First Things First about Research

Assalamualaykum and good day to all,

How did the research idea comes into picture?
What drives people to research?
What motivates researcher to go for a research journey with many uncertainties?

The answer is simple: When there is problem around us, we began to think how to solve that problem, find solution. If we do not know the solution (not readily available), we need to be in a search, seeking for the solution. The search may require a re-search.

First thing first about research - THE PROBLEM

It is THE PROBLEM that gives the idea to do research.
It is seeking the solution to the problem that drives people into doing a research.
It's seeking the solution for the problem that makes people go to various direction for research.

Uncertainties happen when you do not know, you are not sure how the problem can be solved.
Uncertainties are when you do not know whether your idea for solution will work or not.
It is the uncertainties and keep on searching that makes a RESEARCH.

My question: Have you got a problem? Do you have a solution for it yet?
No? If your answer is know, let's do research. Let seek for the solution to solve the problem.

Wassalam.

Research adds knowledge

Assalamualaykum and good day to all,


People may have various kinds of questions about research:
- What is the outcome of a research?
- What do we do with the result?
- Is there any benefit of doing research? etc.
~and many more

My simple and short answer: Research will add new knowledge to the existing body of knowledge (world of knowledge).

The figure below showed the research process as depicted by Orna and Stevens (1995) in Dawson (2005).

The diagram showed a representation of the existing world of knowledge. Doing research may make the researcher works within what is in the world of knowledge. As a result of the research process is a new discovery. The discovery should be something novel, never been disclosed before. The discovery will be disseminated to the world as a new knowledge. That new knowledge is an addenum to the the existing body of knowledge.

Do you see now, how a research can be useful? Do you understand now how the research can contribute to the existing body of knowledge?

As a researcher, you are an important person to add knowledge to the world of knowledge.
Let's do research !!!

Wassalam.

Computing research

Assalamualaykum and Good day to all,

Each semester, when asked to present a research idea, many students presented computing projects rather than computing research. So now, let's briefly look at how to differentiate between computing research and computing projects.



Did you get it now? You can start seriously thinking on your research idea now.

Cheers ...;-)

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Salam all and a very good day,



Recently in class, there was a question about Quantitative and Qualitative research. Hopefully this video clip may help you to understand it. No worries, this is not the only video discussing about qulitative and quantitative research. There are many more, just put your effort.... information and knowledge is just a click away ;-)

Video source: Youtube (credits to the creator)



Best of luck in your research. Enjoy... !

Characteristics of a Research - Part II

Salam all and a very good day,

Now that you have understood what research is, next is to understand how a process can be considered as a research.

  In the previous posting, I have posted the list of characteristics of research as suggested by Ormrod (2014). In this posting I will discuss each of the points briefly.

Upon completing this, you should be able to assess your ideas of research, whether it is a research, or it is not. ;-)

1. Research originates with a question or problem.
It means that research begins from a question, an unanswered questions. And questions are all around us in our daily life.

2. Requires clear articulation goal.
A researcher must be able to express the ultimate goal of doing the research. He/She must have must know what you are expected as the outcome of the research.

3. Divides problem into a more manageable sub problems.
Breaking the problem into a smaller sub problems makes it easier to solve and achieve. That is when you break your outcome into a series of objectives.

4. Guided by specific research problems, research questions or hypothesis.
You must have a prediction of what could the solution be, seek solution based on the prediction and test or evaluate to verify your prediction.

5. Plan or proceeding,
You must be able to plan or design how the research will take place. Plan and design how the research is going to be conducted.

6. Rely on certain critical assumption.
Your research must have assumptions that you could start to work with.
Example: You are solving problem about the interaction design with the assumption that the system is running well without any errors that will dissatisfy the user.

7. Requires collection and interpretation of data.
Your research will require you to do data collection in order to verify the findings and interprets it. Interpretation of data obtained through the experiment will verify the hypothesis and provides a result to your problem.

8. Cyclical; Helical
One research may lead to another research.
This is the answer why now Note4 and next is Note5 or now, iPhone5 and next is iPhone6. It's a never ending improvements to a better quality of life.


Now, is your idea is a research or is it just a project? ;-)

Wassalam.

Characteristics of a research

Assalamualaykum and good day to all,

Have you done enough reading on research yet.

Here are some characteristics of a research as stated by Ormrod (2014), in the book Practical Research, published by Pearson

Practical Research, pg2

Get a better picture now? 

Lets move on ...

What is research?

Assalamualaykum and a very good day to all,


In this video I try to put definition of research and research methodology in a simplest way. Hope you will get it.



I hope everybody gets the idea of what is researach and not get intimidated by it.