Question: module 3 dq 1 Dominique
Ofulue (2011) did a quantitative study to identify barriers with the use of Information Communication Technology for bridging the gap in communication between learners and instructors of Open and Distant Learning delivery systems in developing countries. This study examines and identifies these barriers as well as strategies to overcome them.
In our lecture this week Grand Canyon University (2013) offered that the key requirement of an experimental or a quasi-experimental design is the manipulation of the independent variable. This study does not offer the freedom to manipulate variables and therefore it is considered a non-experimental design. This study is descriptive, this is because non-experimental studies are fundamentally descriptive in nature because all the variables exist outside the researchers control (GCU, 2013). I believe this study was primarily cross-sectional however due to the use of graphs offered that were used from earlier statistical information on the different countries and the different technologies used by those countries from the World Bank 2006 and 2007 this may be in the retrospective category.
I categorized this article as a quantitative, non-experimental retrospective study. This is because it used the surveys as a tool to gather information, the surveys were then examined and the data collected was offered in numerical form, using percentages. The lack of control to manipulate the variables by the researcher qualified this article as a non-experimental study. The researcher started with an observed phenomenon and then went back in time in search of a possible related variables, therefore, I chose the retrospective category. Most articles in the field of Education are in the retrospective category because the research goal and the nature of the data dictate this analysis procedure (GCU, 2013).