I read the paper Canadian university students in wireless classrooms: “What do they do on their laptops and does it really matter?" from the journal Computers & Education.
1. Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?
The paper used two different methods referred to Study 1 and Study 2. Study 1 started in the beginning of the fall semester and Study 2 started a few weeks before the Christmas break the same semester. In both studies the students were able to participate only if they were self-identified as laptop users in the classrooms.
In Study 1 1129 students from a university in Ontario participated in this study. The students ranged from 16 to 50 years old, and from a range of different programs at the university. The students had to answer what they were using their laptop for in class; Taking notes on the laptop, Searching complementary information on the web , Sending emails with the laptop , Navigate on web sites that are unrelated to school work, Visiting social networking sites , Using laptop to watch videos/pictures , Text messages on phones or other electronic devices , Laptop is a source of distraction.
Study 2 focused on three unaddressed issues in Study 1; the use of a self-reported measure of academic achievement, the use of a cross-sectional design in which it was impossible to determine whether laptop utilization behaviors were prospectively associated with future academic performance and last internet addiction remains a controversial phenomenon but the uncontrolled urges to access the internet in some individuals have nonetheless been widely documented in psychological science.
In Study 2 88 undergraduate students (27,3% male) from a public university in Ontario participated. This time the students completed questionnaires that measured their laptop utilization behaviors during class time and a series of self-regulatory, motivation, Internet addiction, learning style, and emotional variables. The questionnaire was set up through psychdata.com, which is a website where one can set up questionnaires and is a tool to enhance online research. The students that participated in this study were the ones that didn’t mind sharing their grades form the courses with the researchers.
The benefits of using these methods is that it’s possible to get results that can be more or less generalized for that university since they got a big number of students participating in the surveys. Limitations when using questionnaires are always the selection of participants. Do the students that participated really match the reality?
2. What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?
I’m not sure if I can say that I learned something new about quantitative methods. Most of it I felt like I knew, or it seemed logical to me. But I realized that it’s possible to have a different layout on the paper. In this one they had Study 1; Methods & Results and then Study 2; Methods & Results, instead of having a chapter with methods and one for results. This made more sense and made it easy to follow.
3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?
Study 2 solved the main methodological problem. Other than that I can’t really tell if there are any bigger problems with the method of choice. There are a few thing that could have been improved for example the selection of students. The students were mainly from the first year because it was mandatory for them to participate in the survey, and they also got credits for it. The other students from other years got 5 dollars for the effort. Since 76,6% were from the first year of study, and also first semester I feel like this study could have been focusing a bit more on students further into their studies. Students on the first semester of university students might not have figured out their own study method yet, compared to students from other years. An improvement that could have been done is to either focus on first year students, or the others.
4. Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?
Benefits of using quantitative methods are that it’s possible to get a result reflecting an average situation. The bigger quantity the more accurate the results get. Limitations are that it’s hard to understand why the answers sometimes looks they way they do. When dealing with a complex research question quantitative methods are limited because it’s hard do develop a high quality questionnaire that can generalize a complex problem.
1. Which quantitative method or methods are used in the paper? Which are the benefits and limitations of using these methods?
The paper used two different methods referred to Study 1 and Study 2. Study 1 started in the beginning of the fall semester and Study 2 started a few weeks before the Christmas break the same semester. In both studies the students were able to participate only if they were self-identified as laptop users in the classrooms.
In Study 1 1129 students from a university in Ontario participated in this study. The students ranged from 16 to 50 years old, and from a range of different programs at the university. The students had to answer what they were using their laptop for in class; Taking notes on the laptop, Searching complementary information on the web , Sending emails with the laptop , Navigate on web sites that are unrelated to school work, Visiting social networking sites , Using laptop to watch videos/pictures , Text messages on phones or other electronic devices , Laptop is a source of distraction.
Study 2 focused on three unaddressed issues in Study 1; the use of a self-reported measure of academic achievement, the use of a cross-sectional design in which it was impossible to determine whether laptop utilization behaviors were prospectively associated with future academic performance and last internet addiction remains a controversial phenomenon but the uncontrolled urges to access the internet in some individuals have nonetheless been widely documented in psychological science.
In Study 2 88 undergraduate students (27,3% male) from a public university in Ontario participated. This time the students completed questionnaires that measured their laptop utilization behaviors during class time and a series of self-regulatory, motivation, Internet addiction, learning style, and emotional variables. The questionnaire was set up through psychdata.com, which is a website where one can set up questionnaires and is a tool to enhance online research. The students that participated in this study were the ones that didn’t mind sharing their grades form the courses with the researchers.
The benefits of using these methods is that it’s possible to get results that can be more or less generalized for that university since they got a big number of students participating in the surveys. Limitations when using questionnaires are always the selection of participants. Do the students that participated really match the reality?
2. What did you learn about quantitative methods from reading the paper?
I’m not sure if I can say that I learned something new about quantitative methods. Most of it I felt like I knew, or it seemed logical to me. But I realized that it’s possible to have a different layout on the paper. In this one they had Study 1; Methods & Results and then Study 2; Methods & Results, instead of having a chapter with methods and one for results. This made more sense and made it easy to follow.
3. Which are the main methodological problems of the study? How could the use of the quantitative method or methods have been improved?
Study 2 solved the main methodological problem. Other than that I can’t really tell if there are any bigger problems with the method of choice. There are a few thing that could have been improved for example the selection of students. The students were mainly from the first year because it was mandatory for them to participate in the survey, and they also got credits for it. The other students from other years got 5 dollars for the effort. Since 76,6% were from the first year of study, and also first semester I feel like this study could have been focusing a bit more on students further into their studies. Students on the first semester of university students might not have figured out their own study method yet, compared to students from other years. An improvement that could have been done is to either focus on first year students, or the others.
4. Which are the benefits and limitations of using quantitative methods?
Benefits of using quantitative methods are that it’s possible to get a result reflecting an average situation. The bigger quantity the more accurate the results get. Limitations are that it’s hard to understand why the answers sometimes looks they way they do. When dealing with a complex research question quantitative methods are limited because it’s hard do develop a high quality questionnaire that can generalize a complex problem.
5. Which are the benefits and limitations of using qualitative methods?
Benefits with qualitative methods are that it’s possible to apply to more complex problems, for example when the research is about people. It’s more time consuming, since these methods often include focus groups or interviews. The results will be accurate, but only for the people that have been chosen to participate. It’s often hard to get the research group in qualitative methods to reflect the whole mass, which means that it’s hard to generalize the results gained by qualitative methods.
Benefits with qualitative methods are that it’s possible to apply to more complex problems, for example when the research is about people. It’s more time consuming, since these methods often include focus groups or interviews. The results will be accurate, but only for the people that have been chosen to participate. It’s often hard to get the research group in qualitative methods to reflect the whole mass, which means that it’s hard to generalize the results gained by qualitative methods.
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