Over the past semester I have been conducting my own research into how university students study, and whether they are satisfied with their own methods or not. Initially, it took me a while to think of what topic to do, but I decided to go with the concept of studying as it is something that is relevant to our experience as university students. My initial idea was to just focus on how students study to see what the best method was, but upon receiving feedback on my research proposal, it was clear that it would be difficult to find one best way to study, as there probably isn’t just one best way. With a bit of guidance from my tutor, I decided to look at whether students were satisfied with how they study, and whether they are achieving the grade they are aiming for. Although, I still wanted to research how these students were studying, just to get a sense of what exactly was and wasn’t working. This allowed me to form the argument that students should be given guidelines during their first year of university to help them get started on the process of trial and error, in order to see what methods work for them – or to at least show them that there are a variety of methods that may be useful.
In terms of what I learned from the research process itself, I now understand that research is more than just the facts and figures. I had to discover what methods of research would work best for this project, as our sample pool was so limited. Getting responses on surveys was harder than I thought – I couldn’t just tweet the link once and expect everyone in BCM212 to see it; I had to tweet people individually. There was also the matter of being ethical and considerate to my participants. This project really made me aware of the level of consent required, and how important it is to ensure that participants are comfortable with the questions you’re asking. And not only did I need to consider the individuals involved, but also UOW as an institution, and a stakeholder in my research. The thing I would do differently next time would be direct messaging people my surveys as it would be more personalised and private than just tweeting publicly. It would give people a chance to ask more questions about the topic, and even provide feedback.
Overall, I am very happy with how this project went; I learnt how much time and effort goes into the practice of research, and also got to engage more with my peers, which was an added bonus.
(Fifth of June 2020)
in omnia paratus 