.1 Introduction:
The chapter gives the details about the Research Design used for this Research. The details about Questionnaire design, Sample Design and Statically Design is given in this section.
Preparation of the research design is done with great care as any error in it may upset the entire research. For the research design due weight is given various points such as the type of universe and its nature, the objective of this research, desired standard of accuracy etc.
Research designs of the previous studies on the same topic are also considered for preparation of this research design.
For data analysis and hypothesis testing different statistical techniques are used like mean, Standard deviation, Z-Test and F-test. The details are given in the chapter.
5.2 Concept of the Research Design:
The formidable problem that follows the task of defining the research problem is the preparation of the design of the research project, popularly known as the “research design”. Decisions regarding what, where, when, how much, by what means concerning an inquiry or a research study constitute a research design. “A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.”
In fact, the research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. As such the design includes an outline of what the researcher will do from writing the hypothesis and its operational implications to the final analysis of data.
Keeping in view the above stated design decisions; one may split the overall research design into the following parts:
(a) The sampling design which deals with the method of selecting items to be observed for the given study;
(b) The observational design which relates to the conditions under which the observations are to be made;
(c) The statistical design which concerns with the question of how many items are to be observed and how the information and data gathered are to be analyzed; and from what has been stated above, we can state the important features of a research design as under:
(i) It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of information relevant to the research problem.
(ii) It is a strategy specifying which approach will be used for gathering and analyzing the data.
(iii) It also includes the time and cost budgets since most studies are done under these two constraints.
5.3 Need for Research Design:
Research design is needed because it facilitates the smooth sailing of the various research operations, thereby making research as efficient as possible yielding maximal information with minimal expenditure of effort, time and money. Just as for better, economical and attractive construction of a house, we need a blueprint (or what is commonly called the map of the house) well thought out and prepared by an expert architect, similarly we need a research design or a plan in advance of data collection and analysis for our research project. Research design stands for advance planning of the methods to be adopted for collecting the relevant data and the techniques to be used in their analysis, keeping in view the objective of the research and the availability of staff, time and money. Preparation of the research design should be done with great care as any error in it may upset the entire project.
Research design, in fact, has a great bearing on the reliability of the results arrived at and as such constitutes the firm foundation of the entire edifice of the research work.
Even then the need for a well thought out research design is at times not realized by many. The importance which this problem deserves is not given to it. As a result, many researches do not serve the purpose for which they are undertaken. In fact, they may even give misleading conclusions.
Thoughtlessness in designing the research project may result in rendering the research exercise futile. It is, therefore, imperative that an efficient and appropriate design must be prepared before starting research operations. The design helps the researcher to organize his ideas in a form whereby it will be possible for him to look for flaws and inadequacies. Such a design can even be given to others for their comments and critical evaluation. In the absence of such a course of action, it will be difficult for the critic to provide a comprehensive review of the proposed study.
5.4 Research Design of the Study:
The research has been based on the primary and secondary data. The Primary data will be collected through survey. Survey is conducted in the management colleges affiliated to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad.
Research design for collecting the primary has been divided into three parts
1. Sample design
2. Observational design
3. Statistical Design
The brief of these parts as follows:
5.4.1. Sample Design:
A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given population. It refers to the technique or the procedure the researcher would adopt in selecting items for the sample. Sample design is determined before data are collected.
The detailed sample design used for the survey as follows
• Type of Sample Design: Non Probability:
Type of Sample design is Non probability as deliberately 10 management institutes are selected for the survey. Sample units selected for the survey on the basis of first come first surveyed. Non-probability sampling is that sampling procedure which does not afford any basis for estimating the probability that each item in the population has of being included in the sample. Non-probability sampling is also known by different names such as deliberate sampling, purposive sampling and judgment sampling. In this type of sampling, items for the sample are selected deliberately by the researcher; his choice concerning the items remains supreme.
• Sample Unit:
The survey is conducted with the students and faculties of the management Institutes. The survey is also conducted with the librarians of the management colleges.
• Sample Size:
Universe size: 16 management colleges affiliated with the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad. Out of which following 10 management colleges are selected for the survey.
1. Department of Management Science, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad.
2. MGM’s Institute of Management, Aurangabad
3. Chate Business School
4. Rajeshree Institute of management & Research
5. MIT’s Department of Management Science
6. Shreeyash Institute of Management
7. Marathwada Institute of Management and research
8. International Institute of Management
9. Millennium Institute of Management, Aurangabad
10. Deogiri Institute of Management
Thus around 600 students, faculties and research scholars are surveyed from above 10 management colleges. Feedback from librarian of each institute has been taken.
Table 5.1: Details of the Sample Size:
Respondents Number
Students 400
Faculty 50
Research scholar 50
Other Library Members 100
Librarian 10
Total 610
5.4.2. Observational Design:
The survey is conducted by using the structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contains the close ended questions designed on the basis of objectives of the study.
Questionnaire Design:
The questionnaire design has three parts
1. Part I is about the demographics of the respondents and brief information about the institute library like number of books, journals and time etc
2. Part II helps us to get insight about the application of IT by the libraries of the management colleges.
3. Parts III helps us to analyze about the use of IT and its impact on the library administration and user’s perception.
4. Scaling:
Scale use for the Part II is dichotomous like Yes / No
Scale used for the part III is
Sr No Statement Not at all Agree Some What Agree Neutral Agree Strongly agree
0 1 2 3 4
5.4.3. Statistical Design:
Tabulation:
When a mass of data has been assembled, it becomes necessary for the researcher
to arrange the same in some kind of concise and logical order. This procedure is referred to as tabulation. Thus, tabulation is the process of summarizing raw data and displaying the same in compact form (i.e., in the form of statistical tables) for further analysis. In a broader sense, tabulation is an orderly arrangement of data in columns and rows.
Thus here he data collected will be processed and presented in the form of tables and Charts.
Analysis:
The percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation, used for data analysis.
Measures of central tendency (or statistical averages) tell us the point about which items have a tendency to cluster. Such a measure is considered as the most representative figure for the entire mass of data. Measure of central tendency is also known as statistical average. Mean is the most popular average used for the study.
An average can represent a series only as best as a single figure can, but it certainly cannot reveal the entire story of any phenomenon under study. Especially it fails to give any idea about the scatter of the values of items of a variable in the series around the true value of average. In order to measure this scatter, statistical devices called measures of dispersion are calculated. An important measure of dispersion is standard deviation. The SD is calculated here for the measure of dispersion. Correlation of the occupation their perception has been calculated using Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation;
5.5 Hypothesis Testing:
Z- test and F-test are used to test the hypotheses.
Z-test is based on the normal probability distribution and is used for judging the significance of several statistical measures, particularly the mean. The relevant test statistic, z, is worked out and compared with its probable value (to be read from table showing area under normal curve) at a specified level of significance for judging the significance of the measure concerned. This is a most frequently used test in research studies.
The ANOVA technique (F-test) is important in the context of all those situations where we want to compare more than two populations. Here we are comparing the perception of the students, faculties and research scholars towards application of IT in library.
F-ratio may be worked out as under:
This ratio is used to judge whether the difference among several sample means is significant or is just a matter of sampling fluctuations. For this purpose, we look into the table*, giving the values of F for given degrees of freedom at different levels of significance. If the worked out value of F, as stated above, is less than the table value of F, the difference is taken as insignificant i.e., due to chance and the null-hypothesis of no difference between sample means stands. In case the calculated value of F happens to be either equal or more than its table value, the difference is considered as significant (which means the samples could not have come from the same universe) and accordingly the conclusion may be drawn. The higher the calculated value of F is above the table value, the more definite and sure one can be about his conclusions.