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Sample Recommendation Report 539

4
Research Methods

To acquire the information requested by Dr. Bremerton, we broke the project into The writers use the same task
six tasks: organization as in the proposal
and progress report.
1. acquire a basic understanding of clicker use in higher education
2. research faculty attitudes toward a formal policy on clicker use
3. research student attitudes toward a requirement to purchase a clicker
4. research the physical characteristics of the lecture halls
5. research the existing computer environment in the lecture halls
6. analyze our data and prepare this recommendation report
In the following discussion of how we performed each task, we explain the
reasoning that guided our research.
Task 1. Acquire a basic understanding of clicker use in higher education
Dr. Bremerton pointed us to a number of resources on clicker use in higher
education. In addition, we conducted our own literature review. Most of the
research we studied fell into one of four categories:
• general introductions to clicker use in higher-education trade magazines and
general periodicals
• scholarly articles on student and faculty attitudes and on learning effects
• technical specifications of clickers provided on the sites of the various
manufacturers
• best practices presented on sites of colleges and universities that have
adopted clickers

As we expected, the information we acquired about this commercial technology By stating that they know that
contained a mixture of research findings and marketing. We relied most heavily their sources are a mixture of
on manufacturers’ Web sites for technical information on system capabilities different kinds of information,
and compatibility issues; we relied most heavily on university Web sites for not all of which is equally useful
information on instructor attitudes and experiences and best practices for for every one of their questions,
implementing clicker programs. Finally, we relied most heavily on research the writers suggest that they are
literature for information about how clickers might affect classroom atmosphere careful analysts.
and student learning.

Task 2. Research faculty attitudes toward a formal policy on clicker use
In performing Task 2, we sought to answer the following question posed by
Dr. Bremerton: “Would instructors approve a university policy that selects and
provides technical support for a clicker system that they could use in large
lecture courses?”

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