Question

A professor believes that students who have the opportunity to write their essays on word processors will produce better essays than those who write them by hand. Design an experiment that tests this idea.

1. Do you need to define any terms for your experiment (operationally define)? If so, define them here.

2. What purpose would this line of research serve (and which subgroup do you think this experiment would most closely relate with)?

Answer 1

The given hypothesis can be studied by using an experimental design in which a sample of 50 students from the Professor’s class of 105 students would be randomly assigned into the experimental group and the control group. Both the groups will be administered an essay type assignment on the same topic which would be pre determined. However, In the study, the experimental group would be explicitly instructed to use Word processors to type their essay while the control group would not be exposed to the Word Processor as an option for completing their assignment and would instead produce a written assignment.

The two variables being studied would be operationally defined in the following manner: In the study, the presence or absence of the opportunity to use Word Processor for completing assignments will be defined as the independent variable. The actual score or performance on the composed essay would be the dependent variable.

In addition, both the groups will be treated equally in terms of the amount of time given to complete the assignment, the type of question. In addition, intervening variables like age, sex, motivation level, socioeconomic background of the students will be kept constant to avoid any confounding of results due to th einterevention of these factors between the dependent and the independent variables.

2. The purpose of the current study could be towards the development of a new assessment strategy in a state College or university so as to predict and control the positive use of technology in the education programme and help the student population gain access to better techniques for improving their academic records.