Last minute Qs

Question 1

What two stages of interpretation are important to hermeneutics?

Answer 1

1.Uncovering interpretation (finding how others have categorised the world)
2.Assigning interpretation (creating new categories)

Question 2

Where is induction used?

Answer 2

Qualitative research - moving from the domain of observations, to making findings, to creating theories

Question 3

Where is deduction used?

Answer 3

Quantitative research - moving from a theory, to creating a hypothesis and testing it, to validation

Question 4

What is most important to action research?

Answer 4

Solving problems! Studying real life problems without coming up with solutions is unhelpful

Question 5

What is an artifact in IT-research?

Answer 5

Something created by human beings that cannot exist without human involvement - anything from a computer to a set of values

Question 6

What kind of artefacts does design research create?

Answer 6

Constructs, methods, models, instantiations, theories

Question 7

In technical action research, what are the three roles of the researcher?

Answer 7

Designer, helper, researcher

Question 8

What is the difference between action research and technical action research?

Answer 8

In action research the researcher wants to solve a problem for a client, in technical action research the problem is only a way to learn about a specific technique

Question 9

Four important factors to ethics in research?

Answer 9

Reliability, honesty, respect, accountability

Question 10

What two types of interpretation are important to IS (Information Systems) studies?

Answer 10

Both positivist and interpretive

Question 11

Why is deduction an important tool to computer science?

Answer 11

The scientific foundation is based on logic and discrete mathematics

Question 12

What is the most common research approach in computer science?

Answer 12

Controlled experiments with statistical analysis and inference

Question 13

What is IT?

Answer 13

The study of systemic approaches to develop secure computing technologies that fulfill our goals

Question 14

Are literature mapping studies quantitative or qualitative in nature?

Answer 14

Qualitative - they are about making sense of the material and creating a structure

Question 15

Are systematic literature reviews qualitative or quantitative in nature?

Answer 15

Quantitative to a large extent, validity threats need to be resolved

Question 16

What are the three high-level phases of a systematic literature review?

Answer 16

Planning, conducting and reporting the review

Question 17

What is the difference between a primary and a secondary study?

Answer 17

A secondary study is the literature review itself; primary studies are the studies used as sources within the literature review

Question 18

What is the primary benefit of using surveys as a research method?

Answer 18

Asking many people in a time-efficient way, with flexible delivery options

Question 19

What is the downside of using surveys as a research method?

Answer 19

No chance to ask follow-up questions or verify how questions are interpreted

Question 20

What are the three important qualities needed in a survey?

Answer 20

-Relevance to research Qs
-Easy to interpet
-Interpreted the same by all participants

Question 21

What are the three steps of survey development?

Answer 21

-Define variables
-Develop Qs to measure variables
-Pilot and validate

Question 22

What are different types of questions that can be used in a survey?

Answer 22

Knowledge, Likert scale, open/closed

Question 23

What are the two ways we can validate our survey questions/approach?

Answer 23

-Expert review
-Pilot study

Question 24

In the context of validating surveys, what is a cognitive interview?

Answer 24

A hybrid between an expert review and a pilot study where participants do the survey while monitored by a researcher

Question 25

What is necessary to do before a survey to uphold ethics requirements?

Answer 25

For participants to sign a consent form outlining the purpose and methodology of the survey, along with information about who's behind the survey

Question 26

What is a sample?

Answer 26

A subset of our population we can assume is representative of the population at large

Question 27

How is stratified sampling different from random sampling?

Answer 27

The population is narrowed down by criteria like age/gender and a random sample is taken from that sub-population

Question 28

What is the difference between convenience sampling and purposive sampling?

Answer 28

Asking whoever is close at hand vs asking the most high-value individuals for the area in question

Question 29

Three types of bias in surveys?

Answer 29

-Confirmation bias -Survey fatigue bias -Question bias

Question 30

In the context of experiment design, what are design points?

Answer 30

Unique combinations of independent variable settings

Question 31

An independent variable needs to have two what?

Answer 31

Levels; these are the test conditions

Question 32

What is a control variable?

Answer 32

A variable that is kept constant while testing the effect of the independent variable

Question 33

What are the two ways of assigning conditions to participants?

Answer 33

Within-subject testing where each participant is tested on each condition, or between-subject testing where each participant is tested on one condition

Question 34

What is the problem of using too many participants in an experiments?

Answer 34

Achieving statistical significance for effects of no practical value

Question 35

What are usability lab-studies?

Answer 35

Participants are brought into a lab, one-on-one with the researcher and given scenarios that lead to tasks relevant to a product/service

Question 36

What are internal validity threats?

Answer 36

Reasons why inferences about the causal relationship between two variables might be incorrect

Question 37

What are external validity threats?

Answer 37

Reasons why inferences about why study results would hold over variations in inviduals/setting are incorrect

Question 38

What is a good thing to do after the experiment to get a better estimate of experimental error?

Answer 38

Replication

Question 39

Academic writing should be...

Answer 39

Clear, concise, objective

Question 40

How do we test if our results are statistically significant?

Answer 40

By assessing if the probability of observing the results we have achieved, even if our sample is not representative of the population at large, is above our selected significance level (95%)

Question 41

What is the p-value?

Answer 41

The probability of getting these results even if the null hypothesis is true

Question 42

What is α?

Answer 42

Significance level

Question 43

If p-value is less than α, what do we do?

Answer 43

We reject the null hypothesis

Question 44

What are the requirements for a t-test?

Answer 44

-Interval or ratio data -Small samples require normal distribution, medium samples close to normal distribution but large samples work regardless of distribution

Question 45

In a distribution test, what does it mean for a p-value to be above 0.05?

Answer 45

Normal distribution

Question 46

What is a Rank-Sum test?

Answer 46

-aka Mann-Whitney U-test -Used to test independent variables -Ranks individual MEASURES instead of using means

Question 47

What are the requirements for a Rank-Sum test?

Answer 47

-At least ORDINAL data -Independent variable divided into two groups -Distribution should ideally be similar

Question 48

In what situation would we use a Sign Test?

Answer 48

Cases with paired observations where t-test is not okay

Question 49

What are the requirements for a CHI2 test?

Answer 49

-Works for all data levels -No cells can have an expected count of 0 -At least 80% of the cells must have a count of 5 or more

Question 50

What does it mean to find a linear correlation between two variables?

Answer 50

For one variable to increase with the other

Question 51

Six steps of thematic analysis?

Answer 51

1.Familiarising 2.Generating codes 3.Searching for themes 4.Reviewing themes 5.Defining and naming themes 6.Producing report