Management research method - Assignment Example

Management research methods In an attempt to understand research methods in management, this paper will analyze and provide a briefing on a research article in business management. The research article entailed an investigation of the potential relationship that exist between learning style by the students, the course grade, cumulative grade point, as well as a selected demographics in an online undergraduate business course. The study was purposed to investigate the availability of a significant effect on student’s achievement in relation to the individual learning styles.

The research topic “An exploratory investigation of the potential relationship between student learning styles, course grade, cumulative grade point average and selected demographics in on-line undergraduate business courses” is a well-structured and articulate topic, which is relevant to the current learning needs globally. With the current educational trend, online learning has become on the rise hence it would be viable to determine the effectiveness of online learning through a comparison to the traditional teaching method especially in relation to the business courses.

The research was designed based on three critical hypothesis that were meant to be tested at the end of the research. Basing on the assumption that there is a significant effect of the learning style on the student achievement; in relation to the online versus the enrolled on-fine courses as well as there is a significant relationship between the learning style, age, gender and ethnicity of the students. The hypothesis used in designing the research is significant as it helps to validate the research topic making the testing of hypothesis the ultimate benchmark for research outcome.

In the conduction of the research, data was collected through the use of a WebCT courseware to collect information from all the online courses examined in the study, while the learning style survey for college (LSSC) was employed to collect data for determining learning style of the college students. LSSC employed the use of 32 questions in the questionnaire to assess the learning style preferred by the students with a student data form used to collect the learning style, as well as other demographic information.

The final grade for the semester was then used as a tool for assessment of the effectiveness of the various learning styles preferred by the students. Seventy-two participants were then sampled to represent the entire group of the learners thus providing the research with a good sample size that would lead to attainment of validity and reliability. The data collection method in this research provided a conclusive mechanism of collecting information that provided for confidentiality and directed towards answering the research hypothesis.

The use of ANOVA in analysis of the collected data provided a means of comparison of the two variables (effectiveness of online learning and traditional teaching method), thus giving a room for comparison to assess which learning style would be the most viable for production of efficient and effective business students. Additionally, to determine the relationship between learning style, gender and ethnicity, the research employed the use of a Chi-square, which helped to determine the correlation that existed between the variables and the effectiveness of the learning style employed.

The research findings indicated that the students with an auditory traditional teaching method had an overall higher grades than their online learning counterparts. Additionally, the data collected proved that the environment has a significant influence on the learning style and outcome. The research findings were thus able to answer the research hypothesis effectively giving directive for the most effective learning style.