Business Degree Research Paper Example

The study would be conducted on numerous cohort of students who have completed a degree in business at UDOL. The study would be performed from April 1 to May 3, 2030. The survey would consist of various questions that would focus on career growth and plans for the student who have graduated. It will look at how advisors relationships and support mechanisms have worked to shape their career. Different cohort would be studied to have comprehensive information on how the business degree has been useful to them.

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Study Design and Sampling

A cross-sectional study will be used in this research. It is simple in design and can find a prevalence of a problem or a phenomenon as it takes a cross-section study on the population obtaining an overall picture at the time of the survey. The study design would be able to access the demographic characteristic of the graduate business degree student. It will also be able to study the sample which graduated at different years. The study would make a single contact with the research group making it cheap to undertake with a limited budget. The study design is highly significant as it will make it possible to measure the efficacy of degree program for various student career as it can record a change that occurred.

In quantitative research, a sample is a representative from a large population meant to show evidence of quality. It is a determinate amount of a statistical population whose characteristics are studied to understand the whole. Samples are collected to help in calculating statistics that can be used to make inferences of the population. There are different types of sampling according to the kind of population being studied (Sandelowski, 2000). The survey would use probability sampling where every graduate business degree student would have an equal chance of being selected. Individuals will be sampled independently from the other. Also identified as random sampling where a random number generator may be used to choose participants (Sandelowski, 2000). The sampling method would be useful as the study would break the target population into strata according to the graduating year, therefore, ensuring that there are enough participants from each group to draw unbiased conclusions.

Data collection

When choosing appropriate data collection methods, the researcher looks at the possible data sources, sample, design and research questions. The technique employed would be expected to collect information that would make it possible to answer the research questions by considering the sample characteristics as well as offer information related to each projected learning outcome (Johnson & Turner, 2003). Among the data collection methods available include the use of secondary data, surveys, focus group, interviews, and observations.

This research would use survey technique. A questionnaire would be appropriate for this research as it can be anonymously completed, can be administered to different persons in an easy way to and is efficient and cost effective. As the research has a limited budget, the survey would be delivered online. This means that an email would be linked to the study and sent on April 1, 2030, to UDOL graduate student members who would be drawn from the UDOL database. The survey email will be followed by three reminder emails to be sent on April 8, 19, and 29. The use of email would be preferred as it has the lowest cost per interview. In additional, it will require small staff; it has minimal bias and respondent would have more time to respond (Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls & Ormston (Eds.), 2013). As the rate of response is a bit low, a broad cross-section sample would be preferred. Additionally, email can accommodate questionnaire method.

To improve participation, advertisements will be updated on the UDOL Graduate magazine and the official UDOL website. Additionally, promotions would be carried on Facebook and Twitter while emails would be sent to graduate coordinators in an effort to engage them in mobilizing UDOL graduate student members in the survey. An incentive for participating in the study would be set for students by offering the chance to those who will register to win $100 award in travel support to a global business conference.

The study will involve different key demographic characteristics of the UDOL sample. It will include different race/ethnicity and background characteristics among U.S. citizens. Data would be disaggregated by gender to examine how women and men differed in the sample and to aid in making inferences about the total population of graduate students in business. Additionally, data would be selected by students' year of the degree program, age and citizenship status. To have reliable data, the graduate sample would be required to present some evidence from their employers.

After the administration of the primary survey in April/May 2030, a series of data validation and cleaning steps would be conducted to prepare the data for analyses. This will be useful in discovering relevant information about the graduate student career. A statistical test would be used in this analysis for data collected (Sandelowski, 2000).

References

Johnson, B., & Turner, L. A. (2003). Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research, 297-319.

Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., Nicholls, C. M., & Ormston, R. (Eds.). (2013). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. Sage.

Sandelowski, M. (2000). Focus on research methods combining qualitative and quantitative sampling, data collection, and analysis techniques. Research in nursing & health, 23(3), 246-255.