Types of Studies (A mini-lecture by Dr. Schamber)

Types of Studies

Less than a full blown study:

Pilot Study: Navigation, procedural type of study. Could be running through a new instrument with a few people to see if it works and what kind of data you get. “Quick and Dirty” data analysis. Should not be published.

Preliminary Study: Related to pilot, a first step to a large study. “To see what’s out there.” People do publish these.

Exploratory Study: Related to pilot, a first step to a large study. “To see what’s out there.” People do publish these.

Research methods

Descriptive: Oriented toward the research methods than the data. What and how much are questions you ask.

Quasi-Experimental: Not quite truly experimental (controlled) Stuff with people.

Pre-test/Post test: a method of research: give them the test before the material and then after the material to see if they learned anything.

Baseline: when we don’t know what the situation is and we need to start a line of research in the area to find out what the situation is: baseline data.

Basic: aka theoretical, scholarly, academic. Designed so that the results will be generalizable to a larger population.

Applied: aka practical, professional. In a narrower context: a problem is perceived and data is collected via a study. Results stay within the institution.