UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ BACHELOR OF BUSINESS IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT2209 KCA300 RESEARCH SKILLS & DESIGN / RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
FULL TIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: APRIL, 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE (30 MARKS)
Answer Yes, No, Maybe or a combination of the three AND then give brief (1 – 2 sentences)
justification for your answer. (2 marks each question)
i) The research you will undertake for your final year project is very similar to the research a
journalist does for an article in a serious news paper.
ii) A good hypothesis should be falsifiable.
iii) I am interested in developing a mobile system to ease student access to their results in
FoCIM. I can fairly say I am doing basic research here.
iv) I am interested in finding out how GPA a student gets is related to their Age, Gender, olevel grades and A-level grades. I can fairly say I am doing analytical research.
v) I am interested in finding out how GPA a student gets is related to their Age, Gender, olevel grades and A-level grades. In this case the GPA would be the independent variable
and the Age and Gender for example would be the dependent variables.
vi) In any research document, a citation is the same as a reference.
vii) If I had a class of 20 students and I wanted to do research on how well the class was offered.
The best sample size would be 20.
viii) The main difference between the main objective and specific objectives when writing a
research document is that one relates to the topic while one relates to the problem.
ix) In research when one talks about the methodology they are referring about a detailed
system study but when they talk about methods they are referring to what kind of
programming language they will use and the methods that make up the language.
x) The significance section in a research document is really a summary of the scope and the
specific objectives.
xi) I am interested in finding out how GPA a student gets is related to their Age, Gender, olevel grades and A-level grades. On second thoughts, I think this is empirical research.
xii) In the research process, a proposal is an expanded version of the concept while the report
is an expanded version of the proposal.
xiii) Research questions are really explanations of the research objectives.
xiv) If I wanted to quantify a set of numerical data with one statistic, for example students
performance in research methodology, the median could be a good choice of the statistic
compared to the mean in some instances.
xv) Students marks from a sample of 5 students from a total of 150 students doing research
methodology are finally obtained as [56, 89, 72, 90, 95]. This is a good sample size, and it
provides a median of 89 and a mean of 81.
QUESTION TWO (20 MARKS)
The current problem the nation is facing is linking National ID numbers with corresponding
cellphone numbers. A key component and some argue the first step in doing a good research design
is to define the problem that we have rudimentarily done in the above statement.
a) Highlight and explain 4 (possibly other) components of research design, explaining each
component in light of the above-mentioned problem. [8 Marks]
b) Differentiate the following types of research. Where possible use the above problem to
exemplify these different types. [12 Marks]
i) Quantitative vs Qualitative research
ii) Analytical vs Descriptive research
iii) Basic vs Applied research
QUESTION THREE (20 MARKS)
There are a growing number of students who complain about missing results in the FoCIM and
there is a need to investigate whether the number of staff in the registration office has an impact
on students results complaints. The departments of Information Technology and Software
Engineering have been chosen as the areas for investigation. Records show that 5000 students have
been registered at the FoCIM. Assume you are chosen to carry out this investigation, use your
research methodology skills to answer the following questions.
a) Formulate a suitable research topic for this study. [2 Marks]
b) Formulate a problem statement for the study. [3 Marks]
c) State a sample main objective of this study. [2 Marks]
d) Explain the acronym SMART in reference to objectives. [4 Marks]
e) Provide some objectives for our sample problem and for each clearly explain how SMART
it is. [4 Marks]
f) Explain the concept of a thread that should be visible from your topic to your conclusion
in a research report. For parts (a) through (e) explain/show this thread in your answers.
[5 Marks]
QUESTION FOUR (20 MARKS)
Following on from the scenario highlighted in Question 2, attempt parts (a), (b) and (c)
a)What is the most appropriate sampling method you would use for the study? Explain your
answer. [4 Marks]
b) Given that 90% of the students in the Information Technology and Computer Science
departments are registered (i.e. p= 0.9), the desired level of confidence in this study is 97%,
and the acceptable sampling error is 2%. Calculate the appropriate sample size of this survey.
(The value of z = 2.17 for 97% confidence) [5 Marks]
c)What appropriate data collection techniques would you use for this study? [2 Marks]
d)Highlight and explain any other sampling strategy you are aware of. [4 Marks]
e)If population = 100, sample size = 20, interval size = 5, and randomly selected number from 1
to 5 is 4, then for choosing a systematic random sample, the first unit is 4. Give the next two
units [5 Marks]
QUESTION FIVE (20 MARKS)
Several methods can be used to gather information about a situation, person, problem or
phenomenon. The choice of a method depends upon the purpose of the study, the resources
available and the skills of the researcher.
Describe 5 data collection tools that you know. Giving pros and cons and in which circumstances
each is used. [20 Marks]
