Operationalising Research

Mark Warschauer (1966)

• Research questions (2 of 5 in total)

1. Do second-language students participate more equally in small group discussions held electronically than in those held in a traditional face-to-face manner?
   
   
2. If so, who benefits from this more equal participation? In particular, how are the differences in participation from a face-to-face mode to an electronic mode related to factors such as gender, nationality, age, and language proficiency?

• Experimental design: exploration of relation between independent variables and dependent variables
  
  
  • independent variables
    
    
    • question 1: mode of interaction (f2f, cmc); call this m
      
      
    • question 2: individual characteristics (gender, nationality, ...); call this c₁, c₂, ...
      
      
  • dependent variables
    
    
    • group unit of analysis: equality of participation; call this e
      
      
    • individual level of analysis: individual level of participation; call this p
      
      
• So, question 1 proposes:

e = f(m)

p = f(m, c₁, c₂, ... )

from: operationalising research

Warschauer, M. (1996). Comparing Face-to-face and Electronic Discussion in the Second Language Classroom. CALICO Journal, 13(2), 7-26.