CASE No.

1
ALESTRELLA M. SANCHEZ
ED-502 - DR. REY CABIG MIRALLES

A friend of yours is considering returning to school to pursue a master's degree. After

reviewing the program requirements at the few schools, she asked you, “why do I need
to take a course in research method? I don’t want to be a researcher. How could that
course possibly help me?”
A. Provide a response to your friends’ question that describe the short term as a
student and a long term (career related) benefits of a research method course to
a graduate student?
Graduating with a bachelor’s degree is an accomplishment worthy of celebrating. It’s
a milestone that many believe officially launches you into adulthood ready to take on the
career world. Many students work toward a bachelor’s degree just to fill a minimum
requirement for their career field. Choosing to further your education and pursue a
master’s degree allows you to make more valuable connections, pursue necessary
professional skills and foster personal development. After you’ve gained a sense of how
you best learn and developed a love for it as an undergraduate, you now have the
opportunity to further your development with the scientific and technological innovations
that affect us every day. Making the voluntary commitment to participate in the
movement of lifelong learning will enhance not only your personal and professional
development but also your self-sustainability and employability.
Earning your master’s gives you a more in-depth understanding of your specialty
and career focus. It suggests expertise and credibility in a particular field and allows you
more freedom within that field. This specific knowledge increases your proficiency in a
particular discipline, which gives you an advantage at a time when many employers are
raising their educational requirements for emerging positions. Earning a master’s
degree can also open pathways into additional employment opportunities in higher
education. With a master’s, you can qualify to teach in your field of expertise at a
college or university either full or part-time. Part-time teaching is an excellent source of
supplemental income and can keep your knowledge current in the field you’ve studied.
Although your individual identity consists of far more than your education level or
career, a master’s degree is certainly an achievement of which you should be proud of.
When you earn a graduate degree, you have also earned additional value and credibility
that invites a high level of respect. Receiving your master’s will not only give you a
greater sense of confidence in your academic prowess, but also in your ability to
complete what you’ve started and to move into positions of leadership.
B. Contrast quantitative and qualitative approaches to research, include in your
answer a brief discussion or an example of how approaches can complement
each other (how they work each other).
Both qualitative and quantitative methods of user research play important roles in
product development. Data from quantitative research—such as market size,
demographics, and user preferences—provides important information for business
decisions. Qualitative research provides valuable data for use in the design of a product
—including data about user needs, behavior patterns, and use cases. Each of these
approaches has strengths and weaknesses, and each can benefit from our combining
them with one another.
 Quantitative data is designed to collect cold, hard facts. Numbers. Quantitative data
is structured and statistical. It provides support when you need to draw general
conclusions from your research. Qualitative data collects information that seeks to
describe a topic more than measure it. Think of impressions, opinions, and views. A
qualitative survey is less structured: It seeks to delve deep into the topic at hand to gain
information about people’s motivations, thinking, and attitudes. While this brings depth
of understanding to your research questions, it also makes the results harder to
analyze. Quantitative data can help you see the big picture. Qualitative data adds the
details and can also give a human voice to your survey results.
These two research methods don’t conflict with each other. They actually work much
better as a team. In a world of Big Data, there’s a wealth of statistics and figures that
form the strong foundation on which your decisions can rest. But that foundation is
incomplete without the information collected from real people that gives the numbers
meaning.
In planning a research project, researchers need to identify whether they will employ
a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods approach. This approach is based on
bringing together a worldview or assumptions about research, a specific design, and
research methods. Decisions about choice of an approach are further influenced by the
research problem or issue being studied, the personal experiences of the researcher,
and the audience for whom the researcher writes.