CSIT440-Research Methodology

Aims and Objectives:

This assignment aims at establishing a basic familiarity with fundamental concepts of research methods including research design, data collection, quantitative research, statistical analysis and report writing. On completion of this assignment, you should be able to have basic understanding of:

1.quantitative research

2.statistical analysis for quantitative research

Specifications:

Your research task is to study the usage of computers on the ground floor of UOW library and conduct statistical analysis using T-test.

Quantitative analysis:

(1) Data collection : Collect the data from at least 20 observations at different time from the library. For each observation at a time, you obtain a counting result of the number of computers which have been occupied during the particular time. Provide a table in the research report to give the counts and the time the data was collected and give an explanation about how data was collected

(2) Statistical analysis using One-sample T-test (10 marks): 

a. Give a hypothesis about the mean usage of computers (the mean number of computers occupied), which reflects your research problem;

b. Carry out your T-test with statistical computing software (e.g., R);

c. Draw a research conclusion, including an analysis about your finding.

(3) Future work : Now assume you aim at determining if the average usage of computers in the morning equals to that in the afternnon. Illustrate some key points of your research, including the hypothesis testing method you will adopt, the main steps for the testing and possible conclusions. Bear in mind that you do not need to truely collect data and write code for this sub-task. Just discuss your strategy and potential conclusions