With BCM212, I wanted to discover what students considered success to be whilst in a university setting to see if those around me felt the same way as I did about the topic. I understand success in university to be both a feeling of achievement as well as completing my degree and gaining employment after graduating.
I decided that the best way to conduct my study and discover what success was to others was to create a survey. By doing a survey, I have had the opportunity to receive answers from a wider audience rather than having a select few answers.
My survey was created using google forms as it was a simple platform to use and I had sound knowledge of it. I found that no participant had issues using it either, suggesting that I had chosen a good platform for my participants to use. I had 13 questions in my survey as I didn’t want it to be too long and boring or too short and not receive any relevant data from it. I used a mix of multiple-choice, short answer and long answer questions to try and receive the most relevant information possible.
Writing and coming up with a survey that allowed for participants to provide their answers whilst avoiding irrelevant/ misleading questions was one of my favourite parts of the course. I found that creating the survey, something I had never done before, allowed me to ask the questions I was always scared to ask. Overall, my choice of questions can produce answers with the substance that could help future researchers delve deeper into the topic. Unfortunately, the majority of participants gave quick and simple answers which I wish they had elaborated on. This made me doubt my choice of questions and my topic. Fortunately, I soldiered on and ended up collecting some quality answers, answers I had hoped to receive.
I truly believe that this subject has been the best one I took this semester. Participating in this class has been fun. I have learnt how to thoroughly conduct my research and learnt to adjust my study and research habits which will assist me in my uni classes and my future endeavours. In future research tasks, I think I will test out a few of my questions to see the type of responses I receive. This would allow me to rework my questions or ask more questions that ask for the participant to expand or elaborate further on their responses.
Olivia Lopez 