Research Management Plan & Design
“Are BCM Students feeling ready for the workforce? And will they be able to follow their passions?”
BCM222 Assignment 2
Aims and Significance
My Research question is: “Are BCM Students feeling ready for the workforce? And will they be able to follow their passions?”
As our research topics are focused on our own interests and the scope is suggested to be a focus on university experiences, I decided to choose this research question after successfully putting it forward in the first assignment. Due to the fact that our research participants will be fellow *BCM - *Bachelor of Communication and Media - students, this topic is relevant to its participants while also having the ability to make students think, in particular about their futures and their education’s value. It’s a topic I find interesting as I personally love our course and the opportunities it provides us, the assessments like Digital Artefacts, the technologies that are offered to us to use and just the overall modern, fun feel that so many of our classes incorporate. Of course, there will inevitably be students enrolled in the course who do not feel the same way I do. Some students may have realised at some point throughout study that BCM just simply isn’t for them, maybe it won’t help them to achieve a career or skills which they desire. They may not enjoy their university experiences, feeling dissatisfied with either the delivery of the content or the content itself. Opinions and experiences like these will be crucial in my research forming and I expect results to vary on both sides of the university satisfaction spectrum. It’s likely that there are other factors that I haven’t considered that I will learn about which have formed students' feelings towards their university lives.
BCM seems to allow for students to build up skills which will be useful to them based on their own goals for post-uni employment. Therefore, I want to collect qualitative and quantitative data through research on what my fellow students are experiencing in this course. Do they feel they are being set up for a career that aligns with their personality, their skills and their interests? Is there anything that could be improved upon? Is there something that perhaps they didn’t expect about our course, or perhaps something they did expect to learn but haven’t yet? Questions like these will lead my research project.
There are factors of my own which are important to address in order for me to control the level of bias in my project. My positionality is my point of view of BCM, the fact that I do enjoy it and am satisfied with the course thus far. Could my satisfaction at University and my course be due to qualities of my own such as my gender, my age, my race, the fact that English is my first language, and even perhaps my socio-economis status? We’ve learnt that objectivity is a myth, so I will endeavour to see the swing of results based on participant’s factors like these.
As a student who enjoys media and research, university provides me with an exciting opportunity to delve deeper into the field. By combining theoretical knowledge with practical application, you can develop a range of skills in media production, analysis, and research. Engaging with contemporary debates and emerging technologies can equip you for a dynamic career in the media industry, that is why I consider this research project and its question relevant to me - and also fellow BCM students. In relation to this topic, I may be considered somewhat biassed as I have stated that I really enjoy the BCM course and feel I am benefiting from it, however my sample group will be random and therefore I can anticipate a varying level of opinions in my research responses. This topic will be achievable as I am not giving myself too high of a workload across the set amount of time needed to complete the project, and I have an adequate level of access to any resources that are required.
Ethical research practice
I will be reaching out to participants via verbal communication, as well as digitally through emails. Keeping this project in line with ethical standards will be managed in several key areas. As a researcher, maintaining ethical standards is a top priority. To ensure that my research project is conducted ethically, I plan to seek approval and clearance from my tutor, confirming that I do not breach any UOW policies. I will additionally need to obtain informed consent from all participants involved in my study, to achieve this I will provide clear information about the study, including its purpose, potential risks and benefits, and any necessary requirements for participation. Participants will be free to decline participation or withdraw from the study at any time. Next, I would maintain confidentiality and privacy throughout my research project. I will ensure that participant data is kept secure and protected as I will not be sharing it with anybody else and that any personal information is de-identified to ensure the anonymity of the participants. The research will be conducted with integrity and honesty, ensuring that I follow all Australian ethical guidelines and standards when creating my surveys and interview questions. By doing so, I will be able to ensure that my research project is conducted in an ethical and responsible manner.
Participants will sign a consent form which can be kept by myself and there will not be any names or further information about a person published in the final research project, I will engage in using blind data. However, as I may also choose to conduct interviews for more qualitative data and content, I may ask some of my BCM peers if they’d like to engage with this aspect of the project, and this may include their names being published with their interview if they consent to this. Overall, the project will not be hazardous to anyone’s health and wellbeing, I will ensure that the questions in the survey are not sensitive. It is not intended that I upset or trigger anyone with these questions and I have faith that this would not happen in this project as the questions will be rather light hearted and simple.
Method justification
In order to collect quantitative data, the main research method I will use to undertake this project is a survey. I chose surveys as my research method because I believe they offer several advantages for my research project. Firstly, surveys allow me to collect data from a large number of participants in a relatively short amount of time. This is particularly important for my research, as I am looking to obtain a broad understanding of people's attitudes and behaviours towards their university degrees. Surveys also allow me to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. By including closed-ended questions, I can obtain quantitative data that is easy to analyse statistically, systems such as google forms automatically transfer survey responses into graphs and statistics. Open-ended questions allow me to collect qualitative data that provides insight into participants' personal experiences and opinions.
The survey will allow me to reach a diverse range of participants across the cohort as it can be tweeted under the hashtag “BCM” and emailed to my classmates. Surveys can be administered in various ways, making it easier to reach participants who may have difficulty attending in-person tutorials and university life, thus I am also being inclusive of online BCM students at UOW. This method is also one that is cost-effective, compared to other research methods, such as interviews or focus groups, surveys are inexpensive. It is evident that surveys are a good fit for my research project. So, to reiterate, I chose surveys as my research method because they offer several advantages, including the ability to collect data from a large number of participants, the ability to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, the ability to reach a diverse range of participants, and the cost-effectiveness of the method.
I am also considering focusing on interviewing as another research method in my project. I chose interviews as my qualitative data method because they allow for in-depth exploration of participants' perspectives and experiences. Unlike surveys, which can at times provide more standardised questions and limited response options, interviews allow for more flexibility in questioning and follow-up, enabling me to gain a deeper understanding of participants' thoughts and feelings. Additionally, interviews allow for the exploration of broader factors that may not be easily captured in the survey. Overall, I believe that interviews will provide me with rich, detailed data which I can use as quotes, allowing me to gain a more cohesive understanding of people’s experiences with the BCM course.
REFERENCE LIST
Li, I.W. and Carroll, D.R., 2017. Factors influencing university student satisfaction, dropout and academic performance: An Australian higher education equity perspective.
Accessed via:
Shah, M. and Nair, C., 2011. Employer satisfaction of university graduates: Key capabilities in early career graduates. In 20th Annual Teaching Learning Forum (pp. 1-10). TL Forum.
Vancouver
Accessed via:
McCabe, M.B., 2017. Social media marketing strategies for career advancement: An analysis of LinkedIn. Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 29(1), p.85.
Artal, R. and Rubenfeld, S., 2017. Ethical issues in research. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 43, pp.107-114.
Alderson, P., 2005. Designing ethical research with children. Ethical research with children, pp.27-36.
Cunningham, S. and Bridgstock, R., 2012. Say goodbye to the fries: Graduate careers in media, cultural and communication studies. Media International Australia, 145(1), pp.6-17.
Vancouver
Accessed via:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1329878X1214500103?casa_token=52OqH-CwMPIAAAAA:0YPKlrwJO7ZJ7YdKbe_k9acyproi20A-GKzEZeNg7xdOuaNhodyEOg44t0ahRcUzcQs8qEi8r6t2_Q
Hammer, M.J., 2017. Ethical considerations for data collection using surveys. Number 2/March 2017, 44(2), pp.157-159. Darnall, N. and Jolley, G.J., 2004. Involving the Public: When Are Surveys and Stakeholder Interviews Effective? 1. Review of Policy Research, 21(4), pp.581-593.
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