Introduction and Reflection

In this artifact I learned how to focus on advanced research methods in education and

critiques. I went to see Manal Alkarzons dissertation defense. I enjoyed the way that she presented

her work, first starting by giving a brief background of her study. Then, she discussed gender

differences in attitudes towards online learning in Qatar. This research was important to me

because one day I will be providing my own dissertation defense. I believe that going to Alkarzons

dissertation defense was a better preparation for me to explain and answer questions about my

research in front of an audience in the future. For example, in the defense, I saw that professors

asked Alkarzon many questions and she had to answer them to meet the professors enquiry. In

order to do so, you must know your own research inside and out and put a lot of time and effort

into your research methods to connect them to a larger point.

Evidence of Mastery of Objectives

Objective 1: Design a study of an educational research problem or phenomenon

using appropriate methodologies.

This objective is met because her dissertation addresses gender differences between

employees working in a private business institution while undergoing professional development.

This is an educational problem because the professional development itself has to be designed

with learning styles and learning differences in mind, as well as motivational factors.

Objective 2: Design and/or select appropriate assessment or evaluation tools for a

given educational problem.

This objective is met by the fact that Manals methodology used a quantitative non-

experimental design. I also wrote a critique of her defense. What I found interesting was the way
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that she took a quantitative design to find relationships between the constructs and the attitudes

of the employees. She used gender differences as an independent variable and used five

constructs as the dependent variable which were relative advantage, compatibility, complexity,

trial ability, and observability.