techniques. Remedies when assumptions of the statistical analysis cannot be met.
• How to decide on a statistical technique.
• Intermediate statistical techniques will be discussed.
• Non-parametric techniques such as the KrusKal-Wallis Test and Mann Whitney test will be discussed.
• TWO-WAY ANOVA with interactions will be discussed
• Multiple Linear Regression, dummy variables in Regression, Hierarchical Regression will be duscussed
• Touching on Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling
• Interpretation of results

Outcomes:

• Participants must be aware of all the pitfalls regarding the analysis process.
• Participants must be able to follow the statistical analysis process.
• Participants must understand how the statistical techniques works as well as the assumptions of the techniques.

4. Interpretation and write-up of quantitative results: 1 DAY

One day workshop:

Who should attend: Everyone busy with quantitative research including lecturers, students as well as other quantitative researchers.

The goal of this course is to help the researcher interpret and write-up the results of quantitative analyses. The emphasis will be on the correct scientific write-up of the results for an article or dissertation. The most used statistical techniques for analyzing questionnaires will be discussed.

A pdf template will be provided that provides a standardized way of reporting statistical findings.

Outcomes:

• Participant must be able to write-up the statistical techniques discussed in a scientific manner by using the provided template.
• Participant must be able to interpret the discussed statistical techniques.

Contents:

Part I:

• Introduction
• Structure of reporting
• Research methodology

Part II:

• Reporting statistical techniques for comparing groups
• Reporting statistical techniques for relating variables

Part III:

• The write-up of a Structural Equation Model (SEM) will also be discussed.
• Discussion of participants own write-up if time permits.

5. Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Researchers: 1 – day

One day workshop:

Who should attend:

Everyone embarking on quantitative research including lecturers, students as well as other quantitative researchers. Please note that Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis is more complex analyses, so it is advised to do this workshop after basic analysis workshops is attended.

The goal of this course is to help the researcher analyse data. The emphasis will be on the application of the techniques and not on the computer package employed. Note that this is not a Statistics course, but rather a practical approach.

Contents:

• The data analysis cycle
• Exploratory Factor Analysis
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis
• Structural Equation Modeling